The Indian corn produces well, and is, in my opinion, the best grain to cultivate in any quantity, on account of the little trouble attending its growth and manufacturing for eating. 1791 10 Jan. Sugar cane. The Rio Janeiro sugar-cane grows very well, and is thriving. Vines and oranges are very thriving; of the former there will Vines and be a great quantity in a few years. Potatoes thrive remarkably oranges. well, and yield a very great increase. I think two crops a year of that article may be got with great ease. Every kind of garden vegetable thrives well, and comes to great Vegetables perfection. cultivation. The quantity of ground cleared and in cultivation belonging to Land in the publick was, on the 13th March, 1790, from twenty-eight to thirty-two acres, and about eighteen cleared by free people and convicts for their gardens. London, 10 Jany., 1791. PHILIP GIDLEY KING. WARRANT FOR SEAL. At the Court of St. James's, the 21st of January, 1791. Present:- The King's most excellent Majesty. 21 Jan. A NEW Seal for his Majesty's Government of New South Wales having been this day laid before his Majesty in Council for his royal approbation; his Majesty was pleased to approve thereof, and to order, as it is hereby ordered, that the Right Honourable Lord Grenville, one of his Majesty's Principal Secretaries of Warrant for State, do cause a warrant to be prepared for his Majesty's royal prepared. signature, for transmitting the said seal to the Governor of New South Wales, and empowering him to make use thereof within the said Government.* Sir, SECRETARY STEPHENS TO CAPTAIN PARKER. † seal to be 27 Jan. 27th Jan'y, 1791. Dr. Maskelyne, the Astronomer Royal, having acquainted my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty by his letter of yesterday's date, that he is desirous of sending to Lieut. Dawes at Port Jackson, for the use of the Observatory there, the nautical Sydney Observatory. almanacks for 1793 to 1796, tables required to be used therewith, and a transit instrument. I am commanded by their Lordships to signify their direction to you to receive the same on board the ship you command, and deliver them upon your arrival at Port Jackson agreeable to their address. I am, &c., P. S. * The seal is described in the Order in Council of 4th August, 1790. Ante, p. 389. In command of H.M.S. Gorgon. 1791 30 Jan. Convicts' guard. 30 Jan. Sir, MAJOR GROSE TO UNDER SECRETARY NEPEAN. Forton Barracks, January 30th, 1791. I herewith send to you the state of the New South Wales Corps as they at present are. Their numbers, you will perceive, are allready insufficient to supply the different detachments required for guarding the convicts. Should any further desertion take place previous to their departure (than which nothing is more likely) J don't know how we shall manage. The return you desire after our embarkation I will take care to send you (that is to say if I am here); if I am not, the officer who is left will, of course, attend to the business as exactly as myself. With much respect, I have, &c., FRANS. GROSE, Major-Com't., [Enclosure.] Forton Barracks, January 30th, 1791. State of the New South Wales Corps, containing the strength of the detachments allready sail'd for Port Jackson; as also the numbers which are now quarter'd at Forton Barracks, and embarked on board the Gorgon, man-of-war. 1 Feb. Waiting to compleat. 1 . 3 1 : 1 4 4 2 98 2 1 2 14 16 7 8 7 4 138 17 21 33 13 16 14 12 8 252 42 31 16 FRAN'S GROSE, Major Com't, N. S. Wales Corps. LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR KING TO UNDER SECRETARY NEPEAN.* As the transports destined for Port Jackson will soon be going, and not having had an opportunity of seeing you this some time past, owing to your business and the number of people you have had with you when I have called at your office, induces me A private letter. to take this method of mentioning a few circumstances respecting Governor Phillip and his wants, which I can assure you are absolutely necessary. 1791 1 Feb. I am ignorant whether he made any mention in his despatches of the great inconvenience that will attend the vast number of convicts who say the term of their transportation is expired. It Expirces. is needless for me to say that those who can get a passage expect leave to quit the colony; on this head Governor P* desired appliances. I would speak to you; he does not know for what term of years any of them are sentenced, and this he wishes to have sent him. When I left Port Jackson there were no seines there. This is Fishing an article that was much wanted. The common seines which are issued to the Navy are not durable, as they are in general rotten before they arrive in that country; the tanned seines would answer much better, and if they cannot be procured in London they can be easily got at Plymouth, where the Atlantic will very soon be. Fishing lines and hooks are also wanted; and coals Coals and will be absolutely necessary. Candles there are none. candles. vessel I am told that at Deptford yard there is the compleat frame, &c., of a vessell of forty-five tons, which was to have gone in the Discovery, but it was found too cumbersome for that vessell to A small take. This is a thing that would be of the greatest use to the wanted. colony, and what is much wanted, if it could be put on board the transport in the room of the hospital. There are a number of other articles, of which I gave you a list some time ago, all of which are much wanted. Should anything in this letter strike you as improper, I hope when you consider the constant recollection I must have of the situation of the colony when I left it, and the gratefull friendship I owe Mr. Phillip, will, I have no doubt, prevent any misconstruction of the intent of this letter, as I can assure you it is only done to remind you of the list I gave you some time ago, as it may have escaped your attention from the multiplicity of your business. I have not yet seen Lord C—,† as he has not been in town since the last week, and is not expected till the beginning of the I am, &c., next. PHILIP GIDLEY KING. have finished with my letter-book I'll thank you for it. SECRETARY STEPHENS TO LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR KING. Sir, Admiralty, 