 Section one of a narrative of the expedition to Botany Bay. This is a LibriVox recording, or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay by Watkins Tenge. Introduction In offering this little track to the public it is equally the writer's wish to conduce to their amusement and information. The expedition on which he is engaged is excited much curiosity and given birth to many speculations respecting the consequences to arise from it, while men continue to think freely they will judge variously. Some have been sanguine enough to foresee the most beneficial effect to the parent state from the colony we are endeavouring to establish, and some have not been wanting to pronounce the scheme big with folly in policy and ruin. Which of these predictions will be completed I leave to the decision of the public. I cannot, however, dismiss the subject without expressing a hope that the candidate and liberal of each opinion induced by the humane and benevolent intention in which it originated will unite in waiting the result of a fair trial to an experiment no less new in its design than difficult in its execution. As this publication enters the world with the name of the author, candor will he trusts induce its readers to believe that no consideration could weigh with him in an endeavour to mislead them. Facts are related simply as they happened, and when opinions are hazarded they are such as, he hopes, patient inquiry and deliberate decision will be found to have authorised. For the most part he has spoken from actual observation, and in those places where the relations of others have been unavoidably adopted he has been careful to search for the truth and repress that spirit of exaggeration which is almost ever the effect of novelty on ignorance. The nautical part of the work is comprised in as few pages as possible. By the professional part of my readers this will be deemed judicious, and the rest will not, I believe, be dissatisfied at its brevity. I beg leave, however, to say of the astronomical calculations that they may be depended on with the greatest degree of security as they were communicated by an officer who was furnished with instruments and commissioned by the Board of Longitude to make observations during the voyage and in the southern hemisphere. An unpracticed writer is generally anxious to bespeak public attention and to solicit public indulgence, except on professional subjects military men are perhaps too fearful of critical censure. For the present narrative no other apology is attempted than the intentions of its author who has endeavoured not only to satisfy present curiosity but to point out to future adventurers the favourable as well as adverse circumstances which will attend their settling here. The candidate, it is hoped, will overlook the inaccuracies of this imperfect sketch drawn amidst the complicated duties of the service in which the author is engaged and make due allowance for the want of opportunity of gaining more extensive information. What can tench, Captain of the Marines, Sidney Cove, Port Jackson, New South Wales, 10 July 1788. End of introduction. Chapter 1. From the Embarkation of the Convicts to the Departure of the Ships from England The Marines and convicts having been previously embarked in the river at Portsmouth and Plymouth, the whole fleet destined for the expedition rendezvoused at the mother bank on the 16th of March 1787 and remained there until the 13th of May following. In this period, accepting a slight appearance of conjugation in one of the transports, the ships were universally healthy and the prisoners in high spirits. Few complaints or lamentations were to be heard among them, and an ardent wish for the hour of departure seemed generally to prevail. As the reputation equally with the safety of the officers and soldiers appointed to guard the convicts consisted in maintaining due subordination an opportunity was taken immediately on their being embarked to convince them in the most pointed terms that any attempt on their side, either to contest the command or to force their escape, should be punished with instant death. Orders to this effect were given to the sentinels in their presence. Happily, however, for all parties there occurred not any instance in which there was occasion to have recourse to so desperate a measure. The behaviour of the convicts being in general humble, submissive and regular. Indeed I should feel myself wanting injustice to those unfortunate men were I not to bear this public testimony of the sobriety and decency of their conduct. Unpleasant as a state of inactivity and delay for many weeks appeared to us, it was not without its advantages, for by means of it we were unable to establish necessary regulations among the convicts and to adopt such a system of defences left as little to apprehend for our own security in case a spirit of madness and desperation had hurried them on to attempt our destruction. Among many other troublesome parts of duty which the service we were engaged on required, the inspection of all letters brought to or sent from the ships was not one of the least tiresome and disagreeable. The number and contents of those in the vessel I was embarked in frequently surprised me very much. They varied according to the dispositions of the writers, but their constant language was an apprehension of the impracticality of returning home, the dread of a sickly passage, and the fearful prospect of a distant and barbarous country. But this apparent despondency preceded in few instances from sentiment. With too many it was doubtless an artifice to awaken compassion and call forth relief, the correspondence invariably ending in a petition for money and tobacco. Perhaps a want of the latter, which is considered a great luxury by its admirers among the lower classes of life, might be the more severely felt from their being debarred in all cases whatever sickness accepted the use of spiritous liquors. It may be thought proper for me to mention that during our stay at the mother-bank the soldiers and convicts were indiscriminately served with fresh beef. The former, in addition, had the usual quantity of beer allowed in the navy and were at what is called full allowance for all species of provisions, the latter at two-thirds only—end of chapter one. Chapter two From the Departure to the Arrival of the Fleet at Tenerife Governor Philip, having at length reached Portsmouth and all things deemed necessary for the expedition being put on board, at daylight on the morning of the thirteenth the signal to where anchor was made in the commanding officer's ship, the Sirius. Before six o'clock the whole fleet were under sail and the weather being fine and wind-easterly proceeded through the needles with a fresh leading breeze. In addition to our little armament the hyena frigate was ordered to accompany us a certain distance to the westward by which means our number was increased to twelve sail. His majesty ships Sirius, Hyena and Supply, three vitals with two-year stores and provisions on board for the settlement, and six transports with troops and convicts. In the transports were embarked four captains, twelve suppletons, twenty-four sergeants and corporals, eight drummers and one hundred and sixty private marines, making the whole of the military force, including the major commandant and staff on board the Sirius, to consist of two hundred and twelve persons, of whom two hundred and ten were volunteers. The number of convicts was five hundred and sixty-five men, one hundred and ninety-two women, and eighteen children. The major part of the prisoners were mechanics and husband men, selected on purpose by order of government. By ten o'clock we had got clear of the Isle of Wight, at which time, having very little pleasure in conversing with my own thoughts, I strolled down among the convict to observe their sentiments at this juncture. A very few accepted, their countenance has indicated a high degree of satisfaction, though in some the pang of being severed, perhaps forever, from their native land, could not be wholly suppressed. In general, marks of distress were more perceptible among the men than the women, for I recollect who have seen but one of those affected on the occasion. Some natural tears she dropped, but wiped them soon. After this, the accent of sorrow was no longer heard, more genial skies and change of scene banished repining and discontent, and introduced in their stead cheerfulness and acquiescence in a lot now not to be altered. To add to the good disposition which was beginning to manifest itself, on the morning of the twentieth, in consequence of some favorable representations made by the officer's commanding detachments, they were hailed and told from Sirius that in those cases where they judged it proper, they were at liberty to release the convicts from the fetters in which they had been hitherto confined. In complying with these directions, I had great pleasure in being able to extend this humane order to the whole of those under my charge without a single exception. It is hardly necessary for me to say that the precaution of ironing the convicts at any time reached the men only. In the evening of the same day the hyena left us for England, which afforded an early opportunity of writing to our friends and easing their apprehensions by a communication of the favorable accounts it was in our power to send them. From this time to the day of our making the land little occurred worthy of remark. I cannot, however, help noticing the propriety of employing the marines on a service which requires activity and exertion at sea in preference to other troops. Had a regiment recruited since the war been sent out, seasickness would have incapacitated half the men from performing the duties immediately and indispensably necessary, whereas the marines, from being accustomed to serve on board ship, accommodated themselves with ease to every exigency and surmounted every difficulty. At daybreak on the morning of the thirtieth of May we saw the rocks named the desertas which lie off the southeast end of Madeira and found the southeast extremity of the most southerly of them to be in the latitude of thirty-two degrees, twenty-eight minutes north, longitude sixteen degrees, seventeen and a half minutes west of Greenwich. The following day we saw the salvages a cluster of rocks which are placed between the Madeiras and Canary Islands and determined the latitude of the middle of the Great Salvage to be thirty degrees twelve minutes north and the longitude of its eastern side to be fifteen degrees thirty-nine minutes west. It is no less extraordinary than unpardonable that in some very modern charts of the Atlantic published in London the salvages are totally omitted. We made the island of Tenerife on the third of June and in the evening anchored in the road of Santa Cruz after an excellent passage of three weeks from the day we left England. End of Chapter Two Chapter Three From the fleet's arrival at Tenerife to its departure for Rio de Janeiro in the Brazils There is little to please a traveller at Tenerife. He has heard wonders of its celebrated peak but he may remain for weeks together at the town of Santa Cruz without having a glimpse of it and when its cloud-topped head emerges the chance is he feels disappointed for from the point of view in which he sees it the neighbouring mountains lessen its effect very considerably. Accepting the peak the eye receives little pleasure from the general face of the country which is sterile and uninviting to the last degree. The town however from its cheerful white appearance contrasted with the dreary brownness of the background makes not an unpleasing coup d'etat. It is neither irregular in its plan nor despicable in its style of building and the churches and religious houses are numerous, sumptuous and highly ornamented. The morning of our arrival as many officers as could be spared from the different ships were introduced to the Marquis de Branqui for Governor of the Canary Islands whose reception was highly flattering and polite. His Excellency is a Sicilian by birth and is most deservedly popular in his government. He prefers residing at Tenerife for the convenience of frequent communications with Europe to the Grand Canary which is properly the seat of power and though not long fixed here has already found means to establish a manufacturing in cotton, silk and thread under excellent regulations which employs more than sixty persons and is of infinite service to the common people. During our short stay we had every day some fresh proof of his Excellency's esteem and attention and had the honour of dining with him in a style of equal elegance and splendour. At this entertainment the profusion of ices which appeared in the dessert was surprising considering that we were enjoying them under a sun nearly vertical, but it seems the caverns of the peak very far below its summit afforded all seasons ice in abundance. The restless importunity of the beggars and the immodesty of the lowest class of women are highly disgusting. From the number of his countrymen to be found an Englishman is at no loss for society. In the mercantile houses established here it is from gentlemen of this description that any information is derived for the toughs eternity of the Spaniards is not to be overcome in a short acquaintance, especially by Englishmen whose reserve falls little short of their own. The inland country is described as fertile and highly romantic and the environs of the small town of Lagoosa mentioned as particularly pleasant. Some of our officers who made an excursion