A	»	B	»	C	»	D	»	E
F	»	G	»	H	»	I	»	J
K	»	L	»	M	»	N	»	O
P	»		R	»	S	»		T
U	»		V	»	W	»		Z

Marie E. Zakrzewska - "A Practical Illustration of Woman's Right to Labor"

Various - "The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 12,"

Compiled by James D. Richardson - "A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Tyler"

Various - "The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 17, No."

Nicholas Brealey Buys Davies-Black
Moreover Technologies - Premier purveyor of real-time news and RSS feeds from across the Web

Gray Gets New Ingram Role; Lovett Heading Ingram Digital
Ad - Get Info for Book Publishing from 14 search engines in 1.

PW Morning Report, January 6, 2009">The PW Morning Report, January 6, 2009
We have been looking for ways to fuel additional growth, said Chuck Dresner, v-p, associate publisher of NB North America, which has offices in Boston, Mass. Davies-Black has built up an excellent publishing program and a recognized brand in some of the

An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Vol. 1 by David Collins

D >> David Collins >> An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Vol. 1




Situated as the colony was in point of provisions, we learned with
infinite concern, that a storeship which had once been under Governor
Hunter's orders, had, from being overloaded, been unavoidably left
behind, and had yet to run the chance of being taken by the enemies'
cruizers; and that by the two ships now arrived we had only gained a few
barrels of provisions salted at Rio de Janeiro; a town clock; the
principal parts of a large wind-mill; two officers of the New South Wales
corps; Mr. S. Leeds an assistant-surgeon, and Mr. D. Payne a master
boat-builder.

His excellency did not take upon him the exercise of his authority until
the 11th, on which day his Majesty's commission was publicly read by the
judge-advocate, all descriptions of persons being present, His
excellency, in a very pertinent speech, declared the expectations he had
from every one's conduct, touching with much delicacy on that of the
persons lately sent here for a certain offence, (some of whom were
present, but who unfortunately kept at too great a distance to bear him,)
and strongly urging the necessity of a general unanimity in support of
his Majesty's government. He was afterwards sworn in by the
judge-advocate at his office.* An address, signed by the civil and
military officers on occasion of his return among them as governor, was
presented to his excellency a few days after his public appearance in
that important capacity.

[* Before Captain Paterson gave up his command, all the prisoners in
confinement were pardoned and liberated. Rayner, under sentence of death,
was pardoned by the governor some time after. In consequence of this act
of grace, several runaways gave themselves up.]

That he might as speedily as possible be acquainted with the state of the
colony, he ordered a general muster to be taken by the commissary,
appointing different days at Sydney, Parramatta, and the Hawkesbury, in
order that correct accounts might be obtained of the number and
distribution of every person (the military excepted) in those districts;
and he purposed in person to inspect the state of the different farms. He
recommended it to all persons who had lands in cultivation to plant with
Indian corn as much of them as might not at that time be under any other
grain; urging them, as it was the proper season, not to let it pass by,
it being an essential article in the nourishment of live stock, the
increase of which was of such importance to the settlement, that he could
not but advise the utmost care and economy in the use of what might then
and in future be in the possession of settlers and other persons.

Mr. Bampton having given his ship such repairs as he was able in this
port, the _Endeavour_ and _Fancy_ sailed for India on the 18th. He
purposed touching at New Zealand and at Norfolk Island. We found after
their departure, that, notwithstanding so many as fifty persons whose
transportation had expired had been permitted to leave the colony in the
_Endeavour_, nearly as many more had found means to secrete themselves on
board her. As she was to touch at Norfolk Island, hopes were entertained
of getting the runaways back again, as the loss even of one man's labour
was at this time an object of consequence.

As many labouring people as could be got together were employed during
the month in receiving such articles as had been brought in the king's
ships for the colony.

The weather during the month was very variable; and three women and two
men died. Of these one was much regretted, as his loss would be severely
felt; this was Mr. J. Irving, who, dying before the governor arrived,
knew not that he had been appointed an assistant to the surgeons with a
salary of fifty pounds per annum.

October.] The police and civil duties of the town and district of Sydney
were now regulated by civil magistrates. At Parramatta, Lieutenant
McArthur continued to carry on the duties to which he had been appointed
by Lieutenant-Governor Grose, the public service at that place requiring
the inspection and superintendance of an officer.

