by Watkin Tench
The general face of the country is certainly pleasing, being diversified with gentle ascents, and little winding valleys, covered for the most part with large spreading trees which afford a succession of leaves in all seasons. In those places where trees are scarce a variety of flowering shrubs abound, most of them entirely new to an European and surpassing in beauty, fragrance and number, all I ever saw in an uncultivated state. Among these, a tall shrub bearing an elegant white flower which smells like English May is particularly delightful, and perfumes the air around to a great distance.†2 The species of trees are few and, I am concerned to add, the wood universally of so bad a grain as almost to preclude a possibility of using it. The increase of labour occasioned by this in our buildings has been such as nearly to exceed belief. These trees yield a profusion of thick red gum (not unlike the sanguis draconis) which is found serviceable in medicine, particularly in dysenteric complaints, where it has sometimes succeeded when all other preparations have failed. To blunt its acrid qualities, it is usual to combine it with opiates.
The nature of the soil is various. That immediately round Sydney Cove is sandy, with here and there a stratum of clay. From the sand we have yet been able to draw very little, but there seems no reason to doubt that many large tracts of land around us will bring to perfection whatever shall be sown in them. To give this matter a fair trial some practical farmers capable of such an undertaking should be sent out; for the spots we have chosen for experiments in agriculture, in which we can scarce be supposed adepts, have hitherto but ill repaid our toil, which may be imputable to our having chosen such as are unfavourable for our purpose.
Except from the size of the trees, the difficulties of clearing the land are not numerous, underwood being rarely found, though the country is not absolutely without it. Of the natural meadows which Mr Cook mentions near Botany Bay, we can give no account. None such exist about Port Jackson. Grass, however, grows in every place but the swamps with the greatest vigour and luxuriancy, though it is not of the finest quality and it is found to agree better with horses and cows than sheep. A few wild fruits are sometimes procured, among which is the small purple apple mentioned by Cook, and a fruit which has the appearance of a grape, though in taste more like a green gooseberry, being excessively sour.†3 Probably were it meliorated by cultivation it would become more palatable.
Fresh water, as I have said before, is found but in inconsiderable quantities. For the common purposes of life there is generally enough, but we know of no stream in the country capable of turning a mill; and the remarks made by Mr Anderson, of the dryness of the country round Adventure Bay,†4 extends without exception to every part of it which we have penetrated.
Previous to leaving England I remember to have frequently heard it asserted that the discovery of mines was one of the secondary objects of the expedition. Perhaps there are mines, but as no person competent to form a decision is to be found among us, I wish no one to adopt an idea that I mean to impress him with such a belief when I state that individuals, whose judgments are not despicable, are willing to think favourably of this conjecture, from specimens of ore seen in many of the stones picked up here. I cannot quit this subject without regretting that someone capable of throwing a better light on it is not in the colony. Nor can I help being equally concerned that an experienced botanist was not sent out, for the purpose of collecting and describing the rare and beautiful plants with which the country abounds. Indeed, we flattered ourselves when at the Cape of Good Hope that Mason, the King’s botanical gardener (who was employed there in collecting for the royal nursery at Kew) would have joined us, but it seems his orders and engagements prevented him from quitting that beaten track to enter on this scene of novelty and variety.
To the naturalist this country holds out many invitations. Birds, though not remarkably numerous, are in great variety and of the most exquisite beauty of plumage, among which are the cockatoo, lory, and parakeet; but the bird which principally claims attention is a species of ostrich, approaching nearer to the emu of South America than any other we know of.†5 One of them was shot at a considerable distance with a single ball by a convict employed for that purpose by the governor. Its weight, when complete, was seventy pounds, and its length from the end of the toe to the tip of the beak, seven feet two inches, though there was reason to believe it had not attained its full growth. On dissection many anatomical singularities were observed. The gall-bladder was remarkably large, the liver not bigger than that of a barn-door fowl, and after the strictest search no gizzard could be found. The legs, which were of a vast length, were covered with thick, strong scales, plainly indicating the animal to be formed for living amidst deserts, and the foot differed from an ostrich’s by forming a triangle instead of being cloven.†6
Goldsmith, whose account of the emu is the only one I can refer to, says, ‘that it is covered from the back and rump with long feathers, which fall backward and cover the anus. These feathers are grey on the back and white on the belly.’ The wings are so small as hardly to deserve the name, and are unfurnished with those beautiful ornaments which adorn the wings of the ostrich. All the feathers are extremely coarse, but the construction of them deserves notice—they grow in pairs from a single shaft, a singularity which the author I have quoted has omitted to remark. It may be presumed that these birds are not very scarce as several have been seen, some of them immensely large, but they are so wild as to make shooting them a matter of great difficulty. Though incapable of flying, they run with such swiftness that our fleetest greyhounds are left far behind in every attempt to catch them. The flesh was eaten, and tasted like beef.
Besides the emu, many birds of prodigious size have been seen, which promise to increase the number of those described by naturalists, whenever we shall be fortunate enough to obtain them; but among these the bat of the Endeavour River is not to be found. In the woods are various little songsters, whose notes are equally sweet and plaintive.
