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.
May, 1791. Had their marauding career terminated here, humanity would have
been anxious to plead in their defence; but the natives continued to complain
of being robbed of spears and fishing tackle. A convict was at length taken
in the fact of stealing fishing-tackle from Daringa, the wife of Colbee.
The governor ordered that he should be severely flogged in the presence of
as many natives as could be assembled, to whom the cause of punishment
should be explained. Many of them, of both sexes, accordingly attended.
Arabanoo's aversion to a similar sight has been noticed; and if the behaviour
of those now collected be found to correspond with it, it is, I think,
fair to conclude that these people are not of a sanguinary and implacable
temper. Quick indeed of resentment, but not unforgiving of injury.
There was not one of them that did not testify strong abhorrence
of the punishment and equal sympathy with the sufferer. The women
were particularly affected; Daringa shed tears, and Barangaroo, kindling
into anger, snatched a stick and menaced the executioner. The conduct
of these women, on this occasion, was exactly descriptive of their characters.
The former was ever meek and feminine, the latter fierce and unsubmissive.
On the first of May, many allotments of ground were parcelled out
by the governor to convicts whose periods of transportation were expired,
and who voluntarily offered to become settlers in the country. The terms
on which they settled, and their progress in agriculture, will be
hereafter set forth.
CHAPTER XIV.
Travelling Diaries in New South Wales.
From among my numerous travelling journals into the interior parts
of the country, I select the following to present to the reader, as equally
important in their object, and more amusing in their detail, than any other.
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