to it confirmed the account amply. It should seem that the power of the church which has been so long on the decline in Europe is at length beginning to be shaken in the colonies of the Catholic powers. Some recent instances which have taken place at Tenerife have incited very fully. Were not a stranger, however, to be apprised of this he would hardly draw the conclusion from his own observations. The bishop of these islands which conjunctively form a sea resides on the Grand Canary. He is represented as a man in years and of a character as amiable as exalted, extremely beloved both by foreigners and those of his own church. The bishopric is valued at ten thousand pounds per annum the government at somewhat less than two. In spite of every precaution while we lay at anchor in the road a convict had the address one night to secrete himself on the deck when the rest were turned below and after remaining quiet for some hours let himself down over the bow of the ship and floated to a boat that lay a stern into which he got and cutting her adrift suffered himself to be carried away by the current until at a sufficient distance to be out of hearing when he rode off. This elopement was not discovered until some hours after when a search being made and boats sent to the different parts of the island he was discovered in a small cove to which he had fled for refuge. On being questioned it appeared he had endeavored to get himself received on board the Dutch East Indium and in the road but being rejected there he resolved on crossing over to the Grand Canary which is at the distance of ten leagues and when detected was recruiting his strength in order to make the attempt. At the same time that the boats of the fleet were sent on this pursuit information was given to the Spanish governor of what had happened who immediately detached parties every way in order to apprehend the delinquent. Having remained a week at Tenerife and in that time completed our stock of water and taken on board wine, etc., early on the morning of the 10th of June we weighed anchor and stood out to sea with a light easterly breeze. The shortness of our stay in the consequent hurry prevented our increasing much any previous knowledge we might have had of the place. For the information of those who may follow us on this service it may not however be amiss to state the little that will be found of use to them. The markets afford fresh meat though it is neither plentiful nor good. Fish is scarce but poultry may be procured in almost any quantity at as cheap a rate as in the English seaports. Vegetables do not abound except pumpkins and onions of which I advise all ships to lay in a large stock. Milk-goats are bought for a trifle and easily procured. Grapes cannot be scarce in their season but when we were there except figs and excellent mulberries no fruit was to be procured. Dry wines, as the merchants term them, are sold from ten to fifteen pounds of pipe, for the latter price the very best called the London particular may be bought. Sweet wines are considerably dearer. Brandy is also a cheap article. I would not advise the voyager to depend on this place for either his hogs or sheep and he will do well to supply himself with dollars before he quits England to expend in the different ports he may happen to touch at. Should he however have neglected this precaution let him remember when he discounts bills or exchanges English money here not to receive his returns in quarter dollars which will be tender to him but altogether in whole ones as he will find the latter turned a better account than the former both at Rio de Janeiro and the Cape of Good Hope. The latitude of the town of Santa Cruz is twenty-eight degrees, twenty-seven and a half minutes north, the longitude is sixteen degrees, seventeen and a half minutes west of Greenwich. End of Chapter 3 End of Section 1 Section 2 of A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay by Watkins Tenge This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 4 The Passage from Tenerife to Rio de Janeiro in the Brazils In sailing from Tenerife to the south-east the various and picturesque appearances of the peak are beautiful to the highest degree. The stupendous height which before was lost on the traveller now strikes him with awe and admiration, the whole island appearing one vast mountain with a pyramidal top. As we proceeded with light winds at an easy rate we saw it distinctly for three days after our departure and should have continued to see it longer had not the haziness of the atmosphere interrupted our view. The good people of Santa Cruz tell some stories of the wonderful extent of space to be seen from the summit of it that would not disgrace the memoirs of the ever-memorable Baron Montchausen. On the eighteenth of June we saw the most northerly of the Cape de Verde Islands at which time the Commodore gave the fleet to understand by signal that his intention was to touch at some of them. The following day we made Santiago and stood in to gain an anchorage in Port Prayer Bay. But the baffling winds and lee current rendering it a matter of doubt whether or not the ships would be able to fetch, the signal for anchoring was hauled down and the fleet bore up before the wind. In passing along them we were unable to ascertain the south end of the Isle of Sal to be in sixteen degrees forty minutes north latitude and twenty-three degrees five minutes west longitude. The south end of Bonavista to be in fifteen degrees fifty-seven minutes north twenty-three degrees eight minutes west. The south end of the Isle of May in fifteen degrees eleven minutes north twenty-three degrees twenty-six minutes west and the longitude of the fort in the town of Port Prayer to be twenty-three degrees thirty-six and a half minutes west of Greenwich. By this time the weather from the sun being so far advanced in the northern tropic was become intolerably hot, which joined to the heavy rains that soon after came on made us very apprehensive for the health of the fleet. Contrary, however, to expectation the number of sick in the ship I was embarked on was surprisingly small and the rest of the fleet were nearly as healthy. Frequent explosions of gunpowder, lighting fires between decks, and a liberal use of that admirable antiseptic oil of tar with the preventatives we made use of against impure air, and above all things we were careful to keep the men's bedding and wearing apparel dry. As we advanced towards the line the weather grew gradually better and more pleasant. On the fourteenth of July we passed the equator, at which time the atmosphere was as serene and the temperature of the air not hotter than on a bright summer day in England. From this period until our arrival on the American coast the heats, the calms, and the rains by which we had been so much incommodered were succeeded by a series of weather as delightful as it was unlocked for. At three o'clock in the afternoon of the second of August the supply, which had been previously sent ahead on purpose, made the signal for seeing the land, which was visible to the whole fleet before sunset, and proved to be Cape Freo in latitude twenty-three degrees five minutes south, in latitude forty-one degrees forty and a quarter minutes west. Owing to light airs we did not get abreast of the city of Saint Sebastian in the harbour of Rio de Janeiro until the seventh of the month when we anchored about three-quarters of a mile from the shore. End of Chapter Four Chapter Five From the arrival of the fleet at Rio de Janeiro until its departure for the Cape of Good Hope with some remarks on the Brazils. Brazil is a country very imperfectly known in Europe. The Portuguese, from political motives, have been sparing in their accounts of it. Whence our descriptions of it in the geographical publications in England are drawn I know not, that they are miserably erroneous and effective is certain. The city of Saint Sebastian stands on the west side of the harbour in a low unhealthy situation surrounded on all sides by hills which stop the free circulation of air and subject its inhabitants to intermittent and putrid diseases. It is of considerable extent. Mr Cook makes it as large as Liverpool, but Liverpool in 1767 when Mr Cook wrote was not two-thirds of its present size. Perhaps it equals Chester or Exeter in the share of ground it occupies and is infinitely more populous than either of them. The streets intersect each other at right angles, are tolerably well built and excellently paved, abounding with shops of every kind in which the wants of a stranger, if money is not one of them, can hardly remain unsatisfied. About the centre of the city and at a little distance from the beach the palace of the Viceroy stands, a long low building, no wise remarkable in its exterior appearance, though within are some spacious and handsome apartments. The churches and convents are numerous and richly decorated, hardly a night passes without some of the latter being illuminated in honour of their patron saints which had a very brilliant effect when viewed from the water and was at first mistaken by us for public rejoicings. At the corner of almost every street stands a little image of the Virgin stuck around with lights in an evening before which passengers frequently stop to pray and sing very loudly. Indeed the height to which religious zeal is carried in this place cannot fail of creating astonishment in a stranger. The greatest part of the inhabitants seem to have no other occupation than that of paying visits and going to church, at which times you see them sally forth richly dressed, en chapeau bras, with the appendages of a bag for the hair and a small sword, even boys of six years old are seen parading about furnished with these indispensable requisites. Except when at their devotions it is not easy to get a sight of the women, and when obtained the comparisons drawn by a traveller, lately arrived from England, are little flattering to Portuguese beauty. In justice, however, to the ladies of Saint Sebastian, I must observe that the custom of throwing nose-gaze at strangers for the purpose of bringing on an assignation which Dr. Solander and another gentleman of Mr. Cook's ship met with when here was never seen by any of us in a single instance. We were so deplorably unfortunate as to walk every evening before their windows and balconies without being honoured with a single bouquet, though nymphs and flowers were in equal and great abundance. Among other public buildings I had almost forgot to mention an observatory which stands near the middle of the town and is tolerably well furnished with astronomical instruments. During our stay here some Spanish and Portuguese mathematicians were endeavouring to determine the boundaries of the territories belonging to their respective crowns. Unhappily, however, for the cause of science these gentlemen have not hitherto been able to coincide in their accounts so that very little information on this head to be depended upon could be gained. How far political motives may have caused this disagreement I do not presume to decide, though it deserves notice that the Portuguese accused the Abbe de la Cay who observed here by order of the King of France of having laid down the longitude of this place forty-five miles too much to the eastward. Until the year 1770 all the flour in the settlement was brought from Europe, but since that time the inhabitants have made so rapid a progress in raising grain as to be able to supply themselves with it abundantly. The principal corn country lies around Rio Grande in the latitude of thirty-two degrees south where wheat flourishes so luxurantly as to yield from seventy to eighty bushels for one. Coffee also which they formerly received from Portugal now grows in such plenteous to enable them to export considerable quantities of it, but the staple commodity of the country is sugar. That they have not, however, learnt the art of making palatable rum the English troops in New South Wales can bear testimony, a large quantity, very ill-flavoured, having been bought and shipped here for the use of the garrison of Port Jackson. It was in 1771 that Saint Salvador, which had for more than a century been the capital of Brazil, ceased to be so, and that the seat of government was removed to Saint Sebastian. The change took place on account of the colonial war at that time carried on by the courts of Lisbon and Madrid, and indeed were the object of security alone to determine the seat of government I know but few places better situated in that respect than the one I'm describing. The natural strength of the country joined to the difficulties which would attend an attack on the fortifications, being such as to render it very formidable. It may be presumed that the Portuguese government is well apprised of this circumstance and of the little risk they run in being deprived of so important a possession, else it will not be easy to penetrate the reasons which induce them to treat the troops who compose the garrison with such cruel negligence. Their regiments were ordered out with the promise of being relieved and sent back to Europe at the end of three years, in conformity to which they settled all their domestic arrangements. But the faith of government has been broken, and at the expiration of twenty years all that is left to the remnant of these unfortunate men is to suffer in submissive silence. I was one evening walking with the Portuguese officer when this subject was started, and on my telling him that such a breach of public honour to English troops would become a subject of parliamentary inquiry he seized