Of quadrupeds, except the kangaroo, I have little to say. The few met with are almost invariably of the opossum tribe, but even these do not abound. To beasts of prey we are utter strangers, nor have we yet any cause to believe that they exist in the country. And happy it is for us that they do not, as their presence would deprive us of the only fresh meals the settlement affords, the flesh of the kangaroo. This singular animal is already known in Europe by the drawing and description of Mr Cook. To the drawing nothing can be objected but the position of the claws of the hinder leg, which are mixed together like those of a dog, whereas no such indistinctness is to be found in the animal I am describing. It was the Chevalier La Perouse who pointed out this to me, while we were comparing a kangaroo with the plate, which, as he justly observed, is correct enough to give the world in general a good idea of the animal, but not sufficiently accurate for the man of science.
Of the natural history of the kangaroo we are still very ignorant. We may, however, venture to pronounce this animal a new species of opossum, the female being furnished with a bag in which the young is contained, and in which the teats are found. These last are only two in number, a strong presumptive proof, had we no other evidence, that the kangaroo brings forth rarely more than one at a birth. But this is settled beyond a doubt from more than a dozen females having been killed, which had invariably but one formed in the pouch. Notwithstanding this, the animal may be looked on as prolific from the early age it begins to breed at, kangaroos with young having been taken of not more than thirty pounds weight; and there is room to believe that when at their utmost growth they weigh not less than 150 pounds. A male of 130 pounds weight has been killed, whose dimensions were as follows:
After this perhaps I shall hardly be credited when I affirm that the kangaroo, on being brought forth, is not larger than an English mouse. It is, however, in my power to speak positively on this head, as I have seen more than one instance of it.
In running, this animal confines himself entirely to his hinder legs, which are possessed with an e
xtraordinary muscular power. Their speed is very great, though not in general quite equal to that of a greyhound; but when the greyhounds are so fortunate as to seize them they are incapable of retaining their hold, from the amazing struggles of the animal. The bound of the kangaroo, when not hard pressed, has been measured and found to exceed twenty feet.
At what time of the year they copulate, and in what manner, we know not. The testicles of the male are placed contrary to the usual order of nature.†7
When young, the kangaroo eats tender and well flavoured, tasting like veal, but the old ones are more tough and stringy than bull-beef. They are not carnivorous and subsist altogether on particular flowers and grass. Their bleat is mournful and very different from that of any other animal. It is, however, seldom heard but in the young ones.
Fish, which our sanguine hopes led us to expect in great quantities, do not abound. In summer they are tolerably plentiful, but for some months past very few have been taken. Botany Bay in this respect exceeds Port Jackson. The French once caught near two thousand fish in one day, of a species of grouper, to which, from the form of a bone in the head resembling a helmet, we have given the name of light horseman.†8 To this may be added bass, mullets, skate, soles, leather-jackets and many other species, all so good in their kind as to double our regret at their not being more numerous. Sharks of an enormous size are found here. One of these was caught by the people on board the Sirius, which measured at the shoulders six feet and a half in circumference. His liver yielded twenty-four gallons of oil, and in his stomach was found the head of a shark which had been thrown overboard from the same ship. The Indians, probably from having felt the effects of their voracious fury, testify the utmost horror on seeing these terrible fish.
Venomous animals and reptiles are rarely seen. Large snakes beautifully variegated have been killed, but of the effect of their bites we are happily ignorant.†9 Insects, though numerous, are by no means, even in summer, so troublesome as I have found them in America, the West Indies and other countries.
The climate is undoubtedly very desirable to live in. In summer the heats are usually moderated by the sea breeze, which sets in early, and in winter the degree of cold is so slight as to occasion no inconvenience. Once or twice we have had hoar frosts and hail, but no appearance of snow. The thermometer has never risen beyond 84, nor fallen lower than 35. In general it stood in the beginning of February at between 78 and 74 at noon. Nor is the temperature of the air less healthy than pleasant. Those dreadful putrid fevers by which new countries are so often ravaged are unknown to us and, excepting a slight diarrhoea which prevailed soon after we had landed, and was fatal in very few instances, we are strangers to epidemic diseases.
On the whole (thunderstorms in the hot months excepted) I know not any climate equal to this I write in. Ere we had been a fortnight on shore we experienced some storms of thunder accompanied with rain, than which nothing can be conceived more violent and tremendous, and their repetition for several days, joined to the damage they did by killing several of our sheep, led us to draw presages of an unpleasant nature. Happily, however, for many months we have escaped any similar visitations.
16
The progress made in the settlement, and the situation of affairs at the time of the ship, which conveys this account, sailing for England
FOR the purpose of expediting the public work the male convicts have been divided into gangs, over each of which a person, selected from among themselves, is placed. It is to be regretted that government did not take this matter into consideration before we left England and appoint proper persons with reasonable salaries to execute the office of overseers, as the consequence of our present imperfect plan is such as to defeat in a great measure the purposes for which the prisoners were sent out. The female convicts have hitherto lived in a state of total idleness, except a few who are kept to work in making pegs for tiles and picking up shells for burning into lime. For the last time I repeat that the behaviour of all classes of these people since our arrival in the settlement has been better than could, I think, have been expected from them.
