Admiral Phillip/Chapter 9
CHAPTER IX
Early in 1789 it became apparent to Phillip that something had gone wrong with the storeships, which, with a childlike faith in the Government, he fully believed must have long before left England with supplies for the settlement. If either of the victuallers which sailed with the First Fleet had come to grief on the passage out—and there was no more likely contingency—the colony, months before the arrival of a second supply of stores, would have been actually starving. The possibility of this had been foreseen by Phillip and pointed out to Lord Sydney, but his lordship seems to have been easy in his mind, imagining no doubt that this paragraph in the 'Instructions' would be faithfully carried out:—
'The increase of the stock of animals must depend entirely upon the measures you may adopt on the outset for their preservation, and as the settlement will be amply supplied with vegetable productions, and most likely with fish, fresh provisions, excepting for the sick and convalescents, may in a great degree be dispensed with. For these reasons it will become you to be extremely cautious in permitting any cattle, sheep, hogs, etc., intended for propagating the breed of such animals, to be slaughtered, until a competent stock may be acquired, to admit of your supplying the settlement from it with animal food without having further recourse to the places from whence such stock may have originally been obtained.'
But fish were so scarce that even the blacks were unable to catch them, and were starving, and the 'vegetable productions' were as yet not forthcoming.
In all his despatches home Phillip never once despairs, never even complains. He tells the truth, puts down in figures how many people there are to feed, how little food there is to give them, and what is wanted to keep the colony alive, and ends his letters with the cheerful assurance that they will still pull through all right. We have seen how Major Ross wrote to England and what he had to say of things at this time, and his letters, with other dismal accounts, were published in the London papers. White, the principal surgeon, wrote[1]:—
'Much cannot now be done, limited in food and reduced as the people are, who have not had one ounce of fresh animal food since first in the country; a country and place so forbidding and so hateful as only to merit execration and curses, for it has been a source of expence to the mother country and of evil and misfortune to us, without there ever being the smallest likelihood of its repaying or recompencing either. From what we have already seen we may conclude that there is not a single article in the whole country that in the nature of things could prove of the smallest use or advantage to the mother country or the commercial world. In the name of heaven, what has the Ministry been about? Surely they have quite forgotten or neglected us, otherwise they would have sent to see what had become of us, and to know how we were likely to succeed. However, they must soon know from the heavy bills which will be presented to them, and the misfortunes and losses which have already happened to us, how necessary it becomes to relinquish a scheme that in the nature of things can never answer. It would be wise by the first steps to withdraw the settlement, at least such as are living, or remove them to some other place; this is so much out of the world and tract of commerce that it could never answer. How a business of this kind (the expence of which must be great) could first be thought of without sending to examine the country, as was Captain Thompson's errand to the coast of Africa, is to every person here a matter of great surprise.'
Most of these letters were written privately to friends in England, and the friends no doubt thought the best thing to do with them was to send them to the newspapers, where they were generally published as from 'Officers at Botany Bay.' Another letter, identified as coming from Tench, says:—
'By the time this reaches you, the fate of this settlement and all it contains will be decided. It is now more than two years since we landed here, and within a month less than three since we left England. So cut off from intercourse with the rest of mankind are we, that, subsequent to the month of August 1788, we know not of any transaction that has happened in Europe, and are no more assured of the welfare or existence of any of our friends than of what passes in the moon. It is by those only who have felt the anguish and distress of such a state that its miseries can be conceived.
'The little European knowledge that we are masters of we picked out of some old English newspapers which were brought from the Cape of Good Hope about a twelvemonth back in the Sirius, by which ship you may possibly recollect to have received a letter from me, dated 1st October 1788: but as to all family news, all knowledge of our private affairs, or little endearing accounts which no man, I presume, is without a wish to receive, nothing but a blank for the long space of three years has been presented to us. But great as our anxiety on this head is, it falls short of what we suffer on another account. The dread of perishing by famine stares us in the face; on the day I write we have but eight weeks' provision in the public stores, and all chance of a reinforcement under seven months is cut off, unless ships from England should yet, notwithstanding the lateness of the season, come in upon us. The hope of this is, however, very feeble, for, without the most shameful and cruel inattention on your part, ships must have left England by the first of August last to come here: and if so, they have undoubtedly perished on their route. Even this alternative, dreadful as it is, is less inflicting than to believe that our country would send us out here as a sacrifice to famine and the savages of the place, who, if ever they shall by any means learn our situation, will prove extremely troublesome.' … Then the writer goes on to say that the 'pride, pomp and circumstance of war' are at an end with the garrison, for none of the soldiers have boots! … After having suffered as they have, he says it will be hard for them on their return to England 'to meet the sneers of a set of holiday troops, whose only employ has been to powder their hair, polish their shoes, etc. … though I must admit that our gait and raggedness will give them some title to be merry at our expence.' So continuously had they been employed that no military manœuvre of any consequence had been practised since the detachment left England. And he concludes by saying:—
'The country is past all dispute a wretched one, a very wretched, and totally incapable of yielding to Great Britain any return for colonizing it. Amidst its native productions I cannot number one which is valuable as an article of commerce. There is no wood fit for naval purposes; no fibrous grass or plant from which cloth can be made; no substance which can improve or aid the labours of the manufacturer; no mineral productions; no esculent vegetables worth 'the care of collecting and transporting to other climes; and lastly, which is of the most serious consideration, no likelihood that the colony will be able to support itself in grain or animal food for many years to come, so that a regular annual expence is entailed on the mother country as long as it is kept.'
