1792 March. Want of ships. convicta. an opinion as to the necessity of the ships employed on this station being commanded by King's officers, and from them smail vessels may be manned; but no dependance can be placed on convicts. Many great inconveniences attend our being without any ship on this station, and I should have retained the Supply until that vessel had been relieved; but the carpenters who were on the survey were of opinion that after her going once to Norfolk Island repairs would be necessary which could not be given in this country; consequently the Supply, if not sent home, must have remained useless in the harbour, and I had not any use for her seamen. The Gorgon sailed from hence the 18th day of December, since which not any material change has happened; and I am very sorry to say that most of the convicts who were received by the Debilitated last ships still continue in the same debilitated state in which they were landed, and of whom, in less than seven months, two hundred and eighty-eight men have died. In the seven months prior to the arrival of those ships, the deaths were nineteen. The returns of sick this day is-civil and military, eighteen; male convicts, three hundred and ninety-four; and females, seventeen. Many deaths. Want of clothing and tools. of the settle The want of cloathing and of many articles which the Commissary has demanded makes me anxious for the arrival of the ship which was to follow the Pitt. We have not tools sufficient for the people, and the cloathing which has been rec'd for the use of the convicts is so very slight that most of the people are naked a few weeks after they have been cloathed. The Commissary's return will show the quantity of provisions remaining in store, and you will, sir, easily conceive how much this colony must have been thrown back, and still suffers, from having been for such a length of time at a reduced ration. I am very sensible that the colony would have been liberally supplied Difficulties with every necessary but from events which could not have been ment. foreseen; still, sir, the inconveniences are felt, and people are dispirited, particularly the settlers, for whom live stock is much wanted, in order to enable them to support themselves at the expiration of the time for which they are to be supported from the public store (eighteen months). The publick live stock is not sufficient for those settlers to whom I have already granted land; what may be expected by the Dædalus is, I fear, very uncertain, and, at any rate, not to be looked for this year. It is also to be apprehended that the Dædalus, after so long a voyage, may stand in need of considerable repairs, and the best carpenters we have had in this settlement have left it. Live stock wanted. I have, sir, long hoped to see a ship, or a couple of ships, sent from England for the purpose of bringing live stock to this colony, Atlantic, Matilda, Active, Queen, Britannia. The mortality continued. From 1st January to 31st December, 436 convicts died-413 males, 18 females. 1792 and beg leave to observe that if such a ship as the Gorgon was to be properly fitted in England, with only half-a-dozen guns mounted, 19 March. she would be able to bring ten times more live stock than the colony has hitherto received; but then I suppose no live stock to be on board such ship when she leaves the Cape of Good Hope but what is on the public account and intended to be landed in the settlement. A few draft horses, and from fifteen to twenty asses, with two Horses, or three English rams, are much wanted, and the English ewes would do better in this country than the Cape ewes, which grow too fat to breed. The above animals, with cows, ewes, swine, and a couple of bulls, are the only stock wanted. What we received from the Gorgon thrives well, but unfortunately all the bulls died on the passage, and we have not one in the colony. asses, and sheep. settlers. I have, sir, in all my letters pointed out the great advantages which would attend our having a few intelligent farmers as settlers. Farmers as They would do more for the colony than five hundred settlers from soldiers or convicts, very few of whom are calculated for the life they must necessarily lead in this country, where they are so entirely cut off from the gratifications in which most of them have always placed their happiness; but I do not think that so great an encouragement is necessary to be given at present to settlers who may be sent out as there was at first. I think those who are to be supported from the public store should not receive that support for Support more than eighteen months, in the room of two years, as I find from the proposed, and that at the expiration of the eighteen months they should return all the convicts they may have been allowed, or pay for their hire (in grain) if they retained them any longer. public