my hand with great eagerness. Ah, sir! exclaimed he, yours is a free country, woohy! his emotion spoke what his tongue refused. As I am mentioning the army I cannot help observing that I saw nothing here to confirm the remark of Mr. Cook that the inhabitants of the place whenever they meet an officer of the garrison bow to him with the greatest obsequiousness, and by omitting such a ceremony would subject themselves to be knocked down, though the other seldom deigns to return the compliment. The interchange of civilities is general between them, and seems by no means extorted. The people who could submit to such insolence superiority would indeed deserve to be treated as slaves. The police of the city is very good. Soldiers patrol the streets frequently, and riots are seldom heard of. The dreadful custom of stabbing from motives of private resentment is nearly at an end since the church has ceased to afford an asylum to murderers. In other respects the progress of improvement appears slow and fettered by obstacles almost insurmountable whose baneful influence will continue until a more enlightened system of policy shall be adopted. From morning to night the ears of a stranger are greeted by the tinkling of the convent bells, and his eyes saluted by processions of devotees whose adoration and levity seem to keep equal pace and succeed each other in turns. Do you want to make your son sick of soldiering? Show him the train-bands of London on a field day. Let him who would wish to give his son a distaste to popery point out to him the sloths, the ignorance, and the bigotry of this place. Being nearly ready to depart by the first of September, as many officers as possible went on that day to the palace to take leave of his excellency the viceroy of the Brazils, to whom we had been previously introduced. Who on this and every other occasion was pleased to honour us with the most distinguished marks of regard and attention. Some part, indeed, of the numerous indulgencies we experienced during our stay here must startles be attributed to the high respect in which the Portuguese hold Governor Philip, who was for many years a captain in their navy, and commanded a ship of war in this station, in consequence of which many privileges were extended to us very unusual to be granted to strangers. We were allowed the liberty of making short excursions into the country, and on these occasions, as well as when walking in the city, the mortifying custom of having an officer of the garrison attending us was dispensed with on our leaving our names and ranks at the time of landing with the adjutant of orders at the palace. It happened, however, sometimes that the presence of a military man was necessary to prevent imposition in the shopkeepers, who frequently made a practice of asking more for their goods than the worth of them, in which case an officer, when applied to, always told us the usual price of the commodity with the greatest readiness, and adjusted the terms of the purchase. On the morning of the fourth of September we left Rio de Janeiro, amply furnished with the good things which its happy soil and climb so abundantly produce. The future voyager, made with security, depend on this place for laying in many parts of his stock. Among these may be enumerated sugar, coffee, rum, port wine, rice, tapioca and tobacco, besides very beautiful wood for the purposes of household furniture. Poultry is not remarkably cheap, but may be procured in any quantity, as may hops at a low rate. The markets are well supplied with butchers' meat and vegetables of every sort are to be procured at a price next to nothing. The yams are particularly excellent. Oranges abound so much as to be sold for sixpence a hundred, and limes are to be had on terms equally moderate. Bananas, coconuts and guavas are common, but the few pineapples brought to market are not remarkable either for flavor or cheapness. Besides the inducements to lay out money already mentioned, the naturalist may add to his collection by an almost endless variety of beautiful birds and curious insects which are to be bought at a reasonable price, well preserved and neatly assorted. I shall close my account of this place by informing strangers who may come here that the Portuguese reckon their money in reese, an imaginary coin, twenty of which make a small copper piece called a vintin, and sixteen of these last a pettic. Every piece is marked with the number of reese it is worth so that a mistake can hardly happen. English silver coin has lost its reputation here, and dollars will be found preferable to any other money. CHAPTER VI The passage from the Brazils to the Cape of Good Hope with an account of the transactions of the fleet there. Our passage from Rio de Janeiro to the Cape of Good Hope was equally prosperous with that which had preceded it. We steered away to the south-eastern lost site of the American coast the day after our departure. From this time until the thirteenth of October when we made the Cape nothing remarkable occurred except the loss of a convict in the ship I was on board, who unfortunately fell into the sea and perished in spite of our efforts to save him by cutting adrift a life-boy and hoisting out a boat. During the passage a slight dysentery prevailed in some of the ships, but was in no instance mortal. We were at first inclined to impute it to the water we took on board at the Brazils, but as the effect was very partial some other cause was more probably the occasion of it. At seven o'clock in the evening of the thirteenth of October we cast anchor in Table Bay and found many ships of different nations in the harbour. Little can be added to the many accounts already published of the Cape of Good Hope, though if an opinion on the subject might be risked, the descriptions they contain are too flattering. When contrasted with Rio de Janeiro it certainly suffers in the comparison. Indeed we arrived at a time equally unfavourable for judging of the produce of the soil and the temper of its cultivators, who had suffered considerably from a dearth that had happened the preceding season and created a general scarcity. Nor was the chagrin of these deprivations lessened by the news daily arriving of the convulsions that shook the Republic, which could not fail to make an impression even on Batavian Flem. As a considerable quantity of flour and the principal part of the livestock which was to store our intended settlement were meant to be procured here, Governor Philip lost no time in waiting on mine here van Graaf the Dutch Governor to request permission, according to the custom of the place, to purchase all that we stood in need of. How far the demand extended I know not, nor mine here van Graaf's reasons for complying with it in part only. To this gentleman's political sentiments I confess myself a stranger, though I should do his politeness and liberality at his own table in injustice, where I not to take this public opportunity of acknowledging them. Nor can I resist the opportunity which presents itself to inform my readers, in honour of mine here van Graaf's humanity, that he has made repeated efforts to recover the unfortunate remains of the crew of the Grovener Indiumen, which was wrecked about five years ago on the coast of Coffraria. This information was given me by Colonel Gordon, commandant of the Dutch troops at the Cape, whose knowledge of the interior parts of this country surpasses that of any other man. And I am sorry to say that, the Colonel added, these unhappy people were irrecoverably lost to the world and their friends by being detained among the coffers the most savage set of brutes on earth. His Excellency resides at the Government House in the East India Company's Garden. This last is of considerable extent and is planted chiefly with vegetables for the Dutch Indiumen, who may happen to touch at the port. Some of the walks are extremely pleasant from the shade they afford, and the whole garden is very neatly kept. The regular lines intersecting each other at right angles in which it is laid out will nevertheless afford but little gratification to an Englishman who has been used to contemplate the natural style which distinguishes the pleasure grounds of his own country. At the head of the centre-walk stands a menagerie, on which, as well as the garden, many pompous eulogiums have been passed, though in my own judgment, considering the local advantages possessed by the company, it is poorly furnished both with animals and birds. A tiger, a zebra, some fine ostriches, a cassowary, and a lovely crown-fowl are among the most remarkable. The table-land, which stands at the back of the town, is a black dreary-looking mountain, apparently flat at top, and of more than eleven hundred yards in height. The gusts of wind which blow from it are violent to an excess, and have a very unpleasant effect by raising the dust in such clouds as to render stirring out of doors next to impossible, nor can any precaution prevent the inhabitants from being annoyed by it as much within doors as without. At length the wished-for day on which the next effort for reaching the place of our destination was to be made appeared. The morning was calm, but the land wind getting up about noon on the twelfth of November, we weighed anchor and soon left far behind every scene of civilisation and humanised manners to explore a remote and barbarous land, and plant in it those happy arts which alone constitute the pre-eminence and dignity of other countries. The live animals we took on board on the public account from the Cape for stocking our projected colony were two bulls, three cows, three horses, forty-four sheep, and thirty-two hogs, besides goats and a very large quantity of poultry of every kind. A considerable addition to this was made by the private stocks of the officers, who were, however, under a necessity of circumscribing their original intentions on this head very much from the excessive dearness of many of the articles. It will readily be believed that few of the military found it convenient to purchase sheep when hay to feed them cost sixteen shillings a hundred weight. The boarding-houses on shore to which strangers have recourse are more reasonable than might be expected. For a dollar-and-a-half per day we were well lodged and partook of a table tolerably supplied in the French style. Should a traveller's stock of tea run short it is a thousand chances to one that he will be able to replenish it here at a cheaper rate than in England. He may procure plenty of arick and white wine, also raisins and dried fruits of other sorts. If he dislikes to live at a boarding-house he will find the markets well stored and the price of butchers, meat, and vegetables far from excessive. Just before the signal for weighing was made a ship under American colours entered the road bound from Boston from whence she had sailed one hundred and forty days on a trading voyage to the East Indies. In her route she had been lucky enough to pick up several of the inferior officers and crew of the Harcourt East Indiemen which ship had been wrecked on one of the Cape de Verde Islands. The master, who appeared to be a man of some information, on being told the destination of our fleet gave it as his opinion that if a reception could be secured emigrations would take place to New South Wales not only from the old continent but the new one where the spirit of adventure and thirst for novelty were excessive. End of Chapter 6 End of Section 2 Section 3 of a narrative of the expedition to Botany Bay by Watkins Tenge. This Libravox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 7 The Passage from the Cape of Good Hope to Botany Bay We had hardly cleared the land when a south-east wind set in, and except at short intervals continued to blow until the nineteenth of the month when we were in the latitude of thirty-seven degrees forty minutes south and by the timekeeper in longitude eleven degrees thirty minutes east so that our distance from Botany Bay had increased nearly a hundred leagues since leaving the Cape. As no appearance of a change in our favour seemed likely to take place Governor Philip at this time signified his intention of shifting his pen and from the Sirius to the supply and proceeding on his voyage without waiting for the rest of the fleet which was formed in two divisions. The first, consisting of three transports known to be the best sailors, was put under the command of a lieutenant of the navy and the remaining three with the vittalers left in charge of Captain Hunter of his majesty's ship Sirius. In the last division was the vessel in which the author of this narrative served. Various causes prevented the separation from taking place until the twenty-fifths when several sawyers, carpenters, blacksmiths, and other mechanics were shifted from different ships into the supply in order to facilitate his excellency's intention of forwarding the necessary buildings to be erected at Botany Bay by the time the rest of the fleet might be expected to arrive. Lieutenant Governor Ross and the staff of the Marine Battalion also removed from the Sirius into the Scarborough Transport, one of the ships of the First Division, in order to afford every assistance which the public service might receive by their being early on the spot on which our future operations were to be conducted. From this time a succession of fair winds and pleasant weather corresponded to our eager desires, and on the seventh of January, 1788, the long wished foreshore of Van Diemen gratified our sight. We made the land at two o'clock in the afternoon, the very hour we expected to see