A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson

m the Beginning of the Year 179

f Good Hope by the 'Sirius', had reached us. From intelligence of our friends and connections we had been entirely cut off, no communication whatever having passed with our native country since the 13th of May 1787, the day of our depar

o Botany Bay, to see whether any vessel, ignorant of our removal to Port Jackson, might be arrived there. But a better plan was now devised, on the suggestion of captain Hunter. A party of seamen were fixed on a high bluff, called the South-head, at the entrance of the harbour, on which a flag was ordered to be hoisted, whenever a ship

se from the bosom of the sea, the heart bounded, and the telescope was lifted to the eye. If a ship appeared here, we knew she must be bound to us; for on the shores

ly describe our sensations. But the misery and horror of such a sit

y in February, ordered the 'Sirius' to prepare for a voyage to China; and a farther re

Ross, with a large detachment of marines, and more than two hundred convicts, to Norfolk Island, it being hoped that such a division of our numbers would increase t

e--Ho

sign--

he present ration. And the commissary is directed to issue, from the 1st of April, t

and a half of salt pork, and one

olk Island." To satisfy myself that the flag was really flying, I went to the observatory, and looked for it through the large astronomical telescope, when I plainly saw it. But I was immediately convinced that it was not to announce

rer approach, I saw captain Ball make an extraordinary motion with his hand, which too plainly indicated that something disastrous had happened; and I could not help turning to the governor, near whom I sat, and saying, "Sir, prepare yourself for bad news."

proclaimed at Sydney. The most distracting apprehensions were e

was fully discussed and an account of the provisions yet remaining in store laid before the council by the commissary. This account stated, that on the present ration* th

the 27th of March,

posed, and adopted and after some interchange of opinion, the following ration was decreed to commence i

k, two pounds and

ce, or a quart o

erson, and to ev

hteen mo

nder eighteen mo

and flour, and on

inhabitants lodged within it. We soon left off boiling the pork, as it had become so old and dry, that it shrunk one half in its dimensions when so dressed. Our usual method of cooking it was to cut off the daily morsel, and toast it on a fork before the

of the 'Supply', for Bat

meat--all the officers, civil and military, including the clergyman, and the surgeons of the hospital, made the voluntary offer, in addition to their other duties, to

he command of a trusty sergeant, with directions to range the woods in search of

small additional quantity of flour and pork was appropriated to the use of the game-keepers; and each fisherman, who had

s no longer visible. Truly did we say to her "In te omnis domus inclinata recumbit." We were, however, consoled by

ur and attention were turned on one object--the procuring of fo

ceived than the expedients of substituting, shifting, and patching, which ingenuity devised, to eke out wretchedness, and preserve the remains of decency. The superior dexterity

h by angling from the rocks, invited a neighbour to dine with him, the invitation always ran, "bring your own bread." Even at the govern

ength, as to find themselves unable to perform their accustomed tasks. The hours of public work were accordingly shortened o

esperation. No new laws for the punishment of theft were enacted; but persons of all descriptions were publicly warned, that the severest penalties, which the existing law in its greatest latitude would authorise, should be inflicted on offenders. The following sentence of a court of justice, of which I was a member, on a convict detected in a garden stealing potatoes, will illustrate the subject. He was ordered to receive three hundred

the provision store, when a man, with a wild haggard countenance, who had just received his daily pittance to carry home, came out. His faltering gait, and eager devouring eye, led me to watch him, and he

d of sixty pounds of flour, more tempting than the ore of Peru or Potosi, was promis

ur diminished numbers, and diminished strength, as would have emboldened them to become more troublesome. Every expedient was used to keep him in ignorance. His allowance was regularly received by the governor's servant, like that of any other person, but the ration of a week was insuffi

morning, he pretended illness, and awaking the servant who lay in the room with him, begged to go down stairs. The other attended him withou

his chapter, and is too pleasing a proof that universal de

rm for which he was sentenced to transportation. He is therefore to be considered as restored to all those rights and privileges, which had been