第52章

Transactions of the colony until 18th of December 1791,when I quitted it,with an Account of its state at that time.

The Gorgon had arrived on the 21st of September,and the hour of departure to England,for the marine battalion,drew nigh.If I be allowed to speak from my own feelings on the occasion,I will not say that we contemplated its approach with mingled sensations:we hailed it with rapture and exultation.

The 'Supply',ever the harbinger of welcome and glad tidings,proclaimed by her own departure,that ours was at hand.On the 26th of November she sailed for England.It was impossible to view our separation with insensibility:the little ship which had so often agitated our hopes and fears,which from long acquaintance we had learned to regard as part of ourselves,whose doors of hospitality had been ever thrown open to relieve our accumulated wants,and chase our solitary gloom!

In consequence of the offers made to the non-commissioned officers and privates of the marine battalion to remain in the country as settlers or to enter into the New South Wales corps,three corporals,one drummer and 59privates accepted of grants of land,to settle at Norfolk Island and Rose Hill.Of these men,several were undoubtedly possessed of sufficient skill and industry,by the assistance of the pay which was due to them from the date of their embarkation,in the beginning of the year 1787,to the day on which they were discharged,to set out with reasonable hopes of being able to procure a maintenance.But the only apparent reason to which the behaviour of a majority of them could be ascribed was from infatuated affection to female convicts,whose characters and habits of life,I am sorry to say,promise from a connection neither honour nor tranquillity.

The narrative part of this work will,I conceive,be best brought to a termination by a deion of the existing state of the colony,as taken by myself a few days previous to my embarkation in the Gorgon,to sail for England.

December 2nd,1791.Went up to Rose Hill.Public buildings here have not greatly multiplied since my last survey.The storehouse and barrack have been long completed;also apartments for the chaplain of the regiment,and for the judge-advocate,in which last,criminal courts,when necessary,are held;but these are petty erections.

In a colony which contains only a few hundred hovels built of twigs and mud,we feel consequential enough already to talk of a treasury,an admiralty,a public library and many other similar edifices,which are to form part of a magnificent square.The great road from near the landing place to the governor's house is finished,and a very noble one it is,being of great breadth,and a mile long,in a strait line.In many places it is carried over gullies of considerable depth,which have been filled up with trunks of trees covered with earth.All the sawyers,carpenters and blacksmiths will soon be concentred under the direction of a very adequate person of the governor's household.This plan is already so far advanced as to contain nine covered sawpits,which change of weather cannot disturb the operations of,an excellent workshed for the carpenters and a large new shop for the blacksmiths.It certainly promises to be of great public benefit.A new hospital has been talked of for the last two years,but is not yet begun.Two long sheds,built in the form of a tent and thatched,are however finished,and capable of holding 200patients.

The sick list of today contains 382names.Rose Hill is less healthy than it used to be.The prevailing disorder is a dysentery,which often terminates fatally.There was lately one very violent putrid fever which,by timely removal of the patient,was prevented from spreading.

Twenty-five men and two children died here in the month of November.

When at the hospital I saw and conversed with some of the 'Chinese travellers';four of them lay here,wounded by the natives.I asked these men if they really supposed it possible to reach China.They answered that they were certainly made to believe (they knew not how)that at a considerable distance to northward existed a large river,which separated this country from the back part of China;and that when it should be crossed (which was practicable)they would find themselves among a copper-coloured people,who would receive and treat them kindly.

They added,that on the third day of their elopement,one of the party died of fatigue;another they saw butchered by the natives who,finding them unarmed,attacked them and put them to flight.This happened near Broken Bay,which harbour stopped their progress to the northward and forced them to turn to the right hand,by which means they soon after found themselves on the sea shore,where they wandered about in a destitute condition,picking up shellfish to allay hunger.Deeming the farther prosecution of their scheme impracticable,several of them agreed to return to Rose Hill,which with difficulty they accomplished,arriving almost famished.On their road back they met six fresh adventurers sallying forth to join them,to whom they related what had passed and persuaded them to relinquish their intention.There are at this time not less than thirty-eight convict men missing,who live in the woods by day,and at night enter the different farms and plunder for subsistence.

December 3rd,1791.Began my survey of the cultivated land belonging to the public.The harvest has commenced.They are reaping both wheat and barley.The field between the barrack and the governor's house contains wheat and maize,both very bad,but the former particularly so.

In passing through the main street I was pleased to observe the gardens of the convicts look better than I had expected to find them.

The vegetables in general are but mean,but the stalks of maize,with which they are interspersed,appear green and flourishing.