it from the lunar observations of Captain Hunter, whose accuracy as an astronomer and conduct as an officer had inspired us with equal gratitude and admiration. After so long a confinement on a service so peculiarly disgusting and troublesome, it cannot be matter of surprise that we were overjoyed at the near prospect of a change of scene. By sunset we had passed between the rocks which Captain Furno named the Mu Stone and Swilly. The former bears a very close resemblance to the little island near Plymouth whence it took its name. Its latitude is forty-three degrees forty-eight minutes south, longer to one hundred and forty-six degrees twenty-five minutes east of Greenwich. In running along shore we cast many an anxious eye toward the land on which so much of our future destiny depended. Our distance, joined to the haziness of the atmosphere, prevented us, however, from being able to discover much. With our best glasses we could see nothing but hills of a moderate height, clothes with trees, to which some little patches of white sandstone gave the appearance of being covered with snow. Many fires were observed on the hills in the evening. As no person in the ship I was on board had been on this coast before, we consulted a little chart, published by Steel of the Mineries London, and found it, in general, very correct. It would be more so were not the Mu Stone laid down at too great a distance from the land, and one object made of the Eddy Stone and Swilly, when in fact they are distinct. Between the two last is an entire bed of impassable rocks many of them above water. The latitude of the Eddy Stone is forty-three degrees fifty-three and a half minutes, longitude a hundred and forty-seven degrees nine minutes, that of Swilly forty-three degrees fifty-four minutes south, longeritude a hundred and forty-seven degrees three minutes east of Greenwich. In the night the westerly wind which had so long befriended us died away and was succeeded by one from the north-east. When day appeared we had lost sight of the land and did not regain it until the nineteenth at only the distance of seventeen leagues from our desired port. The wind was now fair, the sky serene, though a little hazy, and the temperature of the air delightfully pleasant. Joy sparkled in every countenance and congratulations issued from every mouth. Ithaca itself was scarcely more longed for by Ulysses than Botany Bay by the adventurers who had traversed so many thousand miles to take possession of it. Heavily in clouds came on the day which ushered in our arrival. To us it was a—a great and important day, though I hope the foundation, not the fall of an empire, will be dated from it. On the morning of the twentieth by ten o'clock the whole of the fleet had cast anchor in Botany Bay, where to our mutual satisfaction we found the governor and the first division of transports. On enquiry we heard that the supply had arrived on the eighteenth and the transports only the preceding day. Thus after a passage of exactly thirty-six weeks from Portsmouth we happily effected our arduous undertaking with such a train of unexampled blessings as hardly ever attended a fleet in a like predicament. Of two hundred and twelve marines we lost only one, and of seven hundred and seventy-five convicts put on board in England, but twenty-four perished in our route. To what cause are we to attribute this unhopeful success? I wish I could answer to the liberal manner in which governments supplied the expedition, but when the reader is told that some of the necessary articles allowed to ships on a common passage to the West Indies were withheld from us, that portable soup, wheat, and pickled vegetables were not allowed, and that an inadequate quantity of essence of malt was the only anti-scorbutics applied, his surprise will redouble at the result of the voyage. For it must be remembered that the people thus sent out were not a ship's company, starting with every advantage of health and good living, which a state of freedom produces, but the major part a miserable set of convicts emaciated from confinement and in want of clothes and almost every convenience to render so long a passage tolerable. I beg leave, however, to say that the provisions served on board were good, and of a much superior quality to those usually supplied by contract, they were furnished by Mr. Richard's junior of Walworth's Surrey. End of CHAPTER VII CHAPTER VIII. From the Fleet's arrival at Botany Bay to the evacuation of it, and taking possession of Port Jackson, interviews with the natives in an account of the country about Botany Bay. We had scarcely bid each other welcome on our arrival when an expedition up the bay was undertaken by the governor and lieutenant governor in order to explore the nature of the country and fix on a spot to begin our operations upon. None, however, which could be deemed very eligible being discovered, his excellency proceeded in a boat to examine the opening to which Mr. Cook had given the name Port Jackson on an idea that a shelter for shipping within it might be found. The boat returned on the evening of the twenty-third with such an account of the harbor and advantages attending the place that it was determined the evacuation of Botany Bay should commence the next morning. In consequence of this decision the few seamen and marines who had been landed from the squadron were instantly re-embarked and every preparation made to bid adieu to a port which had so long been the subject of our conversation, which but three days before we had entered with so many sentiments of satisfaction and in which as we had believed so many of our future hours were to be passed. The thoughts of removal banished sleep so that I rose at the first dawn of the morning. But judge of my surprise on hearing from a sergeant who ran down almost breathless to the cabin where I was dressing, that his ship was seen off the harbor's mouth. At first I only laughed, but knowing the man who spoke to me to be of great veracity and hearing him repeat his information I flew upon deck on which I had barely set my foot when the cry of another sail struck on my astonished ear. Confounded by a thousand ideas which arose in my mind in an instant I sprang upon the barricado and plainly described two ships of considerable size standing in for the mouth of the bay. By this time the alarm had become general and everyone appeared lost in conjecture. Now they were Dutchmen sent to dispossessus and the moment after store ships from England with supplies for the settlement. The improbabilities which attended both these conclusions were sunk in the agitation of the moment. It was by Governor Philip that this mystery was at length unraveled and the cause of the alarm pronounced to be two French ships which it was now recollected were on a voyage of discovery in the southern hemisphere. Thus were our doubts cleared up and our apprehensions banished. It was, however, judged expedient to postpone our removal to Port Jackson until a complete confirmation of our conjectures could be produced. Had the sea breeze set in the strain ships would have been at anchor in the bay by eight o'clock in the morning, but the wind blowing out they were driven by a strong lee current to the southward of the port. On the following day they reappeared in their former situation and a boat was sent to them with the lieutenant of the navy in her to offer assistance and point out the necessary marks for entering the harbour. In the course of the day the officer returned and brought intelligence that the ships with the Bussol and Astrolab sent out by order of the King of France and under the command of Monsieur de Peruse. The astonishment of the French at seeing us had not equaled that we had experienced, for it appeared that in the course of their voyage they had touched at Camps Chutka and by that means learnt that our expedition was in contemplation. They dropped anchor the next morning just as we had got underway to work out of the bay so that for the present nothing more than salutations could pass between us. Before I quit Botany Bay I shall relate the observations we were enabled to make during our short stay there as well as those which our subsequent visits to it from Port Jackson enabled us to complete. The bay is very open and greatly exposed to the fury of the southeast winds, which when they blow cause a heavy and dangerous swell. It is of prodigious extent the principal arm which takes a southwest direction being not less including its windings than twenty-four miles from the capes which form the entrance according to the report of the French officers who took uncommon pains to survey it. At the distance of a league from the harbour's mouth is a bar on which had low water not more than fifteen feeter to be found. Within this bar for many miles up the southwest arm is a haven equal in every respect to any hitherto known and in which any number of ships might anchor secured from all winds. The country around far exceeds in richness of soil that about Cape Banks and Point Solander though unfortunately they resemble each other in one respect, a scarcity of fresh water. We found the natives tolerably numerous as we advanced up the river and even at the harbour's mouth we had reason to conclude the country more populace than Mr Cook thought it. For on the supplies arrival in the bay on the eighteenth of the month they were assembled on the beach of the south shore to the number of not less than forty persons shouting and making many uncouth signs and gestures. This appearance wetted curiosity to its utmost but as prudence forbade a few people to venture wantonly among so great a number and a party of only six men was observed on the north shore the governor immediately proceeded to land on that side in order to take possession of his new territory and bring about an intercourse between its old and new masters. The boat in which his excellency was rode up the harbour close to the land for some distance the Indians keeping pace with her on the beach. At last an officer in the boat made signs of a want of water which it was judged was indicate his wish of landing. The natives directly comprehended what he wanted and pointed to a spot where water could be procured on which the boat was immediately pushed in and the landing took place. As on the event of this meeting might depend so much of our future tranquility every delicacy on our side was requisite. The Indians, though timorous, showed no signs of resentment at the governor's going on shore, an interview commenced in which the conduct of both parties pleased each other so much that the strangers returned to their ships with a much better opinion of the natives than they had landed with, and the latter seemed highly entertained with their new acquaintance from whom they condescended to accept of a looking glass some beads and other toys. Owing to the lateness of our arrival it was not my good fortune to go on shore until three days after this had happened when I went with a party to the south side of the harbour and had scarcely landed five minutes when we were met by a dozen Indians, naked as at the moment of their birth walking along the beach. Eager to come to a conference and yet afraid of giving offence we advanced with caution towards them, nor would they at first approach nearer to us than the distance of some paces. Both parties were armed, yet an attack seemed as unlikely on their part as we knew it to be on our own. I had at this time a little boy of not more than seven years of age in my hand. The child seemed to attract their attention very much, for they frequently pointed to him and spoke to each other, and as he was not frightened I advanced with him towards them at the same time bearing his bosom and showing the whiteness of the skin. On the clothes being removed they gave a loud exclamation, and one of the party, an old man with a long beard, hideously ugly, came close to us. I bad my little charge not to be afraid, and introduced him to the acquaintance of this uncouth personage. The Indian, with great gentleness, laid his hand on the child's hat, and afterwards felt his clothes muttering to himself all the while. I found it necessary, however, by this time to send away the child as such a close connection rather alarmed him, and in this, as the conclusion verified, I gave no offence to the old gentleman. Indeed it was but putting ourselves on a par with them, as I had observed from the first that some youths of their own, though considerably older than the one with us, were kept back by the grown people. Several more now came up to whom we made various presents, but our toys seemed not to be regarded as very valuable, nor would they for a long time make any returns to them, though before we parted a large club with a head almost sufficient to fell an ox was obtained in exchange for a looking-glass. These people seemed at a loss to know, probably from our want of beards of what sex we were, which having understood they burst into the most immoderate fits of laughter talking to each other at the same time with such rapidity and vocivation as I had never before heard. After nearly an hour's conversation by signs and gestures they repeated several times the word whore, which signifies begone, and walked away from us to the head of the bay. The natives being departed we set out to observe the country, which on inspection rather disappointed our hopes being invariably sandy and unpromising for the purposes of cultivation, though the trees and grass flourish in great luxuriancy. Close to us was the spring at which Mr Cook watered, but we did not think the water