Prospect.
He has received great encouragement and assistance from the governor.
He has five acres cleared and planted with maize, which looks thriving,
and promises to yield a decent crop. His house and a small one adjoining
for pigs and poultry were built for him by the governor, who also gave him
two sows and seven fowls, to which he adds a little stock of his own acquiring.
Near Webb is placed William Read, another seaman of the 'Sirius',
on the same terms, and to whom equal encouragement has been granted.
My survey of Rose Hill is now closed. I have inspected every piece of ground
in cultivation here, both public and private, and have written from
actual examination only.
But before I bade adieu to Rose Hill, in all probability for the last time
of my life, it struck me that there yet remained one object of consideration
not to be slighted: Barrington had been in the settlement between two
and three months, and I had not seen him.
I saw him with curiosity. He is tall, approaching to six feet, slender,
and his gait and manner, bespeak liveliness and activity. Of that elegance
and fashion, with which my imagination had decked him (I know not why),
I could distinguish no trace. Great allowance should, however, be made
for depression and unavoidable deficiency of dress. His face is thoughtful
and intelligent; to a strong cast of countenance he adds a penetrating eye,
and a prominent forehead. His whole demeanour is humble, not servile.
Both on his passage from England, and since his arrival here, his conduct
has been irreproachable. He is appointed high-constable of the settlement
of Rose Hill, a post of some respectability, and certainly one of importance
to those who live here. His knowledge of men, particularly of that part
of them into whose morals, manners and behaviour he is ordered
especially to inspect, eminently fit him for the office.
I cannot quit him without bearing my testimony that his talents promise to be
directed in future to make reparation to society for the offences he has
heretofore committed against it.
The number of persons of all descriptions at Rose Hill at this period
will be seen in the following return.
A return of the number of persons at Rose Hill, 3rd of December 1791
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Quality. |Men.|Women.| Children
| | | of 10 years | of 2 years | under 2 years
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Convicts* 1336 133 0 9 17
Troops 94 9 1 5 2
Civil Department 7 0 0 0 0
Seamen Settlers 3 0 0 0 0
Free Persons 0 7 2 1 2
Total number of
persons 1440 149 3 15 21
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
[*The convicts who are become settlers, are included in this number.]
Of my Sydney journal, I find no part sufficiently interesting to
be worth extraction. This place had long been considered only as a depot
for stores. It exhibited nothing but a few old scattered huts and some
sterile gardens. Cultivation of the ground was abandoned, and all our strength
transferred to Rose Hill. Sydney, nevertheless, continued to be the place
of the governor's residence, and consequently the headquarters of the colony.
No public building of note, except a storehouse, had been erected since
my last statement. The barracks, so long talked of, so long promised,
for the accommodation and discipline of the troops, were not even begun
when I left the country; and instead of a new hospital, the old one
was patched up and, with the assistance of one brought ready-framed
from England, served to contain the sick.
The employment of the male convicts here, as at Rose Hill,
was the public labour. Of the women, the majority were compelled
to make shirts, trousers and other necessary parts of dress for the men,
from materials delivered to them from the stores, into which they returned
every Saturday night the produce of their labour, a stipulated weekly task
being assigned to them. In a more early stage, government sent out
all articles of clothing ready made; but, by adopting the present
judicious plan, not only a public saving is effected, but employment
of a suitable nature created for those who would otherwise consume leisure
in idle pursuits only.
On the 26th of November 1791, the number of persons, of all descriptions,
at Sydney, was 1259, to which, if 1628 at Rose Hill and 1172 at Norfolk Island
be added, the total number of persons in New South Wales and its dependency
will be found to amount to 4059.*
[*A very considerable addition to this number has been made since I quitted
the settlement, by fresh troops and convicts sent thither from England.]
On the 13th of December 1791, the marine battalion embarked on board
His Majesty's ship Gorgon, and on the 18th sailed for England.
CHAPTER XVII.
Miscellaneous Remarks on the country. On its vegetable productions.
On its climate. On its animal productions. On its natives, etc.
The journals contained in the body of this publication, illustrated by
the map which accompanies it (unfortunately, there is no map accompanying
this etext), are, I conceive, so descriptive of every part of the country
known to us, that little remains to be added beyond a few general observations.
The first impression made on a stranger is certainly favourable.
He sees gently swelling hills connected by vales which possess every beauty
that verdure of trees, and form, simply considered in itself, can produce;
but he looks in vain for those murmuring rills and refreshing springs
which fructify and embellish more happy lands. Nothing like those
tributary streams which feed rivers in other countries are here seen;
for when I speak of the stream at Sydney, I mean only the drain of a morass;
and the river at Rose Hill is a creek of the harbour, which above
high water mark would not in England be called even a brook.
