Transactions of the Colony to the end of November,1791.
The extreme dryness of the preceding summer has been noticed.It had operated so far in the beginning of June that we dreaded a want of water for common consumption most of the little reservoirs in the neighbourhood of Sydney being dried up.The small stream near the town was so nearly exhausted (being only the drain of a morass)that a ship could not have watered at it,and the 'Supply'was preparing to sink casks in a swamp when rain fell and banished our apprehensions.
June,1791.On the second instant,the name of the settlement,at the head of the harbour (Rose Hill)was changed,by order of the governor,to that of Parramatta,the native name of it.As Rose Hill has,however,occurred so often in this book,I beg leave,to avoid confusion,still to continue the appellation in all future mention of it.
Our travelling friend Boladeree,who makes so conspicuous a figure in the last chapter,about this time committed an offence which we were obliged to notice.He threw a spear at a convict in the woods,and wounded him.The truth was,some mischievous person belonging to us had wantonly destroyed his canoe,and he revenged the injury on the first of our people whom he met unarmed.He now seemed to think the matter adjusted;and probably such is the custom they observe in their own society in similar cases.Hearing,however,that an order was issued to seize him,or in case that could not be effected,to shoot him,he prudently dropped all connection with us and was for a long time not seen.
But if they sometimes injured us,to compensate they were often of signal benefit to those who needed their assistance:two instances of which had recently occurred.A boat was overset in the harbour Baneelon and some other natives,who saw the accident happen,immediately plunged in,and saved all the people.When they had brought them on shore,they undressed them,kindled a fire and dried their clothes,gave them fish to eat and conducted them to Sydney.
The other instance was of a soldier lost in the woods,when he met a party of natives.He at first knew not whether to flee from them,or to implore their assistance.Seeing among them one whom he knew,he determined to communicate his distress to him and to rely on his generosity.
The Indian told him that he had wandered a long way from home,but that he would conduct him thither,on the single condition of his delivering up a gun which he held in his hand,promising to carry it for him and to restore it to him at parting.The soldier felt little inclination to surrender his arms,by which he would be put entirely in their power.
But seeing no alternative,he at last consented;on which the whole party laid down their spears and faithfully escorted him to the nearest part of the settlement,where the gun was given up,and they took their leave without asking for any remuneration,or even seeming to expect it.
The distressful state of the colony for provisions continued gradually to augment until the 9th of July,when the Mary Anne transport arrived from England.This ship had sailed from the Downs so lately as the 25th of February,having been only four months and twelve days on her passage.She brought out convicts,by contract,at a specific sum for each person.But to demonstrate the effect of humanity and justice,of 144female convicts embarked on board only three had died,and the rest were landed in perfect health,all loud in praise of their conductor.
The master's name was Munro;and his ship,after fulfilling her engagement with government,was bound on the southern fishery.The reader must not conclude that I sacrifice to dull detail,when he finds such benevolent conduct minutely narrated.The advocates of humanity are not yet become too numerous:but those who practise its divine precepts,however humble and unnoticed be their station,ought not to sink into obscurity,unrecorded and unpraised,with the vile monsters who deride misery and fatten on calamity.
July,1791.If,however,the good people of this ship delighted us with their benevolence,here gratification ended.I was of a party who had rowed in a boat six miles out to sea,beyond the harbour's mouth,to meet them;and what was our disappointment,on getting aboard,to find that they had not brought a letter (a few official ones for the governor excepted)to any person in the colony!Nor had they a single newspaper or magazine in their possession;nor could they conceive that any person wished to hear news;being as ignorant of everything which had passed in Europe for the last two years as ourselves,at the distance of half the circle."No war--the fleet's dismantled,"was the whole that we could learn.When I asked whether a new parliament had been called,they stared at me in stupid wonder,not seeming to comprehend that such a body either suffered renovation or needed it.
"Have the French settled their government?"
"As to that matter I can't say;I never heard;but,damn them,they were ready enough to join the Spaniards against us."
"Are Russia and Turkey at peace?"
"That you see does not lie in my way;I have heard talk about it,but don't remember what passed."
"For heaven's sake,why did you not bring out a bundle of newspapers?
You might have procured a file at any coffee house,which would have amused you,and instructed us?"
"Why,really,I never thought about the matter until we were off the Cape of Good Hope,when we spoke a man of war,who asked us the same question,and then I wished I had."
To have prosecuted inquiry farther would have only served to increase disappointment and chagrin.We therefore quitted the ship,wondering and lamenting that so large a portion of plain undisguised honesty should be so totally unconnected with a common share of intelligence,and acquaintance with the feelings and habits of other men.
