The Matilda and the Mary-Ann transports returned from their fishing-cruize on the 10th of November. These vessels had run to the southward in search of seals, and met with very bad weather, but saw no fish. The Matilda had put into Jervis-Bay, which, according to the master's account, is a very fine harbour, the anchorage very good, and capable of receiving the largest ships. These two vessels, after refitting, sailed again to try for fish on this coast.
Our colonists began to reap the barley on the 22d of November, and the wheat was getting ripe.
The Supply armed tender, after having been under repair from the time she returned from Norfolk-Island, was found, on a survey, to be in so bad a state, that the best repair which could be given her in this country, would only render her serviceable for six months longer; Governor Phillip, therefore, ordered her to England, and she sailed on the 26th of November.
From the debilitated state in which many of the convicts were landed from the last ships, the number of sick were greatly increased; the surgeon's returns on the 27th, being upwards of four hundred sick at Parramatta; and the same day medicines were distributed to one hundred and ninety-two at Sydney. To the number of sick at Parramatta, upwards of one hundred may be added, who were so weak that they could not be put to any kind of labour, not even to that of pulling grass for thatching the huts. Forty-two convicts died in the month of November, and in these people nature seemed fairly to be worn out; many of them were so thoroughly exhausted that they expired without a groan, and apparently without any kind of pain.
Showers of rain had been more frequent lately than for many months past, but not in the abundance which the ground required; and, from the extreme dryness of the weather, and from the ground not being sufficiently worked before the maize was put into it, a great number of acres were likely to be destroyed. This was one of the many inconveniencies the settlement laboured under, from the want of people to employ in agriculture, who would feel themselves interested in the labour of those that were under their direction, and who had some knowledge as farmers.
The following parcels of land were in cultivation at Parramatta, in November, 1791.
Acres./Roods./Perches.
351 2 5 in Maise.
44 1 8 Wheat.
6 1 30 Barley.
1 0 0 Oats.
2 0 3 Potatoes.
4 2 0 Not cultivated, but cleared.
4 2 15 Mostly planted with vines.
6 0 0 The governor's garden, partly sown with maize and wheat.
80 0 0 Garden-ground belonging to individuals.
17 0 0 Land in cultivation by the New South Wales corps.
150 0 0 Cleared, and to be sowed with turnips.
91 3 2 Ground in cultivation by settlers.
28 0 0 Ground in cultivation by officers of the civil and military.
134 0 0 Inclosed, and the timber thinned for feeding cattle.
The above grounds were measured by David Burton, the public gardener, who observes, that the soil in most places is remarkably good, and only wants cultivation to be fit for any use, for the ground that has been the longest in cultivation bears the best crops.
Of the convicts who were received by the last ships, there were great numbers of the worst of characters, particularly amongst those who came from Ireland, and whose great ignorance led them into schemes more destructive to themselves than they were likely to be to the settlement. Some of these people had formed an idea that they could go along the coast, and subsist on oysters and other shell-fish, till they reached some of the Chinese settlements: others had heard that there were a copper coloured people only one hundred and fifty miles to the northward, where they would be free. Full of these notions, three parties set off; but, after straggling about for many days, several of them were taken, and others returned to the settlement. Governor Phillip was less inclined to inflict any punishment on these people, than to punish those who had deceived them by the information of "not being far from some of the Chinese settlements, and near people who would receive them, and where they would have every thing they wanted, and live very happy:"
These reasons most of them assigned for going into the woods, and where some of them still remained, dreading a severe punishment if they returned: a general pardon was therefore promised to all those who came back within a certain time, as several were supposed to be lurking in the woods near the settlement; however, some of these wretches were so prepossessed with the idea of being able to live in the woods and on the sea-coast until they could reach a settlement, or find a people who would maintain them without labour, that several who were brought in when almost famished, and carried to the hospital, went away again as soon as they were judged able to return to their labour; and although what would be called a day's work in England is very seldom done by any convict in the settlement, yet some of them declared that they would sooner perish in the woods than be obliged to work; and forty were now absent.