1788

by Watkin Tench

  It was no less gratifying to an English ear than honourable to Monsieur La Perouse 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 M. La Perouse 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 Owhyee†2 was not one of the islands visited by this gentleman.

  In the short stay made by these ships at Botany Bay, an Abbe, 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:

  Hic jacet L. RECEVEUR,

  E. F. F. minnibus Galliae, Sacerdos, Physicus,

  in circumnavigatione mundi, Duce De La Perrouse.

  Obiit die 17 Februarii, anno 1788.†3

  This mark of respectful attention was more particularly due from M. La Perouse having, when at Kamchatka, paid a similar tribute of gratitude to the memory of Captain Clarke, whose tomb was found in nearly as ruinous a state as that of the Abbe.

  Like ourselves, the French found it necessary, more than once, to chastise a spirit of rapine 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, though 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 20th 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, though we had been taught to believe it abounded there.

  Lieutenant Ball, in returning to Port Jackson, touched at a small island in latitude 31° 36′ south, longitude 159° 4′ 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 Howe’s Island. It is entirely without inhabitants, or any traces of any having ever been there. But it happily abounds in what will be of infinitely more importance to the settlers on New South Wales. Green turtle of the finest kind frequent it 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 tame as to be knocked down by the seamen with sticks. At the distance of four leagues from Lord Howe’s Island and in latitude 31° 30′ south, longitude 159° 8′ 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 Phillip made an excursion to Broken Bay, a few leagues to the northward of Port Jackson, in order to explore it. As a harbour 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 rivulets 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.

  13

  Transactions at Port Jackson in the months of April and May 1788

  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 fain to circumscribe our original intentions and, instead of eight houses, content ourselves with four. And even these, from the badness of the timber, the scarcity of artificers 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 Phillip to answer only the exigency of the moment, the plan of a 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 in clear weather are discernible, though at an immense distance, from some heights near our encampment.† With unwearied 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 sea shore.

  On the 6th 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 w
ithout 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, which with so heavy an expense and through so many difficulties, we had brought on shore, prudence forbade 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 a 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 baneful influence, more or less through all descriptions of persons. Unfortunately the esculent 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 sullenness 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.

  14

  From the beginning of June, to the departure of the ships for Europe

  HOURS of festivity, which under happier skies pass away unregarded and are 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 too 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 labouring under the 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, which ever acquires a double relish by being extended, was not forgotten on the 4th 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 excepting a single instance which shall 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, eloped 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 21st 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 pretence 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 24th 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 Peyton, 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 imploring the forgiveness of those whom they had injured. Peyton at the time of his suffering was but twenty years of age, the greatest part of which had been invariably passed in the commission of crimes that at 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.

  Sydney Cove, Port Jackson,

  New South Wales, 24th 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 tomorrow I shall have quitted this vale of wretchedness to enter into an unknown and 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 yet 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 Peyton.

  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. I have, 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.

  15

  The face of the country, its productions, climate, etc.

  TO the geographical knowledge of this country supplied by Captain Cook and Captain Furneaux we were able to add nothing. The latter explored the coast from Van Diemen’s Land to the latitude of 39° south; and Cook from Point Hicks, which lies in 37° 58′, to Endeavour Straits. The intermediate space between the end of Furneaux’s discovery and Point Hicks is therefore the only part of the south-east coast unknown, and it so happened on our passage thither, owing to the weather, which forbade any part of the ships engaging with the shore, that we are unable to pronounce whether or not a strait intersects the continent hereabouts: though I beg to say that I have been informed by a naval friend that, when the fleet was off this part of the coast, a strong set offshore was plainly felt.

  At the distance of sixty miles inland, a prodigious chain of lofty mountains runs nearly in a north and south direction further than the eye can trace them. Should nothing intervene to prevent it, the governor intends shortly to explore their summits, and I think there can be little doubt that his curiosity will not go unrewarded. If large rivers do exist in the country, which some of us are almost sceptical enough to doubt, their sources must arise amidst these hills; and the direction they run in, for a considerable distance, must be either due north or due south. For it is strikingly singular that three such noble harbours as Botany Bay, Port Jackson and Broken Bay alike end in shallows and swamps filled with mangroves.†