On Sunday the 4th of this month the _Young William_, the storeship whose
unavoidable delay in her sailing we had regretted on the arrival of the
governor without her, anchored safe in the cove from England, after a
short passage of four months and nine days, with a cargo of provisions
only. She sailed from Spithead in company with the _Sovereign_, another
storeship, on the 25th of May, taking her route by the way of Rio de
Janeiro, where she anchored on the 12th of July, leaving it on the 21st
of the same month; and meeting with very bad weather nearly the whole of
the voyage, she shipped great quantities of water; and, being very deeply
laden, the vessel was considerably strained.

By letters received from this ship we learned, that some promotions had
taken place in the New South Wales corps. Captain Nicholas Nepean had
obtained the commission of second major; Lieutenant John McArthur had
succeeded to his company; Lieutenant John Townson had got the company
late belonging to Captain Hill; and Ensigns Clephan and Piper were made
lieutenants, all without purchase. Messrs. Kent and Bell, the naval
agents, who left this country in the _Britannia_ in September 1794,
arrived safely in England in March last.

In consequence of this arrival the governor had it in his power to issue
a better, though not so ample a ration of provisions as he could have
desired. The supply had not been sufficient to allow him to order more
than four pounds ten ounces and two thirds of an ounce of pork, and four
pounds of flour, to the convicts. The same quantity of salt meat was
ordered for the military; but they received two pounds of flour more than
the prisoners. The other parts of the weekly ration remained nearly the
same as before, except the article of sugar, the convicts receiving six
ounces instead of one pound and a half of that article.

The report of the general muster which was ordered in the last month
having been laid before the governor, he thought proper to make some
regulations in the assistance afforded by government to settlers and
others holding grants of land. To the officers who occupied grounds was
continued the number of men allowed them by lieutenant-governor Grose; viz
ten for agriculture, and three for domestic purposes. Notwithstanding
this far exceeded the number which had at home been thought necessary,
the governor did not conceive this to be the moment for reducing it, much
as he wanted men. A wheat harvest was approaching; ground was planting
with Indian corn; not a man was unemployed; but he saw and explained that
a reduction must take place; that government could not be supposed much
longer to feed, maintain, and clothe the hands that wrought the ground,
and at the same time pay for the produce of their labour, particularly
when every public work was likely to stand still for want of labourers.
He was sensible that the assistance which had been given had not been
thrown away, and that the small number allowed by government could never
have produced such rapid approaches toward that independence which he
thought, from what he had already seen of the cultivation of the country,
was now much nearer than at his leaving it in 1791 he could have
conceived to be possible. To the settlers* who arrived in the _Surprise_
he allowed five male convicts; to the superintendants, constables, and
store-keepers, four; to settlers from free people**, two; to settlers
from prisoners, one; and to sergeants of the New South Wales corps, one.

[* Messrs. Boston, Pearce, and Ellis.]

[** Such as the marine settlers, those at Liberty Plains, and others who
never had been prisoners.]

As much inconvenience also was felt, and the end for which government
gave up the services of these convicts to individuals liable to be
defeated by their not residing at their respective farms, the settlers
were directed as much as possible to prevent their servants from having
any intercourse, particularly during the night, with the towns in their
neighbourhood; as most of the robberies which were committed were not
unjustly laid to their account.

It appeared likewise by this muster, that one hundred and seventy-nine
people subsisted themselves independent of the public stores, and resided
in this town. To many of these, as well as to the servants of settlers,
were to be attributed the offences that were daily heard of, they were
the greatest nuisances we had to complain of; and there was not a doubt
that they were concerned about this time in rolling two casks of meat
from a pile at the store in a very hard storm of wind and rain. Enough to
fill a cask was found concealed in different holes the following morning.

An indulgence had been allowed to some of the military and others, which
was now found to have produced an evil. Having been permitted to build
themselves huts on each side of and near the stream of water which
supplied the town of Sydney, they had, for the convenience of procuring
water, opened the paling, and made paths from each hut; by which, in
rainy weather, a great quantity of filth ran into the stream, polluting
the water of which every one drank. It therefore became an object of
police; and the governor prohibited removing the paling, or keeping hogs
in the neighbourhood of the stream, under penalty to the offender that
his house should be pulled down.