Temporary wooden storehouses covered with thatch or shingles, in which the cargoes of all the ships have been lodged, are completed; and an hospital is erected. Barracks for the military are considerably advanced and little huts to serve until something more permanent can be finished have been raised on all sides. Notwithstanding this the encampments of the marines and convicts are still kept up, and to secure their owners from the coldness of the nights are covered in with bushes and thatched over.
The plan of a town I have already said is marked out. And as freestone of an excellent quality abounds, one requisite towards the completion of it is attained. Only two houses of stone are yet begun, which are intended for the governor and lieutenantgovernor. One of the greatest impediments we meet with is a want of limestone, of which no signs appear. Clay for making bricks is in plenty, and a considerable quantity of them burned and ready for use.
In enumerating the public buildings I find I have been so remiss as to omit an observatory which is erected at a small distance from the encampments. It is nearly completed, and when fitted up with the telescopes and other astronomical instruments sent out by the Board of Longitude, will afford a desirable retreat from the listlessness of a camp evening at Port Jackson. One of the principal reasons which induced the board to grant this apparatus was for the purpose of enabling Lieutenant Dawes of the marines (to whose care it is entrusted) to make observations on a comet which is shortly expected to appear in the southern hemisphere. The latitude of the observatory, from the result of more than three hundred observations, is fixed at 33° 52′ 30″ south, and the longitude at 151° 16′ 30″ east of Greenwich. The latitude of the south head which forms the entrance of the harbour, 33° 51′, and that of the north head opposite to it at 33° 49′ 45″ south.
Since landing here our military force has suffered a diminution of only three persons, a sergeant and two privates. Of the convicts fifty-four have perished, including the executions. Amidst the causes of this mortality, excessive toil and a scarcity of food are not to be numbered, as the reader will easily conceive when informed that they have the same allowance of provisions as every officer and soldier in the garrison, and are indulged by being exempted from labour every Saturday afternoon and Sunday. On the latter of those days they are expected to attend divine service, which is performed either within one of the storehouses or under a great tree in the open air, until a church can be built.
Amidst our public labours, that no fortified post or place of security is yet begun may be a matter of surprise. Were an emergency in the night to happen, it is not easy to say what might not take place before troops, scattered about in an extensive encampment, could be formed so as to act. An event that happened a few evenings since may, perhaps, be the means of forwarding this necessary work. In the dead of night the sentinels on the eastern side of the cove were alarmed by the voices of the Indians talking near their posts. The soldiers on this occasion acted with their usual firmness, and without creating a disturbance acquainted the officer of the guard with the circumstance, who immediately took every precaution to prevent an attack, and at the same time gave orders that no molestation, while they continued peaceable, should be offered them. From the darkness of the night and the distance they kept at, it was not easy to ascertain their number, but from the sound of the voices and other circumstances, it was calculated at near thirty. To their intentions in honouring us with this visit (the only one we have had from them in the last five months) we are strangers, though most probably it was either with a view to pilfer or to ascertain in what security we slept, and the precautions we used in the night. When the bells of the ships in the harbour struck the hour of the night and the sentinels called out on their posts ‘All’s well’, they observed a dead silence, and continued it for some minutes, though talking with the greatest earnestness and vociferation but the moment before. After having remained a considera
ble time they departed without interchanging a syllable with our people.
17
Some thoughts on the advantages which may arise to the mother country from forming the colony
THE author of these sheets would subject himself to the charge of presumption were he to aim at developing the intentions of government in forming this settlement. But without giving offence, or incurring reproach, he hopes his opinion on the probability of advantage to be drawn from hence by Great Britain may be fairly made known.
If only a receptacle for convicts be intended, this place stands unequalled from the situation, extent, and nature of the country. When viewed in a commercial light, I fear its insignificance will appear very striking. The New Zealand hemp, of which so many sanguine expectations were formed, is not a native of the soil; and Norfolk Island, where we made sure to find this article, is also without it. So that the scheme of being able to assist the East Indies with naval stores, in case of a war, must fall to the ground, both from this deficiency and the quality of the timber growing here. Were it indeed possible to transport that of Norfolk Island, its value would be found very great, but the difficulty, from the surf, I am well informed, is so insuperable as to forbid the attempt. Lord Howe Island, discovered by Lieut. Ball, though an inestimable acquisition to our colony, produces little else than the mountain cabbage tree.†
Should a sufficient military force be sent out to those employed in cultivating the ground, I see no room to doubt that in the course of a few years the country will be able to yield grain enough for the support of its new possessors. But to effect this our present limits must be greatly extended, which will require detachments of troops not to be spared from the present establishment. And, admitting the position, the parent country will still have to supply us for a much longer time with every other necessary of life. For after what we have seen, the idea of being soon able to breed cattle sufficient for our consumption must appear chimerical and absurd. From all which it is evident that should Great Britain neglect to send out regular supplies, the most fatal consequences will ensue.