Ross we have already quoted. So early as July 1788 he wrote that 'the country would not support itself for a hundred years.' Another writer described it as 'the outcast of God's works.'
The first news from the settlement sent home via China by the returning transports did not reach England until March 1789, when letters down to November 1788 all came in together. No storeship had up to that date been ordered for despatch to Botany Bay.
The Home Office was at this time the department for the administration of the Colonies,[2] and Sydney, who was at the head of it, did not even reply to Phillip's despatches, but in April he gave instructions that a man-of-war should be got in readiness to carry provisions to the settlement. At the same time he arranged for the despatch of another batch of convicts, totally disregarding Phillip's statements that clothing, implements and provisions were urgently needed, and that more useless mouths to feed would mean disaster.
In June 1789 Lord Sydney resigned office and was succeeded by Lord Grenville.[3] His first despatch to Phillip was the first communication, after more than three years' absence from England, that Phillip had received from his superiors.
In this letter Grenville informs the Governor of the receipt of his despatches; that His Majesty has been pleased to approve of his conduct of the 'arduous and important service' committed to his care; and that the ship Lady Juliana had been taken up by the Government to convey to Port Jackson about 240 female convicts, with a consignment of implements, clothing and provisions. The convicts upon arrival were to be transferred to Phillip to be employed as would be most conducive to the advantage of the colony. The attention given by the Governor to the separation of the convicts of different sexes on the voyage out of the First Fleet is duly commended, and a 'well-grounded hope' is expressed that he will continue to promote matrimonial connection between the unmarried people.
This unpleasant intelligence concerning the Lady Juliana's cargo was, however, followed by the news that the Guardian, man-of-war, was to sail a fortnight after the transport with about three times the quantity of stores embarked on the former, 'which,' Grenville adds, 'excepting in the article of provisions, you will find nearly to correspond with the estimates accompanying your letters.' But the Secretary of State was careful to add that the supplies had been procured at a very considerable expense, and it was hoped that Phillip would make the most of them. He was further informed that in the autumn the Government expected to send out another 1000 convicts of both sexes, and the unfortunate man, already worried and overworked, was enjoined to make arrangements 'for their accommodation as well as for their employment' upon their arrival.
His choice of Port Jackson as the site of the settlement was approved of, but as by his own account the soil did not appear to be very fertile, and the numbers and hostility of the natives made cultivation difficult and dangerous, it was thought that Norfolk Island would be the most favourable position, and were it not for the fact of great labour and expense having already been incurred at Port Jackson, Grenville would have recommended that island being made the main settlement. Phillip, however, was instructed to increase the establishment on the island as far as he conveniently could, and if any similar situation equally advantageous should be discovered, to detach thither a considerable part of the convicts who would be sent out in the next ships. 'The Guardian will have on board about twenty-five convicts who are either artificers or persons accustomed to agriculture, and also eight or ten superintendents, who have been engaged in consequence of your recommendation of the measure; to each of the latter an annual salary of £40 will be given in addition to the ration of provisions.'
Captain Cook, it will be remembered, had discovered Norfolk Island, and its size, by a reference to the chart, could have been seen by the youngest clerk in the Home Office, and yet in the opinion of Grenville it was a better place than Port Jackson for the chief settlement!
