By-gone, who has been mentioned as the daring fellow who lived with Bannelong, and was in campany with the man who had been shot, ventured to come to Rose-Hill; and as Governor Phillip wished for a friendly intercourse to be kept up with the natives, he was well received, and no notice was taken of past offences, so that he soon became perfectly at his ease.
A second store-house of brick was now tiled in, and though the crops in the ground had suffered from the very dry weather for the last eight months, it had been favourable for the buildings. The barrack at Rose-Hill was nearly ready to receive the men, and one wing of the officers barracks was ready for tiling.
The Supply returned from Norfolk Island on the 26th of February, with the officers and seamen who had remained there after the loss of the Sirius; and the Dutch vessel being hired to carry them to England, she began to prepare for the voyage.
In the night of the 27th, they had very heavy rain, which was highly acceptable. On the 28th, it blew very fresh, and a fishing boat, in working up the harbour, filled; fortunately, she was an English cutter, and did not sink. A young woman, a little girl, and two children, (all natives) were in the boat when the accident happened: the young woman had the two children on her shoulders in a moment, and swam on shore with them; the girl also swam on shore, as did such of the boat's crew that could swim. Several of the natives seeing this accident as the boat drove towards the rocks, gave them every possible assistance, without which, in all probability, one of the crew would have been drowned. After clearing the boat, they collected the oars and such articles as had been driven on shore in different places; and in these friendly offices, Bannelong was very assiduous: this behaviour gave Governor Phillip an opportunity of receiving him in a more kindly manner than he had done since his bad behaviour.
Though our colonists had never been able to learn the reason for the females losing two joints of the little finger, they now had an opportunity of seeing in what manner that operation is performed. Colebe's wife brought her child to Governor Phillip's house a few days after it was born, and as it was a female, both the father and mother had been repeatedly told, that if the finger was to be cut off, the governor wished to see the operation. The child was now two months old, and a ligature was applied round the little finger at the second joint; but two or three days afterwards, when she brought the child again, the ligature was either broke, or had been taken off: this being mentioned to the mother, she took several hairs from the head of an officer who was present, and bound them very tight round the child's finger. After some time, a gangrene took place; and though the child appeared uneasy when the finger was touched, it did not cry, nor was any attention paid to it after the ligature was applied.
It has already been observed, that this operation always took place on the left hand of the females; but this child was an exception, for it was the little finger on the right hand on which the ligature was applied: this bandage was continued until the finger was ready to drop off, when its parents carried it to the surgeon, who, at their request, separated it with a knife.
Making love in this country is always prefaced by a beating, which the female seems to receive as a matter of course. The native girl, who still resided occasionally at the clergyman's, had been absent two days, when she returned with a bad wound on the head, and some severe bruises on her shoulder; the girl whose life Governor Phillip had saved, returned with her; she also had a wound on her head, and one of her arms was much bruised by a blow with a club: the story they told was, that two men who frequently visited the settlement, wanted to sleep with them, and on their refusing, had, as usual on such occasions, beat them most unmercifully.
Bannelong, after an absence of several days, returned to the settlement; and the services he had rendered the boat's crew when they were in danger of being lost, being considered as an atonement for his past offences, he was admitted into Governor Phillip's house; in consequence of this reconciliation, the number of visitors greatly increased, the governor's yard being their head quarters.
