The remaining transports of the fleet were now dropping in. On the 26th the Active from England, and the Queen from Ireland, with convicts of that country arrived and anchored in the cove. On board of the Active, beside the sergeant's guard, were one hundred and fifty-four male convicts. An officer's party was on board the Queen, with one hundred and twenty-six male and twenty-three female convicts and three children.
These ships had been unhealthy, and had buried several convicts in their passage. The sick which they brought in were landed immediately; and many of those who remained, and were not so ill as to require medical assistance, were brought on shore in an emaciated and feeble condition, particularly the convicts from the Active. They in general complained of not having received the allowance intended for them; but their emaciated appearance was to be ascribed as much to confinement as to any other cause. The convicts from the Queen, however, accusing the master of having withheld their provisions, an inquiry took place before the magistrates, and it appeared beyond a doubt, that great abuses had been practised in the issuing of the provisions; but as to the quantity withheld, it was not possible to ascertain it so clearly, as to admit of directing the deficiency to be made good, or of punishing the parties with that retributive justice for which the heinousness of their offence so loudly called; the proceedings of the magistrates were therefore submitted to the governor, who determined to transmit them to the secretary of state.
Nothing could have excited more general indignation than the treatment which these people appeared to have met with; for, what crime could be more offensive to every sentiment of humanity, than the endeavour, by curtailing a ration already not too ample, to derive a temporary advantage from the miseries of our fellow-creatures!
By the arrival of these ships several articles of comfort were introduced among us, there being scarcely a vessel that had not brought out something for sale. It could not, however, be said that they were procurable on easier terms than what had been sold here in the last year. The Spanish dollar was the current coin of the colony, which some of the masters taking at five shillings and others at four shillings and six-pence, the governor, in consideration of the officers having been obliged to receive the dollars at five shillings sterling when given for bills drawn in the settlement, issued a proclamation fixing the currency of the Spanish dollar at that sum.
The Supply was now carefully surveyed, when it appeared, that her defects were such as to render it by no means difficult to put her into a state that would enable her to reach England; but that if she remained six months longer in this country, she would become wholly unserviceable. It was therefore determined to dispatch her immediately to England. Timber had with infinite labour been procured for her main-mast, and her other repairs were put in train for her sailing hence in the course of the next month.
October.] The remainder of the transports expected did not arrive until the middle of October. The Albermarle was off the coast some days, being prevented by a southerly current from getting in. She arrived on Thursday the 13th, with two hundred and fifty male and six female convicts, her proportion of stores and provisions, and one sergeant, one corporal, one drummer, and twenty privates of the new corps.
The convicts of this ship had made an attempt, in conjunction with some of the seamen, to seize her on the 9th of April, soon after she had sailed from England; and they would in all probability have succeeded, but for the activity and resolution shown by the master Mr. George Bowen, who, hearing the alarm, had just time to arm himself with a loaded blunderbuss, which he discharged at one of the mutineers, William Syney (then in the act of aiming a blow with a cutlass at the man at the wheel), and lodged its contents in his shoulder. His companions, seeing what had befallen him, instantly ran down below; but the master, his officers, and some of the seamen of the ship, following them, soon secured the ringleaders, Owen Lyons and William Syney. A consultation was held with the naval agent, Lieutenant Robert Parry Young, the ship's company, and the military persons on board, the result of which was, the immediate execution of those two at the fore-yard arm. They had at this time parted company with the other transports, and no other means seemed so likely to deter the convicts from any future attempt of the like nature. It afterwards appearing that two of the seamen had supplied them with instruments for sawing off their irons, these were left at the island of Madeira, where the Albermarle touched, to be sent prisoners to England.
On the day following the Britannia arrived, with one hundred and twenty-nine male convicts, stores, and provisions on board; and on the 16th the Admiral Barrington, the last of the ten sail of transports, anchored in the cove. This ship had been blown off the coast, and fears were entertained of her safety, as she left the cape with a crippled main-mast and other material defects. She had on board a captain and a party of the New South Wales corps, with two hundred and sixty-four male convicts, four free women, and one child. She had been unhealthy too, having lost thirty-six convicts in the passage, and brought in eighty-four persons sick, who were immediately landed. Her stores and proportion of provisions were the same as on board of the other ships.
The whole number of convicts now received into the colony, including thirty on board the Gorgon, were, male convicts one thousand six hundred and ninety-five; female convicts one hundred and sixty-eight; and children nine. There were also eight free women (wives of convicts) and one child; making a total number of one thousand eight hundred and eighty-one persons, exclusive of the military. Upwards of two hundred convicts, male and female, did not reach the country.
Of the ten sail of transports lately arrived, five, after delivering their cargoes, were to proceed on the southern whale fishery, viz the Mary Ann, Matilda, William and Ann, Salamander, and Britannia. Melville, the master of the Britannia, conceiving great hopes of success on this coast from the numbers of spermaceti whales which he saw between the south cape and this port, requested to be cleared directly on his coming in, that he might give it a trial; and, the governor consenting, his ship was ready by the 22nd (a week after her arrival), and sailed on the 24th with the other whalers.