very excellent, nor did it run freely. In the evening we returned on board, not greatly pleased with the latter part of our discoveries, as it indicated an increase of those difficulties which before seemed sufficiently numerous. Between this and our departure we had several more interviews with the natives, which ended in so friendly a manner that we began to entertain strong hopes of bringing about a connection with them. Our first object was to win their affections and our next to convince them of the superiority we possessed, for without the latter the former we knew would be of little importance. An officer one day prevailed upon one of them to place a target made of bark against a tree which he fired at with a pistol at the distance of some paces. The Indians, though terrified at the report, did not run away, but their astonishment exceeded their alarm on looking at the shield which the ball had perforated. As this produced a little shyness the officer to dissipate their fears and remove their jealousy whistled the air of Malbrook which they appeared highly charmed with and imitated him with equal pleasure and readiness. I cannot help remarking here what I was afterwards told by Monsieur de Peruse that the natives of California and throughout all the islands of the Pacific Ocean and in short wherever he had been seemed equally touched and delighted with this little plaintive air. Chapter 9 The Taking Possession of Port Jackson with the Disembarkation of the Marines and Convicts Our passage to Port Jackson took up but few hours and those were spent far from unpleasantly. The evening was bright and the prospect before us such as might justify sanguine expectation. Having passed between the capes which form its entrance we found ourselves in a port superior in extent an excellency to all we had seen before. We continued to run up the harbour about four miles in a westerly direction enjoying the luxuriant prospect of its shores covered with trees to the water's edge, among which many of the Indians were frequently seen until we arrived at a small snug cove on the southern side on whose banks the plan of our operations was destined to commence. The landing of a part of the Marines and Convicts took place the next day and on the following the remainder was disembarked. Business now sat on every brow and the scene to an indifferent spectator at leisure to contemplate it would have been highly picturesque and amusing. In one place a party cutting down the woods, a second setting up a blacksmith's forge, a third dragging along a load of stones or provisions. Here an officer pitching his marquee with a detachment of troops parading on one side of him and a cook's fire blazing up on the other. Through the unweary diligence of those at the head of the different departments regularity was however soon introduced and as far as the unsettled state of matters would allow confusion gave place to system. Into the head of the cove on which our establishment is fixed runs a small stream of fresh water which serves to divide the adjacent country to a little distance in the direction of north and south. On the eastern side of this rivulet the Governor fixed his place of residence with a large body of convicts encamped near him and on the western side was disposed the remaining part of these people near the Marine encampment. From this last two guards consisting of two suppletons as many sergeants, four corporals, two drummers and forty-two private men under the orders of a captain of the day to whom all reports were made. Daily mounted for the public security with such directions to use force in case of necessity as left no room for those who were the object of the order but to remain peaceable or perished by the bayonet. As the struggling of the convicts was not only a desertion from the public labour but might be attended with ill consequences to the settlement in case of their meeting the natives every care was taken to prevent it. The provost marshal with his men was ordered to patrol the country around and the convicts informed that the severest punishment would be inflicted on transgressors. In spite, however, of all our precautions they soon found the road to Botany Bay in visit to the French who would gladly have dispensed with their company. But as severity alone was known to be inadequate at once to chastise and reform no opportunity was omitted to assure the convicts that by their good behaviour and submissive deportment every claim to present distinction and future favour was to be earned. That this caution was not attended with all the good effects which were hoped from it I have only to lament that it operated in some cases as indisputable nor will a candid and humane mind fail to consider and allow for the situation these unfortunate beings so peculiarly stood in. While they were on board ship the two sexes had been kept most rigorously apart but when landed their separation became impracticable and would have been perhaps wrong. Licentiousness was the unavoidable consequence and their old habits of depravity were beginning to recur. What was to be attempted? To prevent their intercourse was impossible and to palliate its evils only remained. Marriage was recommended and such advantages held out to those who aimed at reformation as have greatly contributed to the tranquility of the settlement. On the Sunday after our landing divine service was performed under a great tree by the Reverend Mr. Johnson Chaplain of the settlement in the presence of the troops and convicts whose behaviour on the occasion was equally regular and attentive. In the course of our passage this had been repeated every Sunday while the ships were in port and in addition to it Mr. Johnson had furnished them with books at once tending to promote instruction and piety. The Indians for a little while after our arrival paid as frequent visits but in a few days they were observed to be more shy of our company. From what cause their distaste arose we could never trace as we had made it our study on these occasions to treat them with kindness and load them with presence. No quarrel had happened and we had flattered ourselves from Governor Philip's first reception among them that such a connection might be established as would tend to the interest of both parties. It seems that on that occasion they not only received our people with great cordiality but so far acknowledged their authority as to submit that a boundary during their first interview might be drawn on the sand which they attempted not to infringe and appeared to be satisfied with. End of Chapter 9 Chapter 10 The reading of the commissions and taking possession of the settlement in form with an account of the courts of law and mode of administering public justice in this country. Owing to the multiplicity of pressing business necessary to be performed immediately after landing it was found impossible to read the public commissions and take possession of the colony in form until the 7th of February. On that day all the offices of God took post in the marine battalion which was drawn up and marched off the parade with music playing and colours flying to an adjoining ground which had been cleared for the occasion, whereon the convicts were assembled to hear His Majesty's commission read appointing His Excellency Arthur Philip Asquire, Governor and Captain-General in and over the territory of New South Wales and its dependencies, together with the act of Parliament for establishing trials by law within the same and the Patents under the Great Seal of Great Britain for holding the civil and criminal courts of due dickature by which all cases of life and death as well as matters of property were to be decided. When the judge-advocate had finished reading His Excellency addressed himself to the convicts in appointed and judicious speech informing them of his future intentions which were invariably to cherish and render happy those who showed a disposition to amendment and to let the rigor of the law take its course against such as might dare to transgress the bounds prescribed. At the close three volleys were fired in honour of the occasion and the battalion marched back to their parade where they were reviewed by the Governor who was received with all the honours due to his rank. His Excellency was afterwards pleased to thank them in public orders for their behaviour from the time of their embarkation and to ask the officers to partake of a cold collation at which it is scarce necessary to observe that many loyal and public toasts were drunk in commemoration of the day. In the Governor's commission the extent of this authority is defined to reach from the latitude of forty-three degrees forty-nine minutes south to the latitude of ten degrees thirty-seven minutes south being the northern and southern extremities of the continent of New Holland. It commences again at a hundred and thirty-fifth degree of longitude east of Greenwich and proceeding in an easterly direction includes all islands within the limits of the above specified latitudes in the Pacific Ocean. By this partition it may be fairly presumed that every source of future litigation between the Dutch and us will be forever cut off as the discoveries of English navigators alone are comprised in this territory. Nor have Government been more backward in arming Mr. Philip with plenitude of power than extent of dominion. No mention is made of a council to be appointed so that he is left to act entirely from his own judgment, and as no stated time of assembling the courts of justice is pointed out, similar to the assizes and jail deliveries of England, the duration of imprisonment is altogether in his hands. The power of summoning general court's marshal to meet he is also invested with, but the insertion in the Marine Mutiny Act of a smaller number of officers than thirteen being able to compose such a tribunal has been neglected, so that a military court should detachments be made from headquarters or sickness prevail may not always be found practicable to be obtained unless the number of officers at present in the settlement should be increased. Should the Governor seek cause he is unable to grant pardons to offenders convicted, in all cases whatever treason and willful murder accepted, and even in these has authority to stay the execution of the law until the King's pleasure shall be signified. In case of the Governor's death the Lieutenant Governor takes his place, and on his demise the senior officer on the spot is authorized to assume the reins of power. Notwithstanding the promises made on one side and the forbearance shown on the other joined to the impending rod of justice, it was with infinite regret that everyone saw in four days afterwards the necessity of assembling a criminal court which was accordingly convened by warrant from the Governor and consisted of the judge advocate who presided three naval and three marine officers. As the constitution of this court is altogether new in the British Unnels, I hope my reader will not think me prolix in the description I am about to give of it. The number of members, including the judge advocate, is limited by act of parliament to seven, who are expressly ordered to be officers, either if his majesty see or land forces. The court being met, completely arrayed and armed as at a military tribunal, the judge advocate proceeds to administer the usual oaths taken by German in England to each member, one of whom afterwards swears him in a like manner. This ceremony being adjusted the crime laid to the prisoner's charge is read to him and the question of guilty or not guilty put. No law officer on the side of the crown being appointed, for I presume the head of the court ought hardly to consider himself in that light, notwithstanding the title he bears, to prosecute the criminal is left entirely to the party at whose suit he has tried. All the witnesses are examined on oath and the decision is directed to be given according to the laws of England, or as nearly as may be allowing for the circumstances and situation of the settlement, by a majority of votes beginning with the youngest member and ending with the president of the court. In cases, however, of a capital nature, no verdict can be given unless five at least of the seven members present concur therein. The evidence on both sides being finished and the prisoner's defence heard, the court is cleared, and on the judgment being settled is thrown open again and sentence pronounced. During the time the court sits, the place in which it is assembled is directed to be surrounded by a guard under arms, and admission to every one who may choose to enter it, granted. Of late, however, our colonists are supposed to be in such a train of subordination as to make the presence of so large a military force unnecessary and two sentinels in addition to the provost marshal are considered as sufficient. It would be as needless as impertinent to anticipate the reflections which will arise in reading the above account wherein a regard to accuracy only has been consulted. By comparing it with the mode of administering justice in the English courts of law it will be found to differ in many points very essentially, and if we turn our eyes to the usage of military tribunals it no less departs from the customs observed in them. Let not the novelty of it, however, prejudice any one so far as to dispute its efficacy and the necessity of the case which gave it birth. The court whose meeting is already spoken of proceeded to the trial of three convicts, one of whom was convicted of having struck a marine with the Cooper's ads, and otherwise