On the 13th, the _Providence_ sailed for Nootka Sound. She was followed
by the _Supply_, which sailed on the 16th for Norfolk Island, having on
board three officers of the New South Wales corps, and a detachment of
the regiment to relieve those now on duty there. On the 29th the _Young
William_, having been expeditiously cleared of her cargo, sailed for
Canton.

Clearing the store-ship, which was completed on the 19th, and stowing in
the public store the provisions she brought out, was the principal labour
of the month. Every effort was made to collect together a sufficient
number of working people to get in the ensuing harvest; and the muster
and regulation respecting the servants fortunately produced some. The
bricklayer and his gang were employed in repairing the column at the
South Head; to do which, for want of bricks at the kiln, the little hut
built formerly for Bennillong, being altogether forsaken by the natives,
and tumbling down, the bricks of it were removed to the South Head. A
person having undertaken to collect shells and burn them into lime, a
quantity of that article was sent down; and the column, being finished
with a thick coat of plaster, and whitened, was not only better guarded
against the weather, but became a more conspicuous object at sea than it
ever had been before.

November.] On the 5th of November, the _Sovereign_ store-ship arrived
from England; her cargo a welcome one, being provisions. Like the _Young
William_, she touched at Rio de Janeiro, and like her also had met with
very bad weather after she had left that port until her arrival; from
making the south cape of this country to her anchoring she had a passage
of three weeks. In this ship arrived Mr. Thomas Hibbins, the deputy
judge-advocate for Norfolk Island; but unfortunately without the patent
under the great seal for holding the court. One settler also arrived, a
Mr. Kennedy and his family (a sister and three nieces); and Mr. Joseph
Gerald, a prisoner, whose present situation afforded another melancholy
proof of how little profit and honor were the endowments of nature and
education to him who perverted them. In this gentleman we saw, that not
even elegant manners (evidently caught from good company), great
abilities, and a happy mode of placing them in the best point of view,
the gifts of nature matured by education, could (because he misapplied
them) save him from landing an exile, to call him by no worse a name, on
a barbarous shore, where the few who were civilized must pity, while they
admired him. He arrived in a very weak and impaired state of health. We
learned that two other ships with convicts, the _Marquis Cornwallis_ and
the _Maria_, might be expected to arrive in the course of this summer.

On the 7th, a criminal court was assembled, when the following persons
were tried; viz. Samuel Chinnery (a black) servant to Mr. Arndell*, the
assistant surgeon, for robbing that gentleman; but he was acquitted.
---- Smith and Abraham Whitehouse, for breaking into the dwelling-house
of William Potter, a settler at Prospect Hill, and after cruelly
treating the only person in the house, William Thorn, a servant)
stripping it of all the moveables they could find, and killing and taking
away some valuable stock; these were found guilty, and condemned to die:
and two settlers, and six convicts, for an assault on one Marianne
Wilkinson (attended with like circumstances of infamy as that on Mary
Hartley in April last) of which three were found guilty, and sentenced,
---- Merchant, alias Jones, the principal, to receive one thousand
lashes; the others, Ladley and Everitt, eight hundred each.

[* This gentleman had, on the arrival of Mr. Leeds, been permitted to
retire from the civil duties of the colony with a salary of fifty pounds
per annum.]

These unmanly attacks of several men on a single woman had frequently
happened, and had happened to some females who, through shame concealed
the circumstance. To such a height indeed was this dissolute and
abandoned practice carried, that it had obtained a cant name; and the
poor unfortunate objects of this brutality were distinguished by a title
expressive of the insults they had received.

On the 16th the two prisoners Smith and Whitehouse were led out to
execution. Smith suffered, after warning the crowd which attended him to
guard against breaking the Sabbath. Whitehouse, being evidently the tool
of Smith, and a much younger man, was pardoned by the governor. His
excellency, after the execution, expressed in public orders, his
hope that neither the example he had that day found himself compelled to
make of one offender, nor the lenity which he had shown to another, would
be without their effect: it would always be more grateful to him to spare
than to punish; but he felt it necessary on that occasion to declare,
that if neither the justice which had been done, nor the mercy which had
been shown, tended to decrease the perpetration of offences, it was his
determination in future to put in execution whatever sentence should be
pronounced on offenders by the court of criminal judicature.

