I took the first opportunity of examining the island around me, and found it almost impenetrable from the size of the trees, and the entangled state of their roots, which were in general two feet above the ground, and ran along it to a considerable distance. On the spaces of ground unoccupied by these roots, there grew a kind of supple-jack, which in general was as thick as a man's leg; these supple-jacks ran up the trees, and as they grew in every direction, they formed an impenetrable kind of net-work; bending some trees to the ground, and then taking root again, they twined round other trees in the same manner, until the whole became an impervious forest.
As I had only twelve men, (one of whom was seventy-two years old, and another a boy of fifteen,) exclusive of the mate and surgeon, my progress for some time must of course be very slow. On the 8th we had strong gales of wind and cloudy weather: at nine in the morning, we hoisted the colours in a west, as a signal that the Supply's boat might land; and at eleven, we received the last of our baggage, provisions, and stores, and hauled the boat up. In the afternoon, Lieutenant Ball came on shore to ask if I had any farther occasion for the Supply, and, as I had not any, he took leave and returned on board; and in the afternoon sailed for Port Jackson. I sent by him a journal of my proceedings to Governor Phillip.
The 9th, being Sunday, every person in the settlement assembled in my tent, where I performed divine service; after which my commission from the Governor, to whom we were subordinate, was read, appointing me superintendant and commandant of this island: I then assured every person, that my intention was to forward the King's service to the utmost of my power; and (addressing myself to the convicts) I endeavoured to convince them, that those who were idle or dishonest should not escape that punishment, which is due to useless and destructive members of society: I also informed them what ration of provisions would be allowed daily, and I held out every encouragement for them to behave with propriety and industry.
In the afternoon I saw some turtle lying on a sandy beach at the east end of the bay; two of which we turned and brought to the tents for general use; they were issued out in lieu of salt provisions. Finding we had turtle on the island, I gave strict orders that no person whatever should go near the beach where they were seen, in order to prevent them from being frightened, which might occasion the loss of this valuable resource: the two turtle we had caught weighed two hundred weight each. From this time until the 15th, every person was employed in clearing away, and turning up the garden ground, which, when finished, was enclosed by a hedge, and sown with a small quantity of all the different kinds of seeds I was furnished with. The size of the enclosure was eighty-seven feet square: the soil very rich and deep.
This afternoon I turned three more turtles, which were brought to the settlement. We generally saw three lying on the beach at low water, in clear weather, but when cloudy, they never land; this, together with there being no appearance of any pits where they lay their eggs, leads me to suppose that they do not breed on any part of the island; especially as this is the only place where there is a possibility for them to make their pits.
The 16th, being Sunday, I performed divine service. Two convicts, whom I had given leave the preceding day to take an excursion into the interior part of the island, returned this day at noon quite naked: they had several cuts in different parts of their bodies, some of which were deep, occasioned by the entangled state of the woods, and the sharpness of the briars: they had not been an hour from the settlement before they lost sight of the sun from the thickness of the woods; this caused them to wander about till eleven o'clock, when they heard the noise of our church bell, which was a man beating on the head of an empty cask, and presently afterwards they returned to the settlement.
As my own situation, and that of every other person was very uncomfortable, owing to the tents being close to the sea shore, on which a heavy surf continually beats: I set the people to work on the 17th, to clear a piece of ground to the right of the garden, and a little above it; here I intended to move the tents, or to build houses; and having two sawyers and a carpenter, I set them to work in digging a sawpit, in order to saw pine for building a store-house for the provisions and stores, they at present being lodged in my tent, which was made of the Sirius's sprit-sail.
The surgeon, in walking about the island, found out the flax-plant, which proved to be what we had hitherto called the iris: not having any description of this plant, I had no idea of its being what Captain Cook calls the flax-plant of New Zealand; the cliffs and shore near the settlement were covered with it; its root is bulbous, and eight leaves issue from it, which are, in general, five or six feet in length, and about four inches broad, close to the root: the plant bears a great resemblance to the iris, except that the leaves are much thicker and larger; the flaxy part is the fibres, which extend the whole length of the leaf; towards the root they are very thick and strong, and diminish in size as they approach the end of the Jeaf. This plant, in its green state, is of a surprising strength: from the quantity of dead leaves about the root, I imagine it is an annual, and that the root sends forth fresh leaves.
The method of preparing the New Zealand flax not being described by Captain Cook, I caused three bundles of ours to be put in the rivulet to soak, intending to try it after the European method of dressing flax. The sawpit being finished on the 18th, a small pine was cut down near it, which measured 115 feet in length, and two feet six inches diameter at the base: a twelve foot length was got on the pit, and the sawyers began sawing it into framings and scantlings for the store-house. By the 19th, the greatest part of the seeds we had procured at the Cape of Good Hope, and sown in the garden, were out of the ground, and seemed likely to do well; but scarcely any of the English seeds grew, they, in general, being spoiled.
From this time till the 1st of April, two men were employed in sawing up wood for the store-house; one man was building it, six were clearing away the ground, and the women burnt up the small boughs.