Watkin Tench's 1788 (9 page)

I have thus impartially stated the situation of matters, as they stand while I write, between the natives and us. That greater progress in attaching them to us has not been made I have only to regret, but that all ranks of men have tried to effect it by every reasonable effort from which success might have been expected I can testify. Nor can I omit saying that in the higher stations this has been eminently conspicuous. The public orders of Governor Phillip have invariably tended to promote such a behaviour on our side as was most likely to produce this much wished-for event. To what cause then are we to attribute the distance which the accomplishment of it appears at? I answer, to the fickle, jealous, wavering disposition of the people we have to deal with, who, like all other savages, are either too indolent, too indifferent or too fearful to form an attachment on easy terms with those who differ in habits and manners so widely from themselves. Before I close the subject I cannot, however, omit to relate the following ludicrous adventure, which possibly may be of greater use in effecting what we have so much at heart than all our endeavours.

Some young gentlemen belonging to the
Sirius
one day met a native, an old man, in the woods. He had a beard of considerable length, which his new acquaintance gave him to understand, by signals, they would rid him of, if he pleased. Stroking their chins and showing him the smoothness of them at the same time, at length the old Indian consented, and one of the youngsters, taking a penknife from his pocket and making use of the best substitute for lather he could find, performed the operation with great success and, as it proved, much to the liking of the old man, who in a few days after reposed a confidence in us of which we had hitherto known no example, by paddling alongside the
Sirius
in his canoe and pointing to his beard. Various arts were ineffectually tried to induce him to enter the ship, but as he continued to decline the invitation a barber was sent down into the boat alongside the canoe, from whence, leaning over the gunnel, he complied with the wish of the old beau, to his infinite satisfaction. In addition to the consequences which our sanguine hopes led us to expect from this dawning of cordiality, it affords proof that the beard is considered by this people more as an encumbrance than a mark of dignity.

†
This is the first recorded use of the word ‘dingo' in English.

††
These are shields.

†††
The word ‘kangaroo' was introduced to the Sydney area by members of the First Fleet. Sydney Aborigines knew the Eastern grey kangaroo (
Macropus giganteus
) as
patagorang
. It seems likely that they assumed that the word ‘kangaroo' denoted something like ‘large animal' to the Europeans, and used it in this context, hoping the strangers would understand.

12

The departure of the French from Botany Bay, and the return of the
Supply
from Norfolk Island, with a discovery made by Lieutenant Ball on his passage to it

A
BOUT
the middle of the month our good friends the French departed from Botany Bay, in prosecution of their voyage. During their stay in that port the officers of the two nations had frequent opportunities of testifying their mutual regard by visits and every interchange of friendship and esteem. These ships sailed from France by order of the King on the 1st of August 1785, under the command of Monsieur La Perouse, an officer whose eminent qualifications, we had reason to think, entitle him to fill the highest stations. In England, particularly, he ought long to be remembered with admiration and gratitude for the humanity which marked his conduct when ordered to destroy our settlement at Hudsons's Bay in the last war. His second in command was the Chevalier Clonard, an officer also of distinguished merit.

In the course of the voyage these ships had been so unfortunate as to lose a boat, with many men and officers in her, off the west of California; and afterwards met with an accident still more to be regretted at an island in the Pacific Ocean, discovered by Monsieur Bougainville, in the latitude of 14° 19′ south, longitude 173° 3′20′′ east of Paris. Here they had the misfortune to have no less than thirteen of their crews, among whom was the officer at that time second in command, cut off by the natives, and many more desperately wounded. To what cause this cruel event was to be attributed they knew not, as they were about to quit the island after having lived with the Indians in the greatest harmony for several weeks; and exchanged, during the time, their European commodities for the produce of the place, which they describe as filled with a race of people remarkable for beauty and comeliness; and abounding in refreshments of all kinds.

It was no less gratifying to an English ear than honourable to Monsieur La Perouse to witness the feeling manner in which he always mentioned the name and talents of Captain Cook. That illustrious circumnavigator had, he said, left nothing to those who might follow in his track to describe or fill up. As I found in the course of conversation that the French ships had touched at the Sandwich Islands,
^†
I asked M. La Perouse what reception he had met with there. His answer deserves to be known: ‘During the whole of our voyage in the South Seas, the people of the Sandwich Islands were the only Indians who never gave us cause of complaint. They furnished us liberally with provisions and administered cheerfully to all our wants.' It may not be improper to remark that Owhyee
^††
was not one of the islands visited by this gentleman.

In the short stay made by these ships at Botany Bay, an Abbe, one of the naturalists on board, died and was buried on the north shore. The French had hardly departed when the natives pulled down a small board which had been placed over the spot where the corpse was interred, and defaced everything around. On being informed of it, the governor sent a party over with orders to affix a plate of copper on a tree near the place, with the following inscription on it, which is a copy of what was written on the board:

Hic jacet
L. RECEVEUR
,
E. F. F. minnibus Galliae, Sacerdos, Physicus, in
circumnavigatione mundi, Duce De La Perrouse.
Obiit die 17 Februarii, anno 1788.
^{††â€} 

This mark of respectful attention was more particularly due from M. La Perouse having, when at Kamchatka, paid a similar tribute of gratitude to the memory of Captain Clarke, whose tomb was found in nearly as ruinous a state as that of the Abbe.

Like ourselves, the French found it necessary, more than once, to chastise a spirit of rapine and intrusion which prevailed among the Indians around the bay. The menace of pointing a musket to them was frequently used, and in one or two instances it was fired off, though without being attended with fatal consequences. Indeed the French commandant, both from a regard to the orders of his court, as well as to our quiet and security, showed a moderation and forbearance on this head highly becoming.

