Child, were put on board
of us to be carried to England. four had died, and one had jumped overboard
at Batavia. The particulars of their voyage were briefly as follows.
They coasted the shore of New Holland, putting occasionally into different
harbours which they found in going along. One of these harbours, in the
latitude of 30 degrees south, they described to be of superior excellence
and capacity. Here they hauled their bark ashore, paid her seams with tallow,
and repaired her. But it was with difficulty they could keep off the attacks
of the Indians. These people continued to harras them so much that they
quitted the mainland and retreated to a small island in the harbour,
where they completed their design. Between the latitude of 26 degrees and
27 degrees, they were driven by a current 30 leagues from the shore,
among some islands, where they found plenty of large turtles. Soon after
they closed again with the continent, when the boat got entangled in the surf
and was driven on shore, and they had all well nigh perished. They passed
rough the straits of Endeavour and, beyond the gulf of Carpentaria, found a
large freshwater river, which they entered, and filled from it their
empty casks.
Until they reached the gulf of Carpentaria, they saw no natives or canoes
differing from those about Port Jackson. But now they were chased by
large canoes, jitted with sails and fighting stages, and capable of holding
thirty men each. They escaped by dint of rowing to windward. On the
5th of June 1791 they reached Timor, and pretended that they had belonged
to a ship which, on her passage from Port Jackson to India, had foundered;
and that they only had escaped. The Dutch received them with kindness
and treated them with hospitality. But their behaviour giving rise
to suspicion, they were watched; and one of them at last, in a moment
of intoxication, betrayed the secret. They were immediately secured
and committed to prison. Soon after Captain Edwards of the Pandora,
who had been wrecked near Endeavour straits, arrived at Timor, and they were
delivered up to him, by which means they became passengers in the Gorgon.
I confess that I never looked at these people without pity and astonishment.
They had miscarried in a heroic struggle for liberty after having combated
every hardship and conquered every difficulty.
The woman, and one of the men, had gone out to Port Jackson in the ship
which had transported me thither. They had both of them been always
distinguished for good behaviour. And I could not but reflect with admiration
at the strange combination of circumstances which had again brought us
together, to baffle human foresight and confound human speculation.]
April, 1791. Notwithstanding the supplies which had recently arrived
from Batavia, short allowance was again proclaimed on the 2nd of April,
on which day we were reduced to the following ration:
Three pounds of rice, three pounds of flour and three pounds of pork per week.
It was singularly unfortunate that these retrenchments should always happen
when the gardens were most destitute of vegetables. A long drought had nearly
exhausted them. The hardships which we in consequence suffered were great,
but not comparable to what had been formerly experienced. Besides,
now we made sure of ships arriving soon to dispel our distress. Whereas,
heretofore, from having never heard from England, the hearts of men sunk
and many had begun to doubt whether it had not been resolved to try how long
misery might be endured with resignation.
Notwithstanding the incompetency of so diminished a pittance, the daily task
of the soldier and convict continued unaltered. I never contemplated
the labours of these men without finding abundant cause of reflection
on the miseries which our nature can overcome. Let me for a moment quit
the cold track of narrative. Let me not fritter away by servile adaptation
those reflections and the feelings they gave birth to. Let me transcribe them
fresh as they arose, ardent and generous, though hopeless and romantic.
I every day see wretches pale with disease and wasted with famine,
struggle against the horror's of their situation. How striking is the effect
of subordination; how dreadful is the fear of punishment! The allotted task
is still performed, even on the present reduced subsistence. The blacksmith
sweats at the sultry forge, the sawyer labours pent-up in his pit and
the husbandman turns up the sterile glebe. Shall I again hear arguments
multiplied to violate truth, and insult humanity! Shall I again be told
that the sufferings of the wretched Africans are indispensable for the culture
of our sugar colonies; that white men are incapable of sustaining the heat
of the climate! I have been in the West Indies. I have lived there.
I know that it is a rare instance for the mercury in the thermometer
to mount there above 90 degrees; and here I scarcely pass a week in summer
without seeing it rise to 100 degrees; sometimes to 105; nay, beyond even that
burning altitude.
But toil cannot be long supported without adequate refreshment. The first step
in every community which wishes to preserve honesty should be to set the people
above want. The throes of hunger will ever prove too powerful for integrity
to withstand. Hence arose a repetition of petty delinquencies, which no
vigilance could detect, and no justice reach. Gardens were plundered,
provisions pilfered, and the Indian corn stolen from the fields where it grew
for public use. Various were the measures adopted to check this depredatory
spirit. Criminal courts, either from the tediousness of their process,
or from the frequent escape of culprits from their decision, were seldomer
convened than formerly. The governor ordered convict offenders either
to be chained together or to wear singly a large iron collar with two spikes
projecting from it, which effectually hindered the party from concealing it
under his shirt; and thus shackled, they were compelled to perform
their quota of work.
