At the same time that this intention was made public, the day of their departure was fixed. The whole were to embark on board the Sirius and the Supply in the beginning of the following month, and were, if no ship arrived from England to prevent them, to sail on the 5th. Should, unfortunately, the necessity of adopting the measure then exist, the Sirius was to proceed to China directly from Norfolk Island to procure a supply of provisions for the colony. China was chosen, under an idea that salt provisions were to be obtained there, and that it was preferable to sending to any of the islands in those seas, or to the Cape of Good Hope at this season of the year, when the Sirius and her crew would have had to encounter the cold and boisterous weather of a winter's passage thither.
As the numbers on Norfolk Island would be considerably increased by the arrival of this detachment from hence, the governor judged the presence of Major Ross necessary there, as lieutenant-governor of the territory. Lieutenant King was to be recalled and return to this settlement.
Preparations were immediately set on foot for the embarkation of the marines and other persons who were to quit this colony. It had been a part of the first determinations on this business, that the Sirius should, as I have mentioned, proceed directly from Norfolk Island on her voyage to China; but Captain Hunter having represented the absolute necessity he should be under of touching somewhere to wood and water, owing to the number he should have on board, that idea was given up, and Captain Hunter was directed to return with the Sirius to this port for the above purposes of wooding and watering. An additional reason offered itself to influence this determination; it was hoped, that before she could return, the arrival of the expected supplies would have rendered the voyage altogether unnecessary; and it was but reasonable to suppose that this would happen. The governor had, in all his dispatches, uniformly declared the strong necessity there was of having at least two years provisions in store for some time to come; and as this information, together with an exact account of the situation of the colony, had been transmitted by seven different conveyances, if only one had arrived safe, it could not reasonably be doubted that supplies would be immediately dispatched. From the length of time too which had elapsed since the departure of the last ships* that sailed from hence direct for England (full fifteen months), it was as reasonable to suppose that they might arrive within the time that the Sirius would be absent.
[* The Golden Grove and the Fishburn sailed from this port the 19th of November 1788, intending to make their passage round by Cape Horn, to which the season was most favourable.]
The month passed in the arrangements and preparations requisite on this occasion, to which the weather was extremely unfavourable, heavy rains, with gales of wind, prevailing nearly the whole time. The rain came down in torrents, filling up every trench and cavity which had been dug about the settlement, and causing much damage to the miserable mud tenements which were occupied by the convicts. By these rains, a pit which had been dug for the purpose of procuring clay to plaister the walls of a hut, was filled with water; and a boy upwards of two years of age, belonging to one of the female convicts, falling into it, was drowned. The surgeons tried, but without success, to save his life, using the methods practised by the Humane Society. Yet bad as the weather was, several gardens were robbed, and, as at this time they abounded with melons and pumpkins, they became the object of depredation in common with other productions of the garden.
A brick building, fifty-nine feet in front, designed for a guard-house, of which the foundation had been laid a few days before the heavy rains commenced, suffered much by their continuance. The situation of this building was on the east side of the cove, at the upper part, contiguous to the bridge over the run of water, and convenient for detaching assistance to any part of the place where it might be requisite.
On the 1st of March a reduction in the allowance of spirits took place; the half pint per diem, which had hitherto been issued to each man who was entitled to receive it, was to be discontinued, and only the half of that allowance served. Thus was the gradual decrease in our stores followed by a diminution of our daily comforts and necessaries.
One immediate consequence, and that an evil one, was the effect of the intended embarkation for Norfolk Island. It being found that great quantities of stock were killed, an order was immediately given to prevent the further destruction of an article so essential in our present situation, until some necessary regulations could be published; but the officers and people who were about to embark were not included in this prohibition. The mention of future regulations in this order instantly begat an opinion among the convicts, that on the departure of the ships all the live stock in the colony would be called in, or that the owners would be deprived of the benefits which might result from the possession of it. Under colour, therefore, of its belonging to those who were exempted in the late order, nearly all the stock in the settlement was in the course of a few nights destroyed; a wound being thereby given to the independence of the colony that could not easily be salved, and whose injurious effects time and much attention alone could remove.
The expected supplies not having arrived, on the 3rd, the two companies of marines with their officers and the colours of the corps embarked on board the Sirius and the Supply. With them also embarked the lieutenant-governor, and Mr. Considen the senior assistant surgeon of the settlement. On the day following, one hundred and sixteen male and sixty-eight female convicts, with twenty-seven children, were put on board; among the male convicts the governor had sent the troublesome and incorrigible Caesar, on whom he had bestowed a pardon. With these also was sent, though of a very different description, a person whose exemplary conduct had raised him from the situation of a convict to the privileges of a free man. John Irving had since our landing in the country been employed as an assistant at the hospital. He was bred a surgeon, and in no instance whatever, since the commission of the offence for which he was transported, had he given cause of complaint. He was now sent to Norfolk Island, to act as an assistant to the medical gentlemen there.
On the 5th the Sirius and the Supply left the cove, but did not get to sea until the following day, when at the close of the evening they were scarcely to be discerned from the South Head. At the little post at this place Captain Hunter left the gunner, a midshipman, and six of the Sirius's people. Mr. Maxwell, one of her lieutenants, having been for a considerable time past in a melancholy and declining way, and his disorder pronounced by the surgeons to be insanity, he was discharged from the ship, and had taken up his residence on shore under the care of the surgeon, with proper people who were left from the ship to attend him. This was the second officer whose situation in the Sirius it became necessary to have filled. Lieutenant King, the commandant of Norfolk Island, had for some time been discharged from the ship's books; and Mr. Newton Fowell, a young gentleman of the Sirius's quarter-deck, being deemed well qualified, was appointed by the governor (as the naval commanding officer) to succeed him. To fill the vacancy occasioned by Mr. Maxwell's unfortunate state of health, Mr. Henry Waterhouse, a young gentleman of promising abilities, was taken from the quarter-deck. Both these appointments were to wait the confirmation of the lords commissioners of the admiralty.