behaving in a very riotous and scandalous manner for which he was sentenced to receive one hundred and fifty lashes, being a smaller punishment than a soldier in a like case would have suffered from the judgment of a court marshal. A second, for having committed a petty theft, was sent to a small barren island and kept there on bread and water only for a week, and the third was sentenced to receive fifty lashes but was recommended by the court to the governor and forgiven. Hitherto, however, February, nothing of a very atrocious nature had appeared, but the day was at hand on which the violation of public security could no longer be restrained by the infliction of temporary punishment. A set of desperate and hardened villains leaked themselves for the purposes of depredation, and, as it generally happens, had art enough to persuade some others less deeply versed in iniquity to be the instruments for carrying it on. Fortunately the progress of these miscreants was not of long duration, they were detected in stealing a large quantity of provisions at the time of issuing them, and on being apprehended one of the tools of the superiors impeached the rest and disclosed the scheme. The trial came on the twenty-eighth of the month, and of four who were arraigned for the offence, three were condemned to die, and the fourth to receive a very severe corporal punishment. In hopes that his lenity would not be abused, his excellency was, however, pleased to order one only for execution, which took place a little before sunset the same day. The name of the unhappy wretch was Thomas Barrett, an old and desperate offender, who died with that hardy spirit which is too often found in the worst and most abandoned class of men. During the execution the battalion of Marines was under arms, and a whole of the convicts obliged to be present. The two associates of the sufferer were ordered to be kept close prisoners until an eligible place to banish them to could be fixed on, as were also two more who on the following day were condemned to die for a similar offence. Besides the criminal court there is an inferior one composed of the judge advocate and one or more justices of the peace for the trial of small misdemeanors. This court is likewise empowered to decide all lawsuits and its verdict is final, except where the summoned dispute amounts to more than three hundred pounds, in which case an appeal to England can be made from its decree. Should necessity warrant it, an admiralty court of which Lieutenant Governor Ross's judge can also be summoned for the trial of offences committed on the high seas. From being unwilling to break the thread of my narrative I omitted to note in its proper place the sailing of the supply, Lieutenant Ball on the fifteenth of the month for Norfolk Island, which the Governor had instructions from the Ministry to take possession of. Lieutenant King of the Sirius was sent as superintendent and commandant of this place and carried with him a surgeon, a midshipman, a soya, a weaver, two Marines and sixteen convicts, of whom six were women. He was also supplied with a certain number of live animals to stock the island besides garden seeds, grain and other requisites. End of CHAPTER X CHAPTER XI I doubt not my readers will be as glad as I feel myself to conclude the dull detail of the last chapter. If they please they may turn from the subtle intricacies of the law to contemplate the simple undisguised workings of nature in her most artless coloring. I have already said we had been but very few days at Port Jackson when an alteration in the behaviour of the natives was perceptible, and I wish I could add that a longer residence in their neighbourhood had introduced a greater degree of cordiality and intermixture between the old and the new lords of the soil than at the day on which this publication is dated subsists. From their easy reception of us in the beginning many were induced to call in question the accounts which Mr Cook had given of this people. That celebrated navigator we were willing to believe had somehow by his conduct offended them which prevented the intercourse that were otherwise have taken place. The result, however, of our repeated endeavours to induce them to come among us, has been such as to confirm me in an opinion that they either fear or despise us too much to be anxious for a closer connection. And I beg leave at once to apprise the reader that all I can hear or in any future part of this work relate with fidelity of the natives of New South Wales must be made up of detached observations taken at different times and not from a regular series of knowledge of the customs and manners of a people with whom opportunities of communication are so scarce as to have been seldom obtained. In their persons they are far from being a stark race of men, though nimble, sprightly and vigorous. The deficiency of one of the four teeth of the upper jaw mentioned by Dampier we have seen in almost the whole of the men, but their organs of sight so far from being defective as that author mentions those of the inhabitants of the western side of the continent to be are remarkably quick and piercing. Their colour, Mr. Cook, is inclined to think rather a deep chocolate than an absolute black, though he confesses they have the appearance of the latter which he attributes to the greasy filth their skins are loaded with. Of their want of cleanliness we have had sufficient proofs, but I am of the opinion all the washing in the world would not render them two degrees less black than an African negro. At some of our first interviews we had several droll instances of their mistaking the Africans we brought with us for their own countrymen. Notwithstanding the disregard they have invariably shown for all the finery we could deck them with, they are fond of adorning themselves with scars which increase their natural hideousness. It is hardly possible to see anything in human shape more ugly than one of these savages thus scarified, and farther ornamented with a fish-bone stuck through the gristle of the nose. The custom of dorbing themselves with white earth is also frequent among both sexes, but unlike the inhabitants of the islands in the Pacific Ocean they reject the beautiful feathers which the birds of their country afford. Exclusive of their weapons of offence and a few stone hatchets very rudely fashioned their ingenuity is confined to manufacturing small nets in which they put the fish they catch and to fish-hawks made of bone, neither of which are unskillfully executed. On many of the rocks are also to be found delineations of the figures of men and birds very poorly cut. Of the use or benefit of clothing these people appear to have no comprehension though their sufferings from the climate they live in strongly point out the necessity of a covering from the rigor of the seasons. Both sexes and those of all ages are invariably found naked, but it must not be inferred from this that customs o'ernews them to the changes of the elements as to make them bare within difference the extremes of heat and cold. For we have had visible and repeated proofs that the latter affects them severely when they are seen shivering and huddling themselves up in heaps in their huts or the caverns of the rocks until a fire can be kindled. Then these huts nothing more rude in construction or deficient in conveniencey can be imagined. They consist only of pieces of bark laid together in the form of an oven open at one end and very low though long enough for a man to lie at full length. There is reason, however, to believe that they depend less on them for shelter than on the caverns with which the rocks abound. To cultivation of the ground they are utter strangers and wholly depend for food on the few fruits they gather, the roots they dig up in the swamps and the fish they pick up along shore or contrive to strike from their canoes with spears. Fishing, indeed, seems to engross nearly the whole of their time probably from its forming the chief part of a subsistence which observation has convinced us nothing short of the most painful labour and unwearyed aciduity can procure. When fish are scarce, which frequently happens, they often watch the moment of our hauling the sane and have more than once been known to plunder its contents in spite of the opposition of those on the spot to guard it, and this even after having received a part of what has been caught. The only resource at these times is to show a musket, and if the bare sight is not sufficient to fire it over their heads, which has seldom failed of dispersing them hitherto, but how long the terror which it excites may continue is doubtful. The canoes in which they fish are as despicable as their huts, being nothing more than a large piece of bark tied up at both ends with vines. Their dexterous management of them added to the swiftness with which they paddle, and the boldness that leads them several miles in the open sea, are nevertheless highly deserving of admiration. A canoe is seldom seen without a fire in it to dress the fish by, as soon as caught, fire they procure by attrition. From their manner of disposing of those who die, which will be mentioned hereafter, as well as from every other observation, there seems no reason to suppose these people cannibals, nor do they ever eat animal substances in a raw state and less pressed by extreme hunger, but indiscriminately broil them and their vegetables on a fire, which renders these last an innocent food, though in their raw state many of them are of a poisonous quality, as a poor convict who unguardedly ate of them experienced by falling a sacrifice in twenty-four hours afterwards. If bread be given to the Indians they chew and spit it out again seldom choosing to swallow it. Salt, beef, and pork they like rather better, but spirits they never could be brought to taste a second time. The only domestic animal they have is the dog, which in their language is called dingo, and a good deal resembles the fox-dog of England. These animals are equally shy of us and attached to the natives. One of them is now in the possession of the governor and tolerably well reconciled to his new master. As the Indians see the dislike of the dogs to us, they are sometimes mischievous enough to set them on single persons whom they chance to meet in the woods. A surly fellow was one day out shooting when the natives attempted to divert themselves in this manner at his expense. The man bore the teasing and gnawing of the dog at his heels for some time, but apprehending at length that his patients might embolden them to use still further liberties, he turned round and shot poor dingo dead on the spot, the owners of him set off with the utmost expedition. There is no part of the behaviour of these people that has puzzled us more than that which relates to their women. Comparatively speaking we have seen but few of them and these have been sometimes kept back with every symptom of jealous sensibility and sometimes offered with every appearance of courteous familiarity. Cautious, however, of alarming the feelings of the men on so tender a point, we have constantly made a rule of treating the females with that distance and reserve which we judged most likely to remove any impression they might have received of our intending ought which could give offence on so delicate a subject. And so successful have our endeavours been that a quarrel on this head has in no instance that I know of happened. The tone of voice of the women, which is pleasingly soft and feminine, forms a striking contrast to the rough guttural pronunciation of the men. Of the other charms of the ladies I shall be silent, though justice obliges me to mention that in the opinion of some amongst us they show a degree of timidity and bashfulness which are perhaps inseparable from the female character in its rudest state. It is not a little singular that the custom of cutting off the two lower joints of the little finger of the left hand observed in the society-islands is found here among the women who have for the most part undergone this amputation. Here the two we have not been able to trace out the cause of this usage. At first we supposed it to be peculiar to the married women or those who had born children, but this conclusion must have been erroneous as we have no right to believe that celibacy prevails in any instance and some of the oldest of the women are without this distinction and girls of a very tender age are marked by it. On first setting foot in the country we were inclined to hold the spears of the natives very cheap. Fatal experience has, however, convinced us that the wound inflicted by this weapon is not a trivial one and that the skill of the Indians in throwing it is far from despicable. Besides more than a dozen convicts who have unaccountably disappeared, we know that two who were employed as rush-cutters up the harbour were, from what cause we are, a yet ignorant, most dreadfully mangled and butchered by the natives. A spear had passed entirely through the thickest part of the body of one of them, though a very robust man, and the sculler the other was beaten in. Their tools were taken away, but some provisions which they had with them at the time of the murder and their clothes were left untouched. In addition to this misfortune, two more convicts who were peaceably engaged in picking of greens on a spot very remote from that where their comrades suffered were unaware as attacked by a party of Indians, and before they could affect their escape one of them was pierced by a spear in the hip, after which they knocked him down and plundered his