2nd Feb'y, 1791. Having laid before my Lords Comm'rs of the Adm'y your letter of this day's date, enclosing a paper containing some remarks * Governor Phillip. + Lord Chatham, first Lord of the Admiralty. He succeeded Lord Howe in 1788. This book contained, no doubt, copies of the letters sent to Phillip by King during his term of office as Commandant of Norfolk Island. The letters are missing, but the letterbook containing copies of them is amongst the papers lent to the Government by the Hon. P. G. King, M.L.C. 2 Feb. 1791 2 Feb. 10 Feb. made by you in your passage to Port Jackson in New South Wales, I am to acquaint you that their Lordships are well pleased with your having sent it. Sir, I am, &c., P. S. SECRETARY STEPHENS TO LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR KING. Admiralty, 10th Feb'y, 1891. I have received your letter of the 8th inst., transmitting a traced copy of the coast of New South Wales, and I am commanded Coast chart. by their Lordships to acquaint you that they have sent the same to Captain Parker, of his Majesty's ship the Gorgon, as it may be useful to him after his approaching the said coast. 10 Feb. Flax manu- I am, &c., ANDREW HUME* TO GOVERNOR PHILLIP. P. S. Sir, I beg leave to inform you with my progress on the manufactory of the flax plant and my opinion of it. I have had two pieces of cloath made, specimen of which Major Ross intends to send pr. the Supply for your Excellency's inspection, together with a specimen of the flax; and I have the strongest hopes of making great improvement, specimen of which I hope to have ready to send to your Excellency by the next ship; and as I am much in want of proper materials, as well as proper people for the purpose of carrying on the manufactory, I hope your Excellency will be pleas'd to give orders for me to be provided with the following articles, Machinery which are much wanted :-Looms, spinning-wheels, and, in particular, weavers' bushes, oil, and different sets of stays, from fifteen to twenty-four score, three quarters and half wide. Spinningwheels and looms may be made here. Should your Excellency find a stay-maker amongst the convicts, he is a person much wanted here. I have sent a cask of flax seed, directed to your Excellency, marked A.H., which has been dried in the pod; one piece of the cloath I have tried to bleach; but, as time will not permit, it will only serve for your Excellency to form an idea of what may be made of it. ANDW. HUME. Cascade Bay, Norfolk Island, 10 February, 1791. wanted. Flax seed sent to Sydney. 11 Feb. P.S. The piece marked with brown, the first made; the blue, the second. Catgut and wire wanted to compleat the spinningwheels. LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR ROSS TO GOVERNOR PHILLIP. Government House, Norfolk, 11 February, 1791. YOUR Excellency will not be a little surprised when I acquaint you that, notwithstanding every exertion that could have been possibly made here to promote the welfare of the crops of grain, Insect pests. the pernicious insects with which this island has been infested in * One of the superintendents sent out by the Home Government. the months of October, November, December, and January have put it out of my power to send you so favourable a report of the harvest as I could wish, or as might have been expected from so grateful a soil. 1791 11 Feb. destroyed. All sorts of grain and all vegetable seeds came up extremely well, and flourished in the highest luxuriancy in the month of September, after which time they were attacked by the grub and caterpillar. The latter were so multitudinous in the months of Grubs and caterpillars. October, November, and December that I had greatly feared there would not have been any wheat, barley, or a cob of maize escape being devoured. Altho' the people were daily employed in picking them from off the maize, yet, however incredible it may appear, we could not perceive any visible decrease, for they still appeared as numerous as ever. The blight also has been very destructive, Blight. nor has the fly been less destructive than either of the former, all of which destroy as effectually as fire. Of the crops of wheat there has been better than two acres destroyed by the blight and twenty-one acres by the caterpillar; barley, two acres destroyed by the blight and caterpillar; and maize, thirty-three acres entirely destroyed by the grub and caterpillar; callivances [caravances] Crops French beans, and all other vegetable productions having been attacked by the fly and caterpillar, and so perforated that our first crops were chiefly destroyed. However, as the fly and caterpillar have ceased visiting us, we may expect that this crop will be a good one; I have thirteen acres cropt with callivances and ten acres with potatoes, which will be all out of the ground before it will be wanted for the reception of corn. Potatoes produce well. From ten acres which I had ordered to be planted in the months of June Potatoes a and July I have had in the months of November and December eighteen hundred bushels, two hundred bushels of which, being the refuse, were given to the stock of swine. And as potatoes are an excellent succedaneum for flour, they have been issued to all ranks weekly as part of the ration of flour, by which means a considerable quantity of flour has been saved in store, an account of which from the deputy-commissary will be herewith enclosed. As I have been so fortunate as to find some excellent clay here, which answers the purpose of making bricks, I have therefore employed Clay for twelve of the convicts on that necessary business, most of whom were employed on the above work at Port Jackson. The settlement for some months past has been so much distressed for the want of falling axes, steel, iron, and grindstones, that the public Want of works have been greatly retarded. In justice to the detachment under my command, I have to request that your Excellency will please to take into consideration their real distress. With respect to necessaries, not one of them have a shoe to their feet, nor scarce a shirt to their backs; their situation at this juncture is truly Hardships, deplorable, both men and women having lost almost everything success. bricks. tools. |