On the 20th of March the
Supply
arrived from Norfolk Island, after having safely landed Lieutenant King and his little garrison. The pine trees growing there are described to be of a growth and height superior, perhaps, to any in the world. But the difficulty of bringing them away will not be easily surmounted, from the badness and danger of the landing place. After the most exact search, not a single plant of the New Zealand flax could be found, though we had been taught to believe it abounded there.

Lieutenant Ball, in returning to Port Jackson, touched at a small island in latitude 31° 36′ south, longitude 159° 4′ east of Greenwich, which he had been fortunate enough to discover on his passage to Norfolk and to which he gave the name of Lord Howe's Island. It is entirely without inhabitants, or any traces of any having ever been there. But it happily abounds in what will be of infinitely more importance to the settlers on New South Wales. Green turtle of the finest kind frequent it in the summer season. Of this Mr Ball gave us some very handsome and acceptable specimens on his return. Besides turtle, the island is well stocked with birds, many of them so tame as to be knocked down by the seamen with sticks. At the distance of four leagues from Lord Howe's Island and in latitude 31° 30′ south, longitude 159° 8′ east, stands a remarkable rock of considerable height, to which Mr Ball gave the name of Ball's Pyramid, from the shape it bears.

While the
Supply
was absent Governor Phillip made an excursion to Broken Bay, a few leagues to the northward of Port Jackson, in order to explore it. As a harbour it almost equals the latter, but the adjacent country was found so rocky and bare as to preclude all possibility of turning it to account. Some rivulets of fresh water fall into the head of the bay, forming a very picturesque scene. The Indians who live on its banks are numerous and behaved attentively in a variety of instances while our people remained among them.

†
The Hawaiian Islands.

††
Hawaii.

†††
‘Here lies L. Receveur the Minorite, priest, physician, who died on 17 February 1788 while circumnavigating the globe under the leadership of La Perouse.'

13

Transactions at Port Jackson in the months of April and May 1788

As winter was fast approaching it became necessary to secure ourselves in quarters which might shield us from the cold we were taught to expect in this hemisphere, though in so low a latitude. The erection of barracks for the soldiers was projected, and the private men of each company undertook to build for themselves two wooden houses, of sixty-eight feet in length and twenty-three in breadth. To forward the design, several sawpits were immediately set to work, and four ship carpenters attached to the battalion for the purpose of directing and completing this necessary undertaking. In prosecuting it, however, so many difficulties occurred that we were fain to circumscribe our original intentions and, instead of eight houses, content ourselves with four. And even these, from the badness of the timber, the scarcity of artificers and other impediments are, at the day on which I write, so little advanced that it will be well if at the close of the year 1788 we shall be established in them. In the meanwhile the married people, by proceeding on a more contracted scale, were soon under comfortable shelter. Nor were the convicts forgotten; and, as leisure was frequently afforded them for the purpose, little edifices quickly multiplied on the ground allotted them to build upon.

But as these habitations were intended by Governor Phillip to answer only the exigency of the moment, the plan of a town was drawn and the ground on which it is hereafter to stand surveyed and marked out. To proceed on a narrow, confined scale, in a country of the extensive limits we possess, would be unpardonable. Extent of empire demands grandeur of design. That this has been our view will be readily believed when I tell the reader that the principal street in our projected city will be, when completed agreeable to the plan laid down, two hundred feet in breadth, and all the rest of a corresponding proportion. How far this will be accompanied with adequate dispatch is another question, as the incredulous among us are sometimes hardy enough to declare that ten times our strength would not be able to finish it in as many years.

Invariably intent on exploring a country from which curiosity promises so many gratifications, His Excellency about this time undertook an expedition into the interior parts of the continent. His party consisted of eleven persons who, after being conveyed by water to the head of the harbour, proceeded in a westerly direction, to reach a chain of mountains which in clear weather are discernible, though at an immense distance, from some heights near our encampment.
^†
With unwearied industry they continued to penetrate the country for four days but, at the end of that time, finding the base of the mountain to be yet at the distance of more than twenty miles and provisions growing scarce, it was judged prudent to return without having accomplished the end for which the expedition had been undertaken. To reward their toils our adventurers had, however, the pleasure of discovering and traversing an extensive tract of ground which they had reason to believe, from the observations they were enabled to make, capable of producing everything which a happy soil and genial climate can bring forth. In addition to this flattering appearance, the face of the country is such as to promise success whenever it shall be cultivated, the trees being at a considerable distance from each other and the intermediate space filled, not with underwood, but a thick rich grass growing in the utmost luxuriancy. I must not, however, conceal that in this long march our gentlemen found not a single rivulet, but were under a necessity of supplying themselves with water from standing pools which they met with in the valleys, supposed to be formed by the rains that fall at particular seasons of the year. Nor had they the good fortune to see any quadrupeds worth notice, except a few kangaroos. To their great surprise they observed indisputable tracks of the natives having been lately there, though in their whole route none of them were to be seen; nor any means to be traced by which they could procure subsistence so far from the sea shore.

On the 6th of May the
Supply
sailed for Lord Howe Island to take on board turtle for the settlement, but after waiting there several days was obliged to return without having seen one, owing we apprehended to the advanced season of the year. Three of the transports also, which were engaged by the East India Company to proceed to China to take on board a lading of tea, sailed about this time for Canton.

The unsuccessful return of the
Supply
cast a general damp on our spirits, for by this time fresh provisions were become scarcer than in a blockaded town. The little livestock, which with so heavy an expense and through so many difficulties, we had brought on shore, prudence forbade us to use; and fish, which on our arrival and for a short time after had been tolerable plenty, were become so scarce as to be rarely seen at the tables of the first among us. Had it not been for a stray kangaroo, which fortune now and then threw in our way, we should have been utter strangers to the taste of fresh food.