The Reliance having been cleared of her stores, and being now quite light, was yet found to make as much water as before; and it appeared, upon opening the ceiling, that the leak was in the guard-board streak, abreast of the main-mast, the water rushing in there with great force.
A survey had been held upon her consort, the Supply, after which she was pronounced wholly unfit for further sea service.
The brickmakers, bricklayers, carpenters, and blacksmiths, were all fully and variously employed at this time. For the latter, a large and convenient shop, capable of working six or seven forges, was erecting at Sydney. The different works which were in hand went on with a greater spirit and more expedition than could have been expected, when the great want of artificers and labouring people was considered. Some, though but a few, mechanics had arrived in the last ships.
September.] This month began with a very vexatious circumstance. A boat named the Cumberland, the largest and best in the colony belonging to government, was, on her passage to the Hawkesbury, whither she was carrying a few stores, taken possession of by a part of the boat's crew; being at the same time boarded by a small boat from the shore, the people in which seized her and put off to sea, first landing the coxswain and three others, who were unwilling to accompany them, in Pitt Water in Broken Bay. Those men proceeded overland to Port Jackson, where they gave the first information of this daring and piratical transaction. Two boats, well manned and armed, were immediately dispatched after them, under the command of Lieutenant Shortland of the Reliance.
One of these boats returned in a few days, without having seen any thing of them; but Lieutenant Shortland proceeded with the other, a whale boat, as far as Port Stephens, where he thought it probable they might have taken shelter; but on the 19th, having been absent thirteen days, he returned without discovering the smallest trace of them or the boat. His pursuit, however, had not been without its advantage; for on his return he entered a river which he named Hunter river, about ten leagues to the southward of Port Stephens into which he carried three fathoms water, in the shoalest part of its entrance, finding deep water and good anchorage within. The entrance of this river was but narrow, and covered by a high rocky island, lying right off it, so as to leave a good passage round the north end of the island, between that and the shore. A reef connects the south part of the island with the south shore of the entrance of the river. In this harbour was found a very considerable quantity of coal of a very good sort, and lying so near the water side as to be conveniently shipped; which gave it, in this particular, a manifest advantage over that discovered to the southward. Some specimens of this coal were brought up in the boat.
About this time a small decked long boat arrived from Norfolk island, and brought an account that the master of the American snow Mercury had landed there the remainder of the people who had been left by Captain Bampton in Dusky Bay. When the Endeavour was wrecked there about 20 months before*, the governor, not having any vessel at Port Jackson fit for such a purpose, had expressed a wish to the master of the snow, to this effect, when he was about leaving New South Wales. The master made no objection, only stipulating that he might be permitted to take from the wreck such stores as he might be in want of, but to this the governor could not give his sanction, leaving him only to make what terms he could with any of the people belonging to her whom he might find alive. This service he performed under many difficulties, and brought off all that now remained of these unfortunate people, amounting to 35 in number, and landed them at Norfolk Island.
[* Vide Vol I Ch. XXX Page 384, viz: 'By letters received from Mr. Bampton, who sailed from his place in the Endeavour in the month of September last, we now heard, that on his reaching Dusky Bay in New Zealand his ship unfortunately proved so leaky, that with the advice and consent of his officers and people she was run on shore and scuttled.' and
Vol I Ch. XXX Page 388, viz: 'On the 17th the vessel built by the shipwright Hatherleigh at Dusky Bay arrived, with some of the people left behind by Mr. Bampton. They were so distressed for provisions, that the person who had the direction of the vessel could not bring away the whole; and it was singularly fortunate that he arrived as he did, for with all the economy that could be used, his small stock of provisions was consumed to the last mouthful the day before he made the land.']
By this conveyance the governor was also informed, that the Britannia had touched at the Island, and landed several convicts who had secreted themselves on board her while she lay in this harbour. Disappointed as these people generally were in their attempts to escape from the settlement in this manner, yet it had become so certain a system, that all the vigilance which could be exerted both on shore and afloat was insufficient to prevent them. As the masters were seldom refused permission to ship such as were free, it was their business to receive no more on board than they could feed; and during the run between Sydney and Norfolk island, the supernumeraries were generally discovered and brought up from below. Indeed, considering the description of people who formed the major or part of these deserters, it was not safe to have many of them on board, being a lawless, abandoned, daring set of wretches, to whom the commission of every crime was more familiar than the practice of any one virtue.
On the 20th of the month, the Deptford, a small brig, arrived from Madras, with a cargo of goods upon speculation for the Sydney market. The spirit of trade which had for some time obtained in the colony afforded an opening for adventurers to bring their goods to this settlement. The voyage from India was short and direct; and, from the nature of their investments, they were always certain of finding a ready sale, and an ample return upon the original invoice. But this intercourse was found to be pregnant with great evil to the colony; for, preferring spirits to any other article that could be introduced from India, the owners never failed to make the rum of that country an essential part of every cargo which they sent upon speculation. And, though every necessary measure was adopted to prevent all that arrived from being landed, yet, such was the avidity with which it was sought after, that, if not permitted, it was generally got on shore clandestinely, and very few ships carried back any of what they had brought down. To this source might be traced all the crimes which disgraced, and all the diseases that injured the colony.
Toward the latter end of the month a party set off on an excursion to the cow pasture plains. On reaching mount Taurus, a distinct herd of the wild cattle, 67 in number, was seen. It was conjectured, that this valuable collection of cattle had so considerably increased, as to find a convenience in dividing into different herds, thereby preventing those quarrels which might frequently happen among their males. This was confirmed by their falling-in with, in another place, a herd, in which there could not have been fewer than 170 of these animals. A couple of days were pleasantly occupied in examining this part of the country, which exhibited the beautiful appearance of a luxuriant and well-watered pasturage. The latitude of mount Taurus was found to be 34 degrees 16 minutes S and the river Nepean was discovered to take its course close round the south side of this hill. Two gentlemen who were of this party having, at their setting out, proposed to walk from mount Taurus in as direct a line as the country would admit, to the seacoast, a whale boat was ordered to wait for them about five leagues to the southward of Botany Bay. They expected to have reached the coast in one day, but they did not reckon on having full 25 miles of a rugged and mountainous road to cross. Making their course a little to the southward of east, they fell in with the boat very conveniently, and Mr. Bass, one of the gentlemen, described their route to have laid, the greatest part of the way, over nothing but high and steep ridges of hills, the land becoming more rocky and barren as they drew near the sea coast. In each of the valleys formed by these hills they found a run of fresh water, in some places of considerable depth and rapidity. The direction of these streams or runs being to the northward, they were supposed to fall into a harbour which lay about five or six miles to the southward of Port Solander, and had obtained the name of Port Hacking, the pilot of that name having had the honour of the discovery.*