Having finished the placing of the top riders in the Sirius by the end of October, we took our provisions and stores on board; and on the 7th of November, we moved the ship from Careening Cove over to Sydney Cove.
A few days before that time, John Mara, the gunner's mate, had been missing, and was supposed to have been lost in the woods; parties were sent out in search of him: the third day after he disappeared, I was going up the harbour in a boat early in the morning, and some distance up, I thought I heard the voice of a man upon the north shore; we lay upon the oars a considerable time, and listened attentively; we again heard the voice, and rowed immediately towards that part of the shore from whence the voice came, and there we found the person missing: he was sitting upon a rock, was exceedingly faint, and scarcely able to get into the boat; having had nothing to eat during his absence but an herb which the people use by way of tea, and which is so palatable they can drink it without sugar; it has exactly the taste of liquorish root. I interrogated him with respect to the manner of his losing himself; he said, "That having been sent on shore in the evening to fill a few water-casks, which were landed at a run of water near the ship, and that having just before he was sent on shore taken a copious drink of grog, he felt himself, soon after he landed, a good deal disposed to sleep; that the weather being warm, and the evening well advanced, he laid down upon the hill, some distance from the run of water, and fell fast asleep upon the grass; that he did not wake until it was late, and the night being dark, and he a little confused when he awoke, he went farther into the wood instead of coming out of it, and by that means lost himself entirely." He also said, "That when I took him up, he was so exhausted that he should not have been able to walk much longer, and that he had only reached the water-side the night before."
He had no arms of any kind; it was therefore fortunate that he did not fall in with any of the natives, as we have much reason to believe that they are disposed to take the advantage of those they meet without fire-arms.
The night before we left Careening Cove, Mr. Francis Hill, one of the master's mates, had desired permission to go over to Sydney Cove, and to return early the next morning; he went over, and was the next morning early put across to the nearest part of the north shore, intending to walk round to the ship, a route which had been often taken by many of our gentlemen, and was not more than an hour and a half's walk, but in this short distance Mr. Hill lost himself. The next day, parties were sent out different ways, and boats were sent both up and down the harbour in search of him; a gun for their and his direction was fired from the ship every two hours, and this continued for two days. The third day, many additional parties were sent, to the number of nine or ten; in short, every piece of ground where it was thought possible he might have passed, was traversed over and over by the different parties, but without effect; we had, therefore, much reason to believe that he fell in with a party of the natives, who probably murdered him, for he had no arms of any kind with him.
That this opinion of a disposition in the natives to take advantage of a single person, particularly when unarmed, is not ill founded, we have had many instances to prove; one of which in this place may suffice, as it had happened very recently, and near to the place where Mr. Hill was lost. A man belonging to the Sirius, who had generally been employed in shooting for the officers, was, a few days previous to the supposed death of Mr. Hill, in the woods looking for game, and had been seen by a party of the natives from the skirts of a wood; they had not been observed by him, and taking the advantage of that, threw a large stone at him, which very narrowly missed his head, at which it was very well aimed; had it hit him, it would have knocked him down and deprived him of his senses, which opportunity they would no doubt have availed themselves of to dispatch him; but as they did not succeed in their attempt, they stood their ground, and he fired a charge of small shot at them, which I suppose they felt no inconvenience from, as they laughed at him, and advanced with their lances; he was pretty quick in loading his gun again, into which he put a heavy charge of buck shot, and as they appeared to him to be determined on mischief, he resolved, for his own safety, to be before-hand with them; he took very good aim, and fired right amongst them; two of them fell, and the rest, with great precipitation, made off, but he believed they carried their wounded (probably dead) friends with them; he stood where he was and loaded his gun, then came towards the ship without seeing any more of them. They are exceedingly terrified by fire-arms.
There was one circumstance which disposed me to believe that Mr. Hill had been murdered by the people of the country, which was, that one of the boats which went down the harbour to look for him put a-shore in one of the coves in the north part of it; the young gentleman who had charge of this duty went up the beach, with five of the boat's crew, while two remained to take care of the boat; they had only been landed a few minutes, and were near the skirt of the wood, when two spears were launched from a rising ground; one of which struck the hat of one of the seamen; and as no fire-arms had appeared, the natives showed themselves, to the number of between twenty and thirty; the midshipman and the sailors returned to the boat, and brought up a musquet loaded with ball, which the natives observing, all disappeared, except two, and the ball was fired at them; whether with or without effect we knew not, but they also disappeared immediately.