It Was Impossible To View Our Separation
With Insensibility:
The little ship which had so often agitated our hopes
and fears, which from long acquaintance we had learned to regard as part
of ourselves, whose doors of hospitality had been ever thrown open
to relieve our accumulated wants, and chase our solitary gloom!
In consequence of the offers made to the non-commissioned officers
and privates of the marine battalion to remain in the country as settlers
or to enter into the New South Wales corps, three corporals, one drummer
and 59 privates accepted of grants of land, to settle at Norfolk Island
and Rose Hill. Of these men, several were undoubtedly possessed
of sufficient skill and industry, by the assistance of the pay which was due
to them from the date of their embarkation, in the beginning of the year
1787, to the day on which they were discharged, to set out with reasonable
hopes of being able to procure a maintenance. But the only apparent reason
to which the behaviour of a majority of them could be ascribed was from
infatuated affection to female convicts, whose characters and habits of life,
I am sorry to say, promise from a connection neither honour nor tranquillity.
The narrative part of this work will, I conceive, be best brought to
a termination by a description of the existing state of the colony,
as taken by myself a few days previous to my embarkation in the Gorgon,
to sail for England.
December 2nd, 1791. Went up to Rose Hill. Public buildings here
have not greatly multiplied since my last survey. The storehouse
and barrack have been long completed; also apartments for the chaplain
of the regiment, and for the judge-advocate, in which last,
criminal courts, when necessary, are held; but these are petty erections.
In a colony which contains only a few hundred hovels built of twigs and mud,
we feel consequential enough already to talk of a treasury, an admiralty,
a public library and many other similar edifices, which are to form
part of a magnificent square. The great road from near the landing place
to the governor's house is finished, and a very noble one it is,
being of great breadth, and a mile long, in a strait line. In many places
it is carried over gullies of considerable depth, which have been filled up
with trunks of trees covered with earth. All the sawyers, carpenters
and blacksmiths will soon be concentred under the direction of
a very adequate person of the governor's household. This plan is already
so far advanced as to contain nine covered sawpits, which change of weather
cannot disturb the operations of, an excellent workshed for the carpenters
and a large new shop for the blacksmiths. It certainly promises to be
of great public benefit. A new hospital has been talked of for the last
two years, but is not yet begun. Two long sheds, built in the form of a tent
and thatched, are however finished, and capable of holding 200 patients.
The sick list of today contains 382 names. Rose Hill is less healthy
than it used to be. The prevailing disorder is a dysentery, which often
terminates fatally. There was lately one very violent putrid fever which,
by timely removal of the patient, was prevented from spreading.
Twenty-five men and two children died here in the month of November.
When at the hospital I saw and conversed with some of the 'Chinese
travellers'; four of them lay here, wounded by the natives. I asked these men
if they really supposed it possible to reach China. They answered
that they were certainly made to believe (they knew not how) that
at a considerable distance to northward existed a large river,
which separated this country from the back part of China; and that when
it should be crossed (which was practicable) they would find themselves
among a copper-coloured people, who would receive and treat them kindly.
They added, that on the third day of their elopement, one of the party
died of fatigue; another they saw butchered by the natives who,
finding them unarmed, attacked them and put them to flight. This happened
near Broken Bay, which harbour stopped their progress to the northward
and forced them to turn to the right hand, by which means they soon after
found themselves on the sea shore, where they wandered about in a destitute
condition, picking up shellfish to allay hunger. Deeming the farther
prosecution of their scheme impracticable, several of them agreed to return
to Rose Hill, which with difficulty they accomplished, arriving
almost famished. On their road back they met six fresh adventurers
sallying forth to join them, to whom they related what had passed
and persuaded them to relinquish their intention. There are at this time
not less than thirty-eight convict men missing, who live in the woods by day,
and at night enter the different farms and plunder for subsistence.
December 3rd, 1791. Began my survey of the cultivated land belonging to
the public. The harvest has commenced. They are reaping both wheat
and barley. The field between the barrack and the governor's house
contains wheat and maize, both very bad, but the former particularly so.
In passing through the main street I was pleased to observe the gardens
of the convicts look better than I had expected to find them.
The vegetables in general are but mean, but the stalks of maize,
with which they are interspersed, appear green and flourishing.
The semicircular hill, which sweeps from the overseer of the cattle's house
to the governor's house, is planted with maize, which, I am told,
is the best here. It certainly looks in most parts very good -
stout thick stalks with large spreading leaves - but I am surprised
to find it so backward. It is at least a month later than that in the gardens
at Sydney. Behind the maize is a field of wheat, which looks tolerably
for this part of the world.
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