The Situation Of The Barrack Is Judicious, Being Close
To The Store-House, And Within A Hundred And Fifty Yards Of The Wharf,
Where All Boats From Sydney Unload.
To what I have already enumerated,
must be added an excellent barn, a granary, an inclosed yard to rear stock in,
a commodious blacksmith's shop, and a most wretched hospital, totally destitute
of every conveniency.
Luckily for the gentleman who superintends
this hospital, and still more luckily for those who are doomed in case
of sickness to enter it, the air of Rose Hill has hitherto been
generally healthy. A tendency to produce slight inflammatory disorders,
from the rapid changes* of the temperature of the air, is most to be dreaded.
[*In the close of the year 1788, when this settlement was established,
the thermometer has been known to stand at 50 degrees a little before sunrise,
and between one and two o' clock in the afternoon at above 100 degrees.]
'The hours of labour for the convicts are the same here as at Sydney.
On Saturdays after ten o'clock in the morning they are allowed to work
in their own gardens. These gardens are at present, from the long drought
and other causes, in a most deplorable state. Potatoes, I think,
thrive better than any other vegetable in them. For the public conveniency
a baker is established here in a good bakehouse, who exchanges with every
person bread for flour, on stipulated terms; but no compulsion exists
for any one to take his bread; it is left entirely to every body's own option
to consume his flour as he pleases. Divine service is performed here,
morning and afternoon, one Sunday in every month, when all the convicts
are obliged to attend church, under penalty of having a part of their allowance
of provisions stopped, which is done by the chaplain, who is a
justice of the peace.
'For the punishment of offenders, where a criminal court is not judged
necessary, two or more justices, occasionally assemble, and order
the infliction of slight corporal punishment, or short confinement
in a strong room built for this purpose. The military present here consists
of two subalterns, two sergeants, three corporals, a drummer, and twenty-one
privates. These have been occasionally augmented and reduced, as circumstances
have been thought to render it necessary.
Brick-kilns are now erected here, and bricks manufactured by a convict
of the name of Becket, who came out in the last fleet, and has fifty-two people
to work under him. He makes 25,000 bricks weekly. He says that they are
very good, and would sell at Birmingham, where he worked about eighteen months
ago, at more than 30 shillings per thousand.
Nothing farther of public nature remaining to examine, I next visited
a humble adventurer, who is trying his fortune here. James Ruse, convict,
was cast for seven years at Bodmin assizes, in August 1782. He lay five years
in prison and on board the 'Dunkirk' hulk at Plymouth, and then was sent
to this country.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 48 of 128
Words from 24416 to 24924
of 66960
