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.
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