store. What I feared from the kind of settlers I have been obliged to Unsatisfacaccept has happened in several instances. They have grown tired tory settlers. of a life so different to that in which they had been brought up, and wish to give up their grounds, or have sold the little live stock they had raised to procure articles from which they do not reap any real benefit, and which they find means of getting from the ships. But, of fifty-eight settlers who have been placed round Parramatta, only half-a-dozen have hitherto come under this description, and four convicts, whose times being expired, became settlers, now support a convict each, who works for them. One settler went away when the last ships sailed, and two more have left their grounds and gone on board the Pitt, and I have just received an account of twenty-two men and nine women who are received on board that ship, the terms for which they had been sentenced being expired. Thus will the best people always be The best carried away, for those who cannot be received on board the ships carried as seamen or carpenters pay for their passage. people away. The maize, which is now getting in, turns out much better than could have been expected from the dry weather and the late Corn mills season in which it was put into the ground. Mills for grinding want. an urgent 1792 19 March. Maize, barley, and wheat. this grain are much wanted. The iron mills which have been sent out are very soon rendered useless; they are said to be not of the best kind, and the people who use them cannot be supposed to be the most careful. A windmill will save an infinite deal of labour. The wheat of last year (about four hundred bushels) has been issued to the people; the wheat of this year's growth, which is estimated at five hundred bushels, and seventy bushels of barley, will be kept for seed. I suppose that about nine hundred acres of ground will be sowed this year with maize and wheat; but little labour is done at present, for the people are in general very weak. The ration now issued is, to a man for seven days, five The reduced pounds of flour and four pounds of pork; at which ration we have flour for fifty-two days and pork for one hundred and fortyseven days. ration. Norfolk Island. At Norfolk Island, from a mistake made by the storekeeper, they did not receive their full proportion of beef and pork when the last supplies were sent to the island; but seven weeks' beef and thirteen weeks' pork (at the established ration), with what stores and cloathing can be spared, are now shipped on board the Pitt, and that ship will sail for the island in a few days. The owners of the Pitt are to be paid six hundred and fifty-one pounds freight for the provisions, &c., which the ship carries; and the Supplies for master having offer'd to proceed to Calcutta, and take his chance of being hired to bring the provisions to this settlement which have been ordered by the Atlantic, if from any accident that ship should have been prevented reaching Calcutta, I have availed myself of his offer, it not being attended with any expence to the Crown. He proceeds to Calcutta immediately after landing what he has on board for Norfolk Island, and I have sent duplicates of my letters which went by the Atlantic to Lord Cornwallis and Messrs. Lambert & Co., from whom the provisions were to be purchased, so that we may be pretty certain of receiving the flour and pease which have been ordered; but I shall not think it necessary to send for any further supplies, as I understand by your letter that another ship was to follow the Pitt, and that the colony would be furnished with what might be judged requisite. Pressure of If it should appear that I have too frequently adverted to our wants, my being probed by the wants of every individual, and what I feel still more, the knowing how much might have been done in the time I have been in this country, and in how very different a state it would have been had we been more fortunate in receiving the necessary supplies and a few intelligent men, so very requisite in a young colony, will, I hope, plead my excuse. circum stances. The extraordinary accounts which have been given of this country have induced me frequently to enter into little details wch. I thought might lead to the forming a just opinion of it. 1792 Report on And I now, sir, inclose the copy of a letter* which does not, I believe, give a more favorable account of the soil than what it 19 March. deserves, for when I ordered the ground to be examined I particularly directed the report to be made with such caution the soil. that on any future examination the soil might appear in every part to be to the full as good as it should be represented. The person who has examined the ground was sent out in the Gorgon as a superintendant, was brought up a gardener, and has been for several months