Some time in this month a tree was for the first time observed growing on the banks of the Hawkesbury, the bark of which, when soaked in water, and beaten, was found to be as good as hemp for cordage, spinning easily, and being remarkably strong. The tree grew from 50 to 70 feet high; its diameter was from the smallest size to a foot, and it appeared to be of quick growth. This was rather a fortunate discovery; for every kind of cordage belonging to the settlement was almost wholly expended.
The court of criminal judicature was assembled once in this month, and three persons who had served their period of transportation were a second time transported; one for 14 years, for receiving stolen goods knowing them to be such; and two others for seven years. These two last were vagabonds who had taken up their abode in the woods, where they lived at the expense of the industrious, by committing every kind of depredation on their property.
The public works continued the same as at the end of the last month. The foundation of the building for the reception of the assistant surgeons was laid, and the lower floor of the large granary at Sydney was nearly completed.
Much rain fell during this month. On the morning of the 27th, a heavy squall of wind came on, which, for want of proper care and attention on the part of those employed at the wind-mill, set it going in such a violent manner, that while flying round with great velocity, one of the running stones was broken to pieces; one of which so severely wounded Davis the millwright in the head, that his life was despaired of. A gang of carpenters was immediately ordered to repair the damage it had sustained, and in a few days it was again at work.
May.] Notwithstanding the example which had lately been made of the natives, they were exceedingly troublesome to the settlers in Lane Cove, burning a house and killing some hogs belonging to one of them. This was certainly committing a wanton injury; for neither the burnt house, nor the slaughtered animals, which they left on the spot, could be of any benefit to them. At Kissing Point, another district, they dangerously wounded a settler and his wife, first burning every article belonging to them. The settlers in Lane Cove were so much and so perpetually alarmed by these people, that they collected their whole force, and, a few soldiers being sent to their assistance, went out in the night; and, being directed by their fires to the place where they lay, they discovered a large body of natives, collected, no doubt, for the purpose of attacking and plundering the settlers. Being unwilling to take any of their lives, a volley of musketry was fired over their heads, which so alarmed and terrified them, that they instantly fled, leaving behind them their spears, etc. and about 20 bushels of Indian corn which they had stolen.
It was distressing to observe, that every endeavour to civilise these people proved fruitless. Although they lived among the inhabitants of the different settlements, were kindly treated, fed, and often clothed, yet they were never found to possess the smallest degree of gratitude for such favours. Even Bennillong was as destitute of this quality as the most ignorant of his countrymen. It is an extraordinary fact, that even their children, who had been bred up among the white people, and who, from being accustomed to follow their manner of living, might have been supposed to ill relish the life of their parents, when grown up, have quitted their comfortable abodes, females as well as males, and taken to the same savage mode of living, where the supply of food was often precarious, their comforts not to be called such, and their lives perpetually in danger. As a proof of the little personal safety which they enjoyed, a young woman, the wife of a man named Ye-ra-ni-be, both of whom had been brought up in the settlement from their childhood, was cruelly murdered at the brick-fields by her husband, assisted by another native, Cole-be, who first beat her dreadfully about the head (the common mode of chastising their women), and then put an end to her existence by driving a spear through her heart.
When spoken to or censured for robbing the maize-grounds, these people, to be revenged, were accustomed to assemble in large bodies, burn the houses of the settlers if they stood in lonely situations, and frequently attempted to take their lives; yet they were seldom refused a little corn when they would ask for it. It was imagined that they were stimulated to this destructive conduct by some run-away convicts who were known to be among them at the time of their committing these depredations. In order to get possession of these pests, a proclamation was issued, calling on them by name to surrender themselves within 14 days, declaring them outlaws if they refused, and requiring the inhabitants, as they valued the peace and good order of the settlement, and their own security, to assist in apprehending and bringing them to justice. The governor also signified his determination, if any of the natives could be detected in the act of robbing the settlers, to hang one of them in chains upon a tree near the spot as a terror to the others. Could it have been foreseen, that this was their natural temper, it would have been wiser to have kept them at a distance, and in fear, which might have been effected without so much of the severity which their conduct had sometimes compelled him to exercise towards them. But the kindness which had been shown them, and the familiar intercourse with the white people in which they had been indulged, tended only to make them acquainted with those concerns in which they were the most vulnerable, and brought on all the evils which they suffered from them.
In the evening of the 16th, his Majesty's ship Supply arrived from the Cape of Good Hope; from which place she sailed about the middle of last month, with a quantity of young cattle on board for the settlement. She had met with much bad weather on her passage, and, being exceedingly infirm, her pumps had been kept constantly at work. She landed 31 cows, five mares, and 27 ewe sheep, all of them in good health, though much weakened from the nature of their voyage: eight cows, two bulls, and 13 sheep had died.
During the night of this day, a boat which had been fishing at a small distance to the southward of Botany Bay, brought up to the settlement three persons, late belonging to a ship called the Sydney Cove, which had sailed from Bengal with a cargo for this port upon speculation. The governor was informed by Mr. Clarke, the supercargo (one of the three who had arrived in the fishing boat), that the ship had sprung a dangerous leak before she had rounded the South Cape, which, as soon as they had got to the eastward of the southern part of the coast, increased to so great a degree as to render it absolutely necessary to haul in for the land. The wind being from the SE they were enabled to accomplish this, and reached it exactly in time to land the ship, when she was just dropping from under them, having actually sunk down to the fore channels, when they ran her upon the ground, which they did on an island in lat. 40 degrees 37 minutes south. They met with this misfortune in the middle of last February; soon after which a certain number of them resolved to attempt the reaching Port Jackson in the ship's long boat, leaving the commander and about thirty people to stay by the wreck. The boat being prepared, 17 people embarked in her, and sailed; but meeting with much bad weather they were again wrecked, being driven on shore on the coast near Point Hicks. Here they all landed, and endeavoured to travel northward, but dropped off one by one and lost each other daily, until the number was reduced to five, the three who had arrived (the supercargo, a sailor, and a Lascar), the first mate of the ship, who had undertaken the navigation of the long boat, and the carpenter. These two, from excessive fatigue, had been unable to proceed any further, and had stopped the day before their companions in this miserable journey had been taken up by the fishing boat.
To look for these unfortunate people, a whale boat was dispatched the following day, properly provided with such comforts as were necessary for persons in their weak and wretched condition. The man who had met with the supercargo was sent in the whale boat, and they proceeded to the spot which Mr. Clarke had described as that where they had lost sight of their companions; but, after a long search, they could only find some trifling articles, which were known to have been in their possession; and, these being bloody, it was conjectured that they had been killed in this very helpless condition by the natives, whom, in the course of their long march, they had found frequently very kind, and at other times extremely savage. To add to the probability of this having been their end, Mr. Clarke mentioned the morose, unfeeling disposition of the carpenter, who often, when some friendly natives had presented him with a few fish, growled that they had not given him all, and insisted, that because they were black fellows, it would be right to take it by force. By some illiberal and intemperate act of this nature, there was too much reason to believe he had brought on himself, and his ill-fated companion, the mate (a man cast in a gentler mould), a painful and premature death.