by Watkin Tench
Arabanoo was a serious, somewhat ponderous man, with a gentle demeanour and a kindness to children which endeared him to everyone. Bennelong (who appears in Tench’s narrative as Baneelon) is, in contrast, mercurial. Passionate, fearless and never slow to grasp an opportunity, he is the natural intermediary between his people and the colonists—and he plays the Europeans for all they are worth. Tench is patently fascinated by him:
Baneelon we judged to be about twenty-six years old, of good stature and stoutly made, with a bold intrepid countenance which bespoke defiance and revenge…He quickly threw off all reserve, and pretended, nay, at particular moments, perhaps felt satisfaction in his new state…His powers of mind were certainly far above mediocrity. He acquired knowledge, both of our manners and language, faster than his predecessor had done. He willingly communicated information, sang, danced and capered, told us all the customs of his country and all the details of his family economy. Love and war seemed his favourite pursuits, in both of which he had suffered severely.
Tench did not demur at reporting events which show the Europeans in a poor light. During an expedition to the Hawkesbury, he reports how Boladeree refused to swim for a duck which the Europeans had shot. For days the party had been shooting birds, reserving the tastier ducks for themselves and giving crows and hawks to the Aborigines. The incident places in sharp focus just how distasteful the Aborigines found the English class system, a structure in which even fully initiated Aboriginal men were inevitably relegated to the bottom of the social ladder. They would simply not tolerate being treated so. Instead, they laughed at and mocked the Europeans for their clumsiness and stupidity in the bush. When the exhausted Europeans (who were in any case carrying the supplies of the Aborigines) showed ill-humour at this, the Aborigines called them gonin-patta—shit-eaters.
Tench’s account of Arabanoo’s meals with Governor Phillip stand in contrast with the events of the Hawkesbury expedition. Although his acquaintance with his European abductors was but a few hours old, Arabanoo acquitted himself well at dinner, watching the others carefully in order to learn how to handle his food and napkin. His single mistake, not repeated, was to wipe his hands on his chair. Only at the end of his second meal did his performance become unstuck, for then he moved to throw his plate (one of the few in the colony) out the window, as one would a leaf or piece of bark. Rarely has the gulf between the two cultures been so strikingly revealed.
One wonders, given the innate difficulties of their situation, how individuals such as Phillip and Arabanoo, or Tench and Bennelong, could have struck up friendships. Part of the equation, no doubt, was that the Europeans and Aborigines had yet to compete more than marginally for resources. The Europeans were fed largely out of their own stores, while the Aborigines still had their land. Because of this, neither group was dependent upon the other, and each retained its dignity. It was only when graziers and agriculturalists began to take the resources of the land wholesale from the Aborigines that the degradation of dispossession and dependency began.
Tench had hardly returned to Britain when he married Anna Maria Sargent, in October 1792. Apparently unable to have children of their own, the couple adopted four of Anna’s sister’s children (who had been orphaned) and brought them up as their own. He was soon fighting in the Napoleonic Wars, and on 6 November 1793, while serving under Captain Richard Rodney Bligh on the Alexander, was captured after a particularly bloody encounter. He was freed as an exchanged prisoner in May 1795.
Tench’s service afloat ended in 1802; thereafter he took land posts and retired as lieutenant-general in 1827. Described as a ‘gentleman’ by the time of his death, Watkin Tench passed away at Devonport on 7 May 1833, aged 74.
*
Many aspects of Watkin Tench’s personality seem to sit more comfortably in our century than in the eighteenth. Yet it would be a mistake to judge him by our own sensibilities. That his regard for the Aborigines and his push to reform the cruel penal practices of the eighteenth century accords with contemporary views is to be applauded. But it would be far too easy, and decidedly wrong, to condemn him for failing to espouse many other causes which have gained currency today.
So often we rewrite history to suit our own ends. For nations whose beginnings are shrouded in the mists of time, this is perhaps understandable. But in Australia we have the writings of Phillip, White, Tench and many others to inform us. We have no reason not to read them. It is merely our neglect of our own past that has led to the absurd idea that ‘Australia has no history’. In truth no history is so extraordinary, nor so well documented, as that of Australia. I hope that Tench’s seminal works be ever more widely read so that we can better understand how things really were in the beginning.
*
I have used the text of the third edition of the Expedition, published in 1789, and the 1793 edition of the Settlement. I have modernised Tench’s punctuation and spelling, corrected the occasional error (for example De Perrouse for La Perouse), and sometimes added a word or two of clarification or explanation in a footnote, marked by a dagger (†). Tench’s own notes are indicated with an asterisk (*). Otherwise, Tench’s text is given as it was first published.
Book One:
A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay
IN offering this little tract to the public it is equally the writer’s wish to conduce to their amusement and information.
The expedition on which he is engaged has 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 effects 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, impolicy 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 candid 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, candour 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 unpractised 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 candid, 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.
Watkin Tench, Captain of the Marines
Sydney Cove, Port Jackson, New South Wales, 10 July
1788
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, excepting a slight appearance of contagion 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 in justice 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 enabled to establish necessary regulations among the convicts, and to adopt such a system of defence as left us 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 impracticability of returning home, the dread of a sickly passage and the fearful prospect of a distant and barbarous country. But this apparent despondency proceeded 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 excepted, the use of spirituous 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 of all species of provisions, the latter at two-thirds only.
2
From the departure to the arrival of the fleet at Tenerife
GOVERNOR Phillip having at length reached Portsmouth, and all things deemed necessary for the expedition being put on board, at daylight on the morning of the 13th the signal to weigh 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’s ships Sirius, Hyena and Supply, three victuallers with two years’ stores and provisions for the settlement, and six transports with troops and convicts.
In the transports were embarked four captains, twelve subalterns, twenty-four sergeants and corporals, eight drummers and 160 private marines, making the whole of the military force, including the major commandant and staff on board the Sirius, to consist of 212 persons, of whom 210 were volunteers. The number of convicts was 565 men, 192 women, and eighteen children. The major part of the prisoners were mechanics and husbandmen, 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 convicts to observe their sentiments at this juncture. A very few excepted, their countenances 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 to have seen but one of those affected on the occasion. ‘Some natural tears she dropp’d, but wip’d 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 not now to be altered.
To add to the good disposition which was beginning to manifest itself, on the morning of the 20th, in consequence of some favourable representations made by the officers commanding detachments, they were hailed and told from the 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 to 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 favourable 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 30th of May we saw the rocks named the Deserters which lie off the south-east end of Madeira, and found the south-east extremity of the most southerly of them to be in the latitude of 32° 28′ north, longitude 16° 171/2′ 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 30° 12′ north, and the longitude of its eastern side to be 15° 39′ 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 3rd 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.
3
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 that he feels disappointed, for from the point of view in which he sees it, the neighbouring mountains lessen its effect very considerably. Excepting 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’oeil. 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 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 taciturnity 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 Laguza mentioned as particularly pleasant. Some of our officers who made an excursion to it confirmed the account amply.
