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1791

5 Nov.

Eighty-six settlers.

The first settler.

that we have now eighty-six* settlers here and at Norfolk Island that is, thirty-one from the marines, eleven seamen, and forty-four from those convicts whose sentences have expired; there are, likewise, more marines who have desired to be received as settlers when the detachment is to be embarked. No man of bad character has been received as a settler.

The first settler was a convict whose time being expired, an hut was built, and one acre and an half of ground cleared for him at Parramatta; he entered on his farm of thirty acres the 21st of November, 1789,† and was supported from the public store until the 25th of February, 1791, when he declined receiving any further support, being then able to maintain himself. He has since married, and has a child, both of whom he wishes to take off the public store next Christmas.

A superintendent who was sent out in the Guardian has likewise become a settler; he was not calculated for the employment for which he came out, but as a settler will be a useful man. His salary as a superintendent is to cease from the first quarter-day after he became a settler, and which he did the 30th day of March, 1791. All these people are doing well, and I hope will be able to doing well. maintain themselves when the time expires for which they are to be supported from the public stores. The times on which the settlers entered on their lands, the conditions, &c., are mentioned in the inclosed return; and as we are at some loss respecting the form of grants, I write to Mr. Nepean on the subject.

Settlers

Modification instructions.

of

isolation.

It was my intention not to receive any settlers after the marines and seamen late of his Majesty's ship Sirius had been received but according to the instructions, wich pointed out the maintaining such settler from the public store for twelve months only; but had I adhered to that determination, I must have given up all thoughts of procuring any settlers from the detachment; and any convict who might have been admitted as a settler to be supported by the Crown for one year only would have passed that year under the apprehensions of not being able to support himself at the expiration of that time, and would probably have been induced to have given up his ground before half the year was expired.

The placing the settlers with allotments of land for the Crown Dangers of betwixt every two settlers was done§; but being, in consequence of that disposition, surrounded with timber, out of sight and out of hearing of each other, they were exposed to a tribe of natives, who, living in the woods, and seldom coming on the sea-coast, have never mixed with us, and always have been hostile; by these people the settlers were several times alarmed, and as they were single men, or at most a man and woman, in the little hut they

+ According to the return (p. 540), the Post, pp. 539-541. § Vide Phillip's additional

The official return gives 87. Post, p. 541. farm was granted, 30th March, 1791. instructions. Ante, p. 258.

1791

5 Nov.

inconvenient

had reared, I found it necessary to let subsequent settlers occupy all the ground which had been set apart for the Crown. The Royal Instructions respecting the division of land may be carried into execution when large allotments of land are made, and several men are to be employed in the cultivation; but when the allotments are small, and occupied by only one person, independent of the risque the settler runs from the natives, many inconveniences attend Isolation that disposition; they cannot so readily assist each other in moving as well as heavy timber; the labour of fencing in their grounds is greatly dangerous. increased, and every man is obliged to watch his own grain, on which, from being surrounded with a wood, depredations are more likely to escape detection. I have directed Lieutenant-Governor King not to promise in future more than ten acres of land at Norfolk Island (until instructions are received on that head) to any convict who is to be admitted as a settler, and none are to be received as settlers on the island but for very meritorious behaviour.

settlers.

Here your Lordship will permit me once more to observe how Need of much we stand in need of a few honest, intelligent settlers. The superior vicious and the idle are not easily reformed while they are incorporated in one body. Precept has little effect, but example will do much, and although I can still say with great truth and equal satisfaction that the convicts in general behave better than ever could be expected, and that their crimes, with very few exceptions, have been confined to the procuring for themselves the common necessaries of life, crimes which it may be presumed will not be committed when a more plentiful ration renders those little robberies unnecessary; still we shall want some good characters to whom these people might look up. Having them will be attended with every advantage, and it is to be remembered that the business of cultivation is at present in the hands of few who ever turned their thoughts that way before they came to this country, and very few indeed have more than a very superficial knowledge in agriculture.

law officers.

The opinion of his Majesty's Attorney and Solicitor General Opinion of has been made public.

His Majesty's ship Gorgon arrived the 21st of September, and The Gorgon. Captain Parker, having represented to me that the ship required repairs which would take some time, and the Atlantic, already mentioned to your Lordship as being taken into the service in order to bring a further supply of provisions from Calcutta, being ready to sail, the 26th of October, with provisions and stores for The Atlantic Norfolk Island, Lieutenant-Governor King went on board that sent to ship, and took with him Captain Paterson, who will have one company for the service of the island.

Calcutta.

For the notice which has been taken of Mr. King's services, and King's promotion. the part your Lordship had in procuring him the rank he now holds in his Majesty's navy, I feel myself much obliged, and from

Ante, pp. 462, 463.

1791

5 Nov.

Transports

Island.

the knowledge I have of that officer, am confident that his future conduct will merit the honor he has received.

It had been necessary to send two of the transports to Norfolk for Norfolk Island with convicts, stores, and provisions before his Majesty's ship Gorgon arrived. In my letters to Mr. Nepean the inconveniences attending the masters of those ships not being informed that it might be necessary for some of them to deliver their cargo at Norfolk Island will be pointed out.