A small printing-press, which had been brought into the settlement by
Mr. Phillip, and had remained from that time unemployed, was now found very
useful; a very decent young man, one George Hughes, of some abilities in
the printing line, having been found equal to conducting the whole
business of the press. All orders were now printed, and a number thrown
off sufficient to ensure a more general publication of them than had
hitherto been accomplished.

Some time after the arrival of the _Sovereign_ the full allowance of salt
meat was issued, and the hours of public labour regulated, more to the
advantage of government than had for a considerable time, owing to the
shortness of the ration, been the case. Instead of completing in a few
hours the whole labour which was required of a man for the day, the
convicts were now to work the whole day, with the intermission of two
hours and a half of rest. Many advantages were gained by this regulation;
among which not the least was, the diminution of idle time which the
prisoners before had, and which, emphatically terming _their own time_,
they applied as they chose, some industriously, but by far the greater
part in improper pursuits, as gaming, drinking, and stealing.

The full ration of flour was issued to the Military, on account of the
'hard duty which had lately fallen upon the regiment;' but they were
informed, that the quantity of flour in the public store would not admit
of their receiving such allowance for any length of time. Four pounds
were issued to the prisoners, and some other grain given to them to make
up the difference.

On the 20th his Majesty's ship _Supply_ returned from Norfolk Island,
having been absent four weeks and four days. She had a long passage back
of seventeen days. When Mr. Kent left the island, the lieutenant-governor
was dangerously ill with the gout in his stomach. We understood that
cultivation was nearly at a stand there. The grounds were so over-run
with two great enemies to agriculture, rats, and a pernicious weed called
cow-itch*, that the settlers despaired of ever being able to get rid of
either.

[* The Pruriens, a species of the Dolichos.]

A circumstance happened this month not less extraordinary and unexpected
than the discovery of the four convicts at Port Stephens.

The contests which had lately taken place very frequently in this town,
and the neighbourhood of it, among the natives, had been attended by many
of those people who inhabited the woods, and came from a great distance
inland. Some of the prisoners gathering from time to time rumours and
imperfect accounts of the existence of the cattle lost in 1788, two of
them, who were employed by some officers in shooting, resolved on
ascertaining the truth of these reports, and trying by different
excursions to discover the place of their retreat. On their return from
the first outset they made, which was subsequent to the governor's
arrival, they reported, that they had seen them. Being, however, at that
moment too much engaged in perfecting the civil regulations he had in
view for the settlement, the governor could not himself go to that part
of the country where they were said to have been found; but he detached
Henry Hacking, a man on whom he could depend. His report was so
satisfactory, that on the 18th the governor set off from Parramatta,
attended by a small party, when after travelling two days, in a direction
SSW from the settlement at Prospect Hill, he crossed the river named by
Mr. Phillip the Nepean; and, to his great surprise and satisfaction, fell
in with a very fine herd of cattle, upwards of forty in number, grazing
in a pleasant and apparently fertile pasturage. The day being far
advanced when he saw them, he rested for the night in their
neighbourhood, hoping in the morning to be gratified with a sight of the
whole herd. A doubt had been started of their being cattle produced from
what we had brought into the country from the Cape; and it was suggested
that they might be of longer standing. The governor thought this a
circumstance worth determining, and directed the attendants who were with
him (Hacking and the two men who had first found them) to endeavour in
the morning to get near enough to kill a calf. This they were not able to
effect; for, while lying in wait for the whole herd to pass (which now
consisted of upwards of sixty young and old) they were furiously set upon
by a bull, which brought up the rear, and which in their own defence they
were compelled to kill. This however answered the purpose better perhaps
than a calf might have done; for he had all the marks of the Cape cattle
when full grown, such as wide-spreading horns, a moderate rising or hump
between his shoulders, and a short thin tail. Being at this time seven or
eight and thirty miles from Parramatta, a very small quantity of the meat
only could be sent in; the remainder was left to the crows and dogs of
the woods, much to the regret of the governor and his party*, who
considered that the prisoners, particularly the sick at the hospital, had
not lately received any meat either salt or fresh.

[* Captain Waterhouse and Mr. Bass (surgeon) of the _Reliance_, and the
writer of this Narrative.]

