Transactions at Norfolk Island
The following particulars, respecting NORFOLK-ISLAND, which comprehend the substance of Lieutenant-Governor King's latest dispatches, being dated the 29th of December, 1791; and which were received the 30th of November 1792, by the William and Anne transport, that ought to have touched at Port Jackson, but was forced by contrary winds to bear away for England.
The wheat harvest at Norfolk-Island was finished by the 10th of December, 1791; when about one thousand bushels of wheat were got in, and well thatched in stacks. The Indian corn had suffered by a series of dry hot weather ever since the preceding July.
Lieutenant-Governor King finding great inconvenience from the size and construction of the frame of a store-house, which was 80 feet long by 24 feet wide, as well as from its situation, it being near the shore, determined to build one, 40 feet by 24, on the Terrace, at Mount-George: he had also found it necessary to build a goal, opposite the barrack-yard, and another at Queensborough.
A good road has been made to the landing rock in Cascade-Bay, so that now, any thing may be landed with the greatest safety.
Eighteen copper bolts, six copper sheets, two sixteen-inch cables, two hundred weight of lead, one fish-tackle fall, twenty pounds of chalk, three rudder chains, two top-chains, and iron-work of various sorts, had been saved from the wreck of the Sirius; the greatest part of these articles, Lieutenant-Governor King proposed sending to Port Jackson.
Ten settlers, who lately belonged to the Sirius, were doing exceedingly well, but there was reason to fear that great part of the marine settlers, when the novelty of their situation was gone off, would have neither ability nor inclination to improve the portions of ground allotted them: they had already been extremely troublesome, and the lieutenant-governor had been under the necessity of imposing heavy fines on two; the first, for beating the watch and using inflammatory language, and the second, for cruelly beating a convict woman.
The convict settlers were all doing very well, and were quiet, attentive, and orderly: they were increased to the number of forty; the whole number of settlers on the island were eighty, and it will be difficult to fix more until the ground is farther cleared.
A quantity of coral and other testaceous substances, with different kinds of stones, were burnt forty-eight hours, and produced a very fine white lime, much superior to any lime made of chalk, and it proved a very tough cement.
Eighteen convicts, under the direction of an overseer, who is a settler, were employed in making bricks. A bricklayer was much wanted, as one who was sent in the Queen, died on the passage.
Lieutenant-Governor King finding it necessary to discharge Mr. Doridge, the superintendant of convicts at Queensborough, has appointed Mr. D'arcy Wentworth to succeed him: Mr. Wentworth had behaved with the greatest attention and propriety as assistant-surgeon, which duty he still continued to discharge. Mr. W. N. Chapman was appointed store-keeper at Phillipsburgh.
A corporal and six privates were stationed in a house with a good garden to it, on an eminence commanding Queensborough, and a serjeant and ten men were fixed in a similar situation at Phillipsburgh, and they were kept as separate from the convicts as possible.
The lieutenant-governor had been under the necessity of appointing a town-adjutant and inspector of out-posts, and he named Lieutenant Abbott for these duties; he also established rules and regulations for the observance of every person on the island, and for keeping a night-patrole: a deputy provost-marshal was also appointed.
The wreck of the Sirius went to pieces on the 1st of January, 1792, and every thing possible was saved out of her. The same day, every person on the island went to a reduced allowance of provisions, but the fish daily caught was sufficient to serve all the inhabitants three times over.
Some of the settlers were permitted to employ the convicts as their servants, on condition of maintaining them without the aid of the public store; and some of the convicts were allowed to work for themselves, on the same condition.
It will be absolutely necessary to establish a court of justice, as corporal punishments have but little effect; although robberies were confined only to a particular class of convicts, and were by no means general.
By the 15th of January, two hundred and sixty bushels of Indian corn were gathered in; a number of acres were then in different states of growth, which were likely to yield about three hundred bushels more. The wheat thrashed well, and yielded plentifully. The granary was finished, and every endeavour was used to keep the wevil out of it.