The Gorgon, notwithstanding the assistance given by the shipwrights belonging to the colony, which could be spared from the Supply, armed tender, not being likely to be ready for sea before the beginning of December, the Queen, transport, which sailed from hence the 2nd instant with stores and part of a company of Major Ross the New South Wales Corps, was ordered to receive Major Ross, expected. with the officers and men under his command. They may be expected to arrive here* by the time the Gorgon will be ready to sail, and which will enable that ship to sail for Europe some weeks sooner than if she had gone to Norfolk Island.

The Third
Fleet.

Of the convicts mentioned by your Lordship to be sent out, 1,695 males and 168 females have been landed, with six free women and ten children. It appears by the returns from the Transports that 199 deaths. 194 males, 4 females, and 1 child died on the passage; and, although the convicts landed from these ships were not so sickly as those brought out last year, the greatest part of them are so emaciated, so Bad state of worn away by long confinement, or want of food, or from both these causes, that it will be long before they recover their strength, and which many of them never will recover. Your Lordship will readily conceive that this addition to our numbers will for many months be a deadweight on the stores. The surgeon's returns of this day are: "Under medical treatment and incapable of labour, 626-576 of whom are those landed from the last ships."

the convicts.

Charge against the master of

The examination of the master and mate of the Queen, transport, having been referred to me by the magistrates who took it, the Queen. I have the honor of transmitting an attested copy to your Lordship, for I doubt if I have the power of inflicting a punishment adequate to the crime.

The

Guardian's cargo.

The Commissary's return, which is inclosed, will show the few articles received from the Cape of Good Hope, and which are the last of the Guardian's cargo. I should have hoped that iron pots, and many articles of husbandry, would have been saved, and of which the colony stands in great need, but nothing of that kind has been received. The iron pots in the colony before the last 1,800 convicts were landed amounted to no more than what were barely sufficient, and none came with those people.

* From Norfolk Island, where Major Ross had acted as Lieutenant-Governor.

The proceedings before the magistrates are not on record. According to Collins's "Account of New South Wales," vol. 1, p. 180, the master of the Queen was accused by the convicts on board of withholding their provisions, and the charge was in substance proved.

The Commissary is directed to make a return of those articles most wanted in the colony.

1791

5 Nov.

Parramatta.

A return of the quantity of land in cultivation at Parramatta Cultivais enclosed. The town, which I have named Parramatta, extends tion at from the foot of Rose Hill for one mile to the eastward along the creek, and I have named it Parramatta, that being the name given by the natives to the spot on which the town is situated. I have, &c.,

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Ground in Cultivation at Parramatta, November, 1791.

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Not cultivated; but cleared.

Crescent mostly planted with vines.

The Governor's garden partly sewed with maize and wheat.
Garden ground belonging to individuals.
Land in cultivation by the N. S. Wales Corps.
Cleared and to be sowed with turnips.

Ground in cultivation by settlers as per return of settlers.
Ground in cultivation by officers of the civil and military.
Enclosed and the timber thinned for feeding cattle.

[Enclosure.]

ENCOURAGEMENT TO SETTLERS.

THE following is the encouragement given to the settlers named in the list which accompanies this:

Cultivation at Parramatta.

To James Ruse.-One acre and an half of ground, broke up, Ruse. assisted in clearing the heavy timber off five acres, cloathed and supplied with the ration issued from the public store for fifteen months, an hut built, grain for sowing his ground the first year, with the necessary implements of husbandry. Two sow pigs and six hens given him.

Reid,

Robert Webb and William Reid, to be supported and cloathed webb and from the public stores for eighteen months; to have huts built for them, and to receive the necessary quantity of seed, grain, and implements of husbandry requisite for sowing the ground the first year; two sow pigs, one cock, six hens. The above two settlers likewise were assisted in clearing two acres of ground. Philip Schaffer, himself and daughter, to be supplied with a schaffer. daily ration as issued from the public stores for eighteen months; an hut to be built on the premises, two acres of ground to be cleared by cutting down the timber and burning it off the land; to have the labour of four male convicts for eighteen months, during which time they are to be victualled and cloathed from the public store to receive the necessary tools and implements of husbandry, setta. grain for sowing the ground the first year, and two sow pigs.

1791

seamen.

The marines and seamen who have become settlers on Norfolk Marines and Island to be cloathed and victualled for eighteen months, to be supplied with a proportion of grain and a proper assortment of such tools and implements of husbandry as may be necessary for clearing and cultivating the land, as well as with such a proportion of hogs and poultry as may be necessary and can be spared from the general stock of the settlement, not to be less than two breeding sows, one cock and six hens, to have half an acre of ground cleared of timber, and the necessary assistance given for building a hut sufficient to shelter the settler from the weather and secure his property.

Convicts.

The same encouragement will be given to those marines who may become settlers on the embarkation of the detachment for England. Those convicts whose sentences of transportation expired and have been permitted to become settlers at or near Parramatta, are to be supported and cloathed from the public store for eighteen months, to receive two sow pigs with the necessary implements of husbandry and grain for sowing the ground the first year.

Those who have wives or children are to support them at the expiration of the above eighteen months.

Return of Lands granted in his Majesty's territory of New
South Wales and its dependencies.

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