clothes. The poor wretch, though dreadfully wounded, made shift to crawl off, but his companion was carried away by these barbarians and his fate doubtful until a soldier a few days afterwards picked up his jacket and hat in a native's hut, the latter pierced through by a spear. We have found that these spears are not made invariably alike, some of them being barbed like a fish-gig and others simply pointed. In repairing them they are no less dexterous than in throwing them. A broken one being given by a gentleman to an Indian he instantly snatched up an oyster shell and converted it with his teeth into a tool with which he presently fashioned the spear and rendered it fit for use. In performing this operation the soul of his foot served him as a workboard. Nor are their weapons of offence confined as a spear only, for they have besides long wooden swords shaped like a sabre capable of inflicting a mortal wound and clubs of an immense size. Small targets, made of the bark of trees, are likewise now and then to be seen among them. From circumstances which have been observed we have sometimes been inclined to believe these people at war with each other. They have more than once been seen assembled as if bent on an expedition. An officer one day met fourteen of them marching along in regular Indian file through the woods, each man armed with a spear in his right hand and a large stone in his left. At their head appeared a chief who was distinguished by being painted, though in the proportion of five to one of our people they passed peaceably on. That their skill in throwing the spear sometimes enables them to kill the kangaroo we have no right to doubt, as a long splinter of this weapon was taken out of the thigh of one of these animals over which the flesh had completely closed, but we have never discovered that they have any method of ensnaring them or that they know any other beasts but the kangaroo and dog. Whatever animal is shown them, a dog accepted, they call kangaroo, a strong presumption that the wild animals of the country are very few. Soon after our arrival at Port Jackson, I was walking out near a place where I observed a party of Indians, busily employed at looking at some sheep in an enclosure, and repeatedly crying out, Kangaroo, Kangaroo! As this seemed to afford them pleasure, I was willing to increase it by pointing out the horses and cows which were at no great distance, but unluckily at the moment some female convicts employed near the place made their appearance, and all my endeavours to divert their attention from the ladies became fruitless. They attempted not, however, to offer them the least degree of violence or injury, but stood at the distance of several paces, expressing very significantly the manner they were attracted. It would be trespassing on the reader's indulgence were I to impose on him an account of any civil regulations or ordinances which may possibly exist among this people. I declare to him that I know not of any, and that accepting a little tributary respect which the younger part appeared to pay those more advanced in years, I never could observe any degrees of subordination among them. To their religious rights and opinions I am equally a stranger. Had an opportunity offered of seeing the ceremonies observed at disposing of the dead, perhaps some insight might have been gained. But all that we at present know with certainty is that they burn the corpse, and afterwards heap up the earth around it, somewhat in the manner of the small tumuli found in many counties of England. I have already hinted that the country is more populous than it was generally believed to be in Europe at the time of our sailing. But this remark is not meant to be extended to the interior parts of the Continent, which there is every reason to conclude from our researches, as well as from the manner of living practised by the natives, to be uninhabited. It appears as if some of the Indian families can find their society in connections within their own pale, but that this cannot always be the case we know, for on the northwest arm of Botany Bay stands a village which contains more than a dozen houses, and perhaps five times that number of people being the most considerable establishment that we are acquainted with in the country. As a striking proof, perhaps, of the numerousness of the natives, I beg leave to state that Governor Philip went on an excursion between the head of this harbour and that of Botany Bay, once fell in with a party which consisted of more than three hundred persons, two hundred and twelve of whom were men. This happened only on the day following the murder of the two convict rush-cutters before noticed, and his excellence he was at the very time in search of the murderers, on whom, could there have been found, he intended to inflict a memorable and exemplary punishment. The meeting was unexpected to both parties, and considering the critical situation of affairs perhaps not very pleasing to our side which consisted of but twelve persons until the peaceable disposition of the Indians was manifest. After the strictest search the Governor was obliged to return without having gained any information. The laudable perseverance of his excellency to throw every light on this unhappy and mysterious business did not, however, stop here, for he instituted the most rigorous inquiry to find out, if possible, whether the convicts had at any time ill-treated or killed any of the natives, and further issued a proclamation offering the most tempting of all rewards, a state of freedom, to him who should point out the murderer in case such a one existed. I have thus impartially stated the situation of matters as they stand while I write between the natives and us, that greater progress in attaching them to us has not been made I have only to regret, but that all ranks of men have tried to effect it by every reasonable effort from which success might have been expected I can testify, nor can I omit saying that in the higher stations this has been eminently conspicuous. The public orders of Governor Philip have invariably tended to promote such a behaviour on our side as was most likely to produce this much wished for event. To what cause, then, are we to attribute the distance which the accomplishment of it appears at? I answer to the fickle, jealous, wavering disposition of the people we have to deal with, who, like all other savages, are either too indolent, too indifferent or too fearful to form an attachment on easy terms with those who differ in habits and manners so widely from themselves. Before I close the subject I cannot, however, omit to relate the following ludicrous adventure which possibly may be of greater use in affecting what we have so much at heart than all our endeavours. Some young gentleman belonging to the Sirius one day met a native, an old man, in the woods. He had a beard of considerable length, which his new acquaintance gave him to understand by signals they would rid him of if he pleased, stroking their chins and showing him the smoothness of them at the same time. At length the old Indian consented, and one of the youngsters taking a pen-knife from his pocket and making use of the best substitute for lover he could find, performed the operation with great success, and, as it proved, much to the liking of the old man, who, in a few days after, reposed a confidence in us, of which we had hitherto known no example by paddling alongside the Sirius in his canoe and pointing to his beard. Various arts were ineffectually tried to induce him to enter the ship, but as he continued to decline the invitation a barber was sent down into the boat alongside the canoe. From whence, leaning over the gunnel, he complied with the wish of the old boat, with infinite satisfaction. In addition to the consequences which our sanguine hopes lead us to expect from this dawning of cordiality, it affords proof that the beard is considered by this people more as an encumbrance than a mark of dignity. End of CHAPTER XI. CHAPTER XII. The departure of the French from Botany Bay, and the return of the supply from Norfolk Island, with the discovery made by Lieutenant Paul on his passage to it. About the middle of the month our good friends the French departed from Botany Bay in prosecution of their voyage. During their stay in that port the officers of the two nations had frequent opportunities of testifying their mutual regard by visits and every interchange of friendship and esteem. These ships sailed from France by order of the king on the 1st of August 1785 under the command of Monsieur de Peruse, an officer whose imminent qualifications we had reason to think entitled him to fill the highest stations. In England particularly he ought long to be remembered with admiration and gratitude for the humanity which marked his conduct when ordered to destroy our settlement at Hudson's Bay in the last war. His second in command was the Chevalier-Clonard, an officer also of distinguished merit. In the course of the voyage these ships had been so unfortunate as to lose a boat with many men and officers in her off the west of California, and afterwards met with an accident still more to be regretted at an island in the Pacific Ocean discovered by Monsieur Bougainville in the latitude of fourteen degrees nineteen minutes south, long atude a hundred and seventy-three degrees three minutes twenty seconds east of Paris. Here they had the misfortune to have no less than thirteen of their crews among whom was the officer at that time second in command cut off by the natives and many more desperately wounded. To what cause this cruel event was to be attributed they knew not, as they were about to quit the island after having lived with the Indians in the greatest harmony for several weeks, and exchanged during the time their European commodities for the produce of the place, which they described as filled with a race of people remarkable for beauty and comeliness and a bounding in refreshments of all kinds. It was no less gratifying to an English ear than honorable to Monsieur de Peruse to witness the feeling manner in which he always mentioned the name and talents of Captain Cook. That illustrious circumnavigator had, he said, left nothing to those who might follow in his track to describe or fill up. As I found in the course of conversation that the French ships had touched at the sandwich islands, I asked Monsieur de Peruse what reception he had met with there. His answer deserves to be known. During the whole of our voyage in the South Seas, the people of the sandwich islands were the only Indians who never gave us cause of complaint. They furnished us liberally with provisions and administered cheerfully to all our wants. It may not be improper to remark that Ohua'i was not one of the islands visited by this gentleman. In the short stay made by these ships at Potney Bay and Abbey, one of the naturalists on board died, and was buried on the North Shore. The French had hardly departed when the natives pulled down a small board which had been placed over the spot where the corpse was interred, and defaced everything around. On being informed of it, the Governor sent a party over with orders to affix a plate of copper on a tree near the place with the following inscription on it, which is a copy of what was written on the board. He said El Reserveur, EFF Minibus Gallii Sassados Physicus, in Circumnavigasio Nei Mundi, Duce de la Peruse, obit de 17 februarii, ano 1788. This mark of respectful attention was more particularly due from Monsieur de Peruse having, when in Kamschatka, paid a similar tribute of gratitude to the memory of Captain Clark, whose tomb was found in nearly as ruinous a state as that of the Abbey. Like ourselves, the French found it necessary more than once to chastise a spirit of rappin and intrusion which prevailed among the Indians around the bay. The menace of pointing a musket to them was frequently used, and in one or two instances it was fired off, although without being attended with fatal consequences. Indeed the French commandant, both from a regard to the orders of his court, as well as to our quiet and security, showed a moderation and forbearance on this head highly becoming. On the twentieth of March the supply arrived from Norfolk Island after having safely landed Lieutenant King and his little garrison. The pine trees growing there are described to be of a growth and height superior perhaps to any in the world, but the difficulty of bringing them away will not be easily surmounted from the badness and danger of the landing-place. After the most exact search not a single plant of the New Zealand flax could be found, although we had been taught to believe it abounded there. Lieutenant Ball, in returning to Port Jackson, touched at a small island in latitude thirty-one degrees, thirty-six minutes south, longitude a hundred and fifty-nine degrees, four minutes east of Greenwich, which he had been fortunate enough to discover on his passage to Norfolk, and to which he gave the name of Lord House Island. It is entirely without inhabitants or any traces of any having ever been there, but it happily abounds in what will be infinitely more important to the settlers on New South Wales, Green Turtle of the finest kind frequented in the summer season. Of this Mr. Ball gave us some very handsome and acceptable specimens on his return. Besides Turtle, the island is well stocked with birds, many of them so tamers to be knocked down by the seamen with sticks. At the distance of four leagues from Lord House Island and in latitude thirty-one degrees, thirty minutes south, longitude