employed in surveying and marking out allotments of land for the settlers, and he is a very steady man, and may be supposed to be a much better judge of the good or A good bad qualities of the ground than any of those persons who have judge. hitherto given their opinions. I have, &c., IN obedience to your Excellency's directions, I have attended to the land at and round Parramatta, and it is my opinion that where the thirteen settlers are, at the foot of Prospect Hill, the land is excellent. It is a black rich light soil, in depth from fourteen Rich light to twenty inches, and for a considerable distance to the southward, westward, and eastward of those settlers the land is very good. soil. Where the four settlers at the northern farm are, and for several miles to the northward and to the eastward of them, the ground is very excellent. It is a fine rich clammy light loam, Fine loam. from fifteen inches to two feet in depth. Round the fifteen settlers at the Ponds, at the Field of Mars, where the eight marine settlers are placed, and where the nine eastern settlers are, the land is a very good light loam of a Light loam. middling depth. Ruse's, Williams's, and Stewart's grounds are exceeding good; Schaffer's, Webb's, and Reid's allotments are of a middling quality, inclining to a loamy sand. It appears to me that all the above settlers will succeed very Good well, excepting two at Prospect Hill-John Silverthorn, who prospects. employs his time chiefly in working for the other settlers, and Thos. Martin, a person entirely ignorant respecting agriculture; and at the Ponds, Thos. Kelly, Jos. Marshall, and Edward Elliott ; they are persons who cultivate their ground in a very slovenly manner, and are very dilatory. for failure. The above five named have complained that their ground is bad, No excuse and will produce nothing. I have carefully examined into it, and I find it to proceed from the before-mentioned causes, and not from sterility in the soil. good land. I likewise have attended to the nature of the ground at the new Plenty of farms, where I find several hundred, yea, some thousands, of acres of very good land fit for cultivating. From Mr. David Burton, Superintendent at Parramatta. wound received accidentally while shooting, 13 April, 1792. He died from a gunshot 1792 The ground in cultivation at Parramatta is good, inclining to 19 March. sand, and the greatest part of what is enclosed for cattle is of a middling quality, very fit for pasture. Proper working necessary. 20 March. Provost Marshal for Norfolk Registrar Supplies from India. I beg leave to observe here that where the different species of red gum-trees grow the earth has a great portion of oils mixed with it, and unless the ground is properly worked and turned over to meliorate and disolve those oils, the first crop will come to little account. DAVID BURTON, Superintendent. GOVERNOR PHILLIP TO THE RIGHT HON. HENRY DUNDAS. I have the honour to inform you that I have appointed Mr. Fane Edge, who has for some time done the duty of Town Adjutant at this place, to be Provost-Marshall of Norfolk Island, until his Majesty's pleasure is known; such an officer being much wanted on the island, and the person I have appointed being properly qualified for that office, I beg leave to recommend him for a confirmation of the appointment, with such salary as may be judged proper. I have, sir, also appointed Mr. Richard Atkins* to be Registrar of the Vice-Admiralty Court, in the room of the late Commissary Miller, deceased, who held that office, and beg leave to recommend him likewise for confirmation. I have, &c., A. PHILLIP. GOVERNOR PHILLIP TO LORD CORNWALLIS. I had the honour of communicating to your Lordship the instructions I had received from his Majesty's Secretary of State for the Home Department, respecting any supplies which might be purchased in India for the use of this colony by Lieutenant Bowen, a naval agent, who sailed from hence in October, 1791, with orders to proceed to Calcutta in the Atlantic, store-ship, for the purpose of purchasing flour and pease for the use of this settlement. Since the departure of that ship the Pitt has arrived at this port, and after landing her cargo was to have gone to Madrass and Bombay on the owners' account; but her commander having offered to proceed first to Calcutta, at the risk and expence of the owners of the ship, in order to take his chance of being hired by Messrs. Lambert, Ross, and Biddulph, to bring provisions to this settlement if, unfortunately, any accident should have Instructions happened to the Atlantic in her passage from hence, I have availed myself of that offer, and have the honour to inclose your Lordship a copy of my former letter, and the instructions given the agent for procuring the necessary quantity of provisions. for the agent. Afterwards Judge-Advocate. A. PHILLIP. |