The country where they were found grazing was remarkably pleasant to the
eye; every where the foot trod on thick and luxuriant grass; the trees
were thinly scattered, and free from underwood, except in particular
spots; several beautiful flats presented large ponds, covered with ducks
and the black swan, the margins of which were fringed with shrubs of the
most delightful tints, and the ground rose from these levels into hills
of easy ascent.

The question how these cattle came hither appeared easy of solution. The
few that were lost in 1788, two bulls and five cows, travelled without
interruption in a western direction until they came to the banks of the
Nepean. Arrived there, and finding the crossing as easy as when the
governor forded it, they came at once into a well-watered country, and
amply stored with grass. From this place why should they move? They found
themselves in possession of a country equal to their support, and in
which they remained undisturbed. We had not yet travelled quite so far
westward; and but few natives were to be found thereabouts; they were
likely therefore to remain for years unmolested, and securely to
propagate their species.

It was a pleasing circumstance to have in the woods of New Holland a
thriving herd of wild cattle. Many proposals were made to bring them into
the settlement; but in the day of want, if these should be sacrificed, in
what better condition would the colony be for having possessed _a herd of
cattle in the woods_?--a herd which, if suffered to remain undisturbed
for some years, would, like the cattle of South America, always prove a
market sufficient for the inhabitants of the country; and, perhaps, not
only for their own consumption, but for exportation. The governor saw it
in this light, and determined to guard, as much as was in his power,
against any attempts to destroy them.

On his return he found some very fine ground at the back of Prospect
Hill. The weather during this excursion was so intensely hot, that one
day as the party passed through a part of the country which was on fire,
a terrier dog died by the way.

Discharging the store-ship, some part of the cargo of which appeared to
be injured by the weather she had met with, formed the principal labour
of the month. On account of the small number of working men which could
be got together, the governor required two able men to be sent in for
this purpose from each farm having ten, to be returned as soon as the
provisions were stowed in the public store.

It having been the practice for some time past to shoot such hogs
(pursuant to an order which their destructive qualities had rendered
necessary in the lieutenant-governor's time) as were found trespassing in
gardens or cultivated grounds, and the loss of the animals being greatly
felt by the owners, as well as detrimental to the increase of that kind
of stock, the governor directed, that instead of firing at them when
found trespassing, they should be taken to the provost-marshal, by whom
(if the damage done, which was to be ascertained before a magistrate, was
not paid for within twenty-four hours) they were to be delivered to the
commissary as public property, and the damages paid as far as the value
of the animal would admit.

A combination appearing among the labouring people to raise the price of
reaping for a day, the governor, being as desirous to encourage industry
as to check every attempt at imposition, thought it necessary, on
comparing our's with the price usually paid in England, to direct that
ten shillings, and no more, should be demanded of, or given by any
settler, under pain of losing the assistance of government, for reaping
an acre of wheat. It was much feared that this order would be but little
attended to; and that some means would be devised on both sides to evade
the letter of it.

We heard nothing of the natives at the river; all was quiet there. About
this settlement their attention had been for some time engrossed by
Bennillong, who arrived with the governor. On his first appearance, he
conducted himself with a polished familiarity toward his sisters and
other relations; but to his acquaintance he was distant, and quite the
man of consequence. He declared, in a tone and with an air that seemed to
expect compliance, that he should no longer suffer them to fight and cut
each other's throats, as they had done; that he should introduce peace
among them, and make them love each other. He expressed his wish that
when they visited him at Government-house they would contrive to be
somewhat more cleanly in their persons, and less coarse in their manners;
and he seemed absolutely offended at some little indelicacies which he
observed in his sister Car-rang-ar-ang, who came in such haste from
Botany Bay, with a little nephew on her back, to visit him, that she left
all her habiliments behind her.

Bennillong had certainly not been an inattentive observer of the manners
of the people among whom he had lived; he conducted himself with the
greatest propriety at table, particularly in the observance of those
attentions which are chiefly requisite in the presence of women. His
dress appeared to be an object of no small concern with him; and every
one who knew him before he left the country, and who saw him now,
pronounced without hesitation that Bennillong had not any desire to
renounce the habits and comforts of the civilized life which he appeared
so readily and so successfully to adopt.