a hundred and fifty-nine degrees, eight minutes east stands a remarkable rock of considerable height to which Mr. Ball gave the name of Ball's pyramid from the shape it bears. While the supply was absent Governor Philip made an excursion to Broken Bay a few leagues to the northward of Port Jackson in order to explore it. As a harbor it almost equals the latter, but the adjacent country was found so rocky and bare as to preclude all possibility of turning it to account. Some revelants of fresh water fall into the head of the bay forming a very picturesque scene. The Indians who live on its banks are numerous and behaved attentively in a variety of instances while our people remained among them. END OF CHAPTER XII CHAPTER XIII. TRANSACTIONS AT PORT JACKSON IN THE MONTHS OF APRIL AND MAY As winter was fast approaching it became necessary to secure ourselves in quarters which might shield us from the cold we were taught to expect in this hemisphere though in so low a latitude. The erection of barracks for the soldiers was projected and the private men of each company undertook to build for themselves two wooden houses of sixty-eight feet in length and twenty-three in breadth. To forward the design several sawpits were immediately set to work and four ship carpenters attached to the battalion for the purpose of directing and completing this necessary undertaking. In prosecuting it however so many difficulties occurred that we were feigned to circumscribe our original intention and instead of eight houses content ourselves with four. And even these, from the badness of the timber, the scarcity of artifices and other impediments, are at the day on which I write, so little advanced, that it will be well if at the close of the year 1788 we shall be established in them. In the meanwhile the married people, by proceeding on a more contracted scale, were soon under comfortable shelter. Nor were the convicts forgotten, and as leisure was frequently afforded them for the purpose little edifices quickly multiplied on the ground allotted them to build upon. But as these habitations were intended by Governor Philip to answer only the exigency of the moment the plan of the town was drawn and the ground on which it is hereafter to stand surveyed and marked out. To proceed on a narrow confined scale in a country of the extensive limits we possess would be unpardonable. Extent of empire demands grandeur of design. That this has been our view will be readily believed when I tell the reader that the principal street in our projected city will be, when completed, agreeable to the plan laid down, two hundred feet in breadth, and all the rest of a corresponding proportion. How far this will be accompanied with adequate dispatch is another question, as the incredulous among us are sometimes hardy enough to declare that ten times our strength would not be able to finish it in as many years. Invariably intent on exploring a country from which curiosity promises so many gratifications, his excellency about this time undertook an expedition into the interior parts of the Continent. His party consisted of eleven persons who, after being conveyed by water to the head of the harbour, proceeded in a westerly direction to reach a chain of mountains which unclear whether a discernible, though at an immense distance, from some heights near our encampment. With unwavered industry they continued to penetrate the country for four days, but at the end of that time, finding the base of the mountain to be yet at the distance of more than twenty miles, and provisions growing scarce, it was judged prudent to return without having accomplished the end for which the expedition had been undertaken. To reward their toils our adventurers had, however, the pleasure of discovering and traversing an extensive tract of ground which they had reason to believe from the observations they were enabled to make, capable of producing everything which a happy soil and genial climate can bring forth. In addition to this flattering appearance, the face of the country is such as to promise success whenever it shall be cultivated, the trees being at a considerable distance from each other, and the intermediate space filled not with underwood but a thick rich grass growing in the utmost luxuriancy. I must not, however, conceal that in this long march our gentlemen found not a single rivulet, but were under a necessity of supplying themselves with water from standing pools which they met with in the valleys, supposed to be formed by the rains that fall at particular seasons of the year. Nor had they the good fortune to see any quadrupeds worth notice except a few kangaroos. To their great surprise they observed indisputable tracks of the natives having been lately there, though in their whole route none of them were to be seen, nor any means to be traced by which they could procure subsistence so far from the seashore. On the sixth of May the supply sailed for Lord Howe Island to take on board Turtle for the settlement, but after waiting there several days was obliged to return without having seen one owing we apprehended to the advanced season of the year. Three of the transports also, which were engaged by the East India Company to proceed to China to take on board a lading of tea, sailed about this time for Canton. The unsuccessful return of the supply cast a general damp on our spirits, for by this time fresh provisions were become scarcer than in a blockaded town. The little livestock, with which so heavy an expense and through so many difficulties we had brought on shore, prudence for bad us to use, and fish which on our arrival and for a short time after had been tolerable plenty, were become so scarce as to be rarely seen at the tables of the first among us. Had it not been for stray kangaroo, which fortune now and then threw in our way, we should have been utter strangers to the taste of fresh food. Thus situated the scurvy began its usual ravages, and extended its painful influence more or less through all descriptions of persons. Unfortunately the escalant vegetable productions of the country are neither plentiful nor tend very effectually to remove this disease, and the ground we had turned up and planted with garden seeds, either from the nature of the soil or which is more probable the lateness of the season yielded but a scanty and insufficient supply of what we stood so greatly in need of. During the period I am describing few enormous offences were perpetrated by the convicts. A petty theft was now and then heard of, and a spirit of refractory sulleness broke out at times in some individuals. One execution only, however, took place. The sufferer, who was a very young man, was convicted of a burglary, and met his fate with a hardiness and insensibility which the grossest ignorance and most deplorable want of feeling alone could supply. CHAPTER XIV From the beginning of June to the departure of the ships for Europe. Hours of festivity, which under happier skies pass away unreguarded and as soon consigned to oblivion, acquire in this forlorn and distant circle a superior degree of acceptable importance. On the anniversary of the king's birthday all the officers not on duty, both of the garrison and his majesty's ships, dined with the governor. On so joyful an occasion, the first two ever celebrated in our new settlement, it were needless to say that loyal conviviality dictated every sentiment and inspired every guest. Among other public toasts drunk was, prosperity to Sydney Cove, in Cumberland County now named so by authority. At daylight in the morning the ships of war had fired twenty-one guns each, which was repeated at noon and answered by three volleys from the battalion of Marines. Nor were the officers alone partakers of the general relaxation. The four unhappy wretches laboring under sentence of banishment were freed from their fetters to rejoin their former society, and three days given as holidays to every convict in the colony. Hospitality, too, whichever acquires a double relish by being extended, was not forgotten on the fourth of June, when each prisoner, male and female, received an allowance of grog, and every non-commissioned officer and private soldier had the honour of drinking prosperity to his royal master in a pint of porter, served out at the flagstaff, in addition to the customary allowance of spirits. Bonfires concluded the evening, and I am happy to say that accepting a single instance which will be taken notice of hereafter, no bad consequence or unpleasant remembrance flowed from an indulgence so amply bestowed. About this time, June, an accident happened which I record with much regret. The whole of our black cattle consisting of five cows and a bull, either from not being properly secured or from the negligence of those appointed to take care of them, strayed into the woods, and in spite of all the search we have been able to make are not yet found. As a convict of the name of Corbett, who was accused of a theft alope nearly at the same time, it was at first believed that he had taken the desperate measure of driving off the cattle in order to subsist on them as long as possible, or perhaps to deliver them to the natives. In this uncertainty parties to search were sent out in different directions, and the fugitive declared an outlaw in case of not returning by a fixed day. After much anxiety and fatigue, those who had undertaken the task returned without finding the cattle. But on the twenty-first of the month Corbett made his appearance near a farm belonging to the governor, and entreated a convict who happened to be on the spot to give him some food as he was perishing for hunger. The man applied to, under pretense of fetching what he asked for, went away and immediately gave the necessary information, in consequence of which a party under arms was sent out and apprehended him. When the poor wretch was brought in, he was greatly emaciated and almost famished. But on proper restoratives being administered, he was so far recovered by the twenty-fourth as to be able to stand his trial, when he pleaded guilty to the robbery with which he stood charged and received sentence of death. In the course of repeated examinations it plainly appeared he was an utter stranger to the place where the cattle might be, and was in no shape concerned in having driven them off. Samuel Payton, convict for having on the evening of the king's birthday broke open an officer's marquee with an intent to commit robbery, of which he was fully convicted, had sentence of death passed on him at the same time as Corbett, and on the following day they were both executed, confessing the justness of their fate and employing the forgiveness of those whom they had injured. Payton, at the time of his suffering, was, for twenty years of age, the greatest part of which had been invariably passed in the commission of crimes that had length terminated in his ignominious end. The following letter, written by a fellow convict to the sufferer's unhappy mother, I shall make no apology for presenting to the reader. It affords a melancholy proof that not the ignorant and untaught only have provoked the justice of their country to banish them to this remote region. Sidney Cove, Port Jackson, New South Wales, 24 June 1788. My dear and honoured mother, with a heart oppressed by the keenest sense of anguish and too much agitated by the idea of my very melancholy condition to express my own sentiments, I have prevailed on the goodness of a commiserating friend to do me the last sad office of acquainting you with the dreadful fate that awaits me. My dear mother, with what agony of soul do I dedicate the few last moments of my life to bid you an eternal adieu, my doom being irrevocably fixed, and ere this hour to-morrow I shall have quitted this veil of wretchedness to enter into an unknown in endless eternity. I will not distress your tender maternal feelings by any long comment on the cause of my present misfortune, let it therefore suffice to say that impelled by that strong propensity to evil which neither the virtuous precepts nor example of the best of parents could eradicate, I have at length fallen an unhappy though just victim to my own follies. Too late I regret my inattention to your admonitions and feel myself sensibly affected by the remembrance of the many anxious moments you have passed on my account. For these and all my other transgressions, however great, I supplicate the divine forgiveness, and encouraged by the promises of that Saviour who died for us all, I trust to receive that mercy in the world to come which my offences have deprived me of all hope or expectation of in this. The affliction which this will cost you, I hope the Almighty will enable you to bear, banish from your memory all my former indiscretions, and let the cheering hope of a happy meeting hereafter console you for my loss. Sincerely penitent for my sins, sensible of the justice of my conviction and sentence, and firmly relying on the merits of a blessed redeemer, I am at perfect peace with all mankind, and trust I shall get experience that peace which this world cannot give. Commend my soul to the divine mercy, I bid you an eternal farewell, your unhappy, dying son, Samuel Payton. After this nothing occurred with which I think it necessary to trouble the reader. The contents of the following chapters could not, I conceive, be so properly interwoven in the body of the work. But therefore assigned them a place by themselves, with a view that the conclusions adopted in them may be more strongly enforced on the minds of those to whom they are more particularly addressed.