But before this despatch arrived many things happened. First, Phillip, finding that no storeships came in, despatched the Sirius to the Cape of Good Hope for provisions. She returned in May 1789, and on the way back she encountered very heavy weather. Southwell, who was on board, writing to his uncle, says:—
'I will now say a word or two concerning our passage when coming from the Cape of Good Hope. When I last wrote to you, having taken in our cargo, the principal which was six months' full allowance of flour for the colony and twelve months' provisions for the ship, we sailed again for New Holland, and had a very narrow escape from shipwreck, being driven on that part of the coast called Tasman's Head, in thick weather and hard gales of wind, and embayed, being twelve hours before we got clear, the ship forced to be overpressed with sail and the hands kept continually at the pumps, and all this time in the most distressing anxiety, being uncertain of our exact situation and doubtful of our tackling holding, which has a very long time been bad: for had a mast gone or a top-sheet given way, there was nothing to be expected in such boisterous weather but certain death on a coast so inhospitable and unknown. And now to reflect if we had not have reached the port with that seasonable supply, what could have become of this colony?'
The flour brought by the Sirius was not much, and still no storeships came. Phillip accordingly determined to reduce the rations, and on 1st November 1789 a reduction of one-third was made. This reduction applied to everyone, women excepted, in the settlement. Says Collins:—
'The Governor, whose humanity was at all times conspicuous, directed that no alteration should be made in the ration to be issued to the women. They were already upon two-thirds of the men's allowance; and many of them either had children who could very well have eaten their own and part of the mother's ration, or they had children at the breast; and although they did not labour, yet their appetites were never so delicate as to have found the full ration too much had it been issued to them. The like reduction was enforced afloat as well as on shore, the ships' companies of the Sirius and Supply being put to two-thirds of the allowance usually issued to the King's ships. …
'Thus opened the month of November in this settlement; where, though we had not the accompanying gloom and vapour of our own climate to render it terrific to our minds, yet we had that before us, in the midst of all our sunshine, which gave it the complexion of the true November so inimical to our countrymen.'
These reduced rations were issued, Collins adds, to the convicts on Saturdays; by the following Tuesday night the greater number of the recipients had nothing left to allay the pangs of hunger. Their only resource was persistent thieving from their fellows or the other members of the settlement. The Governor therefore gave instructions to issue provisions on Wednesdays as well as Saturdays. The allowance being thus divided caused even the improvident to be more able to perform the labour required from them; and that Phillip, in view of their condition, made that labour as light as possible, we can have no doubt.
Tench gives us a picture of the settlement at this time:—
'Our impatience of news from Europe strongly marked the commencement of the year. We had now been two years in the country, and thirty-two months from England, in which long period no supplies, except what had been procured at the Cape of Good Hope by the Sirius, had reached us. From intelligence of our friends and connections we had entirely been cut off, no communication whatever having passed with our native country since the 13th of May 1787, the day of our departure from Portsmouth. Famine, beside, was approaching with gigantic strides, and gloom and dejection overspread every countenance. Men abandoned themselves to the most desponding reflections, and adopted the most extravagant conjectures.
'Still we were on the tip-toe of expectation. If thunder broke at a distance, or a fowling-piece of louder than ordinary report resounded in the woods, "a gun from a ship" was echoed on every side, and nothing but hurry and agitation prevailed. For eighteen months after we had landed in the country, a party of marines used to go weekly to 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 was fixed on a high bluff called South Head at the entrance to the harbour, on which a flag was ordered to be hoisted whenever a ship might appear, which should serve as a direction to her, and as a signal of approach to us. Every officer stepped forward to volunteer a service which promised to be so replete with beneficial consequences. But the zeal and alacrity of Captain Hunter and our brethren of the Sirius rendered superfluous all assistance or co-operation.
'Here on the summit of the hill, every morning from daylight till the sun sunk, did we sweep the horizon in hope of seeing a sail. At every fleeting speck which arose 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 of this vast ocean (the largest in the world) we were the only community which possessed the art of navigation, and languished for intercourse with civilised society.
'Vigorous measures were become indispensible. The Governor, therefore, early in February ordered the Sirius to prepare for a voyage to China; and a farther retrenchment of our rations, we were given to understand, would take place on her sailing.
'But the Sirius was destined not to reach China. Previously to her intended voyage she was ordered, in concert with the Supply, to convey Major Ross, with a large detachment of marines, and more than 200 convicts, to Norfolk Island, it being hoped that such a division of our numbers would increase the means of subsistance, by diversified exertions. She sailed on the 6th of March … and on the 27th of the same month, the following order was issued from headquarters: "The expected supply of provisions not having arrived makes it necessary to reduce the present ration, and the commissary is directed to issue, from the 1st of April, the undermentioned allowance to every person in the settlement without distinction, four pounds of flour, two pounds and a half of salt pork, and one pound and a half of rice per week."'
The officer in charge of the look-out was, it will be remembered, young Southwell, and he watched the departure of the two ships as they sailed out between the Heads. Nothing more was seen of either of them, he writes, till the 5th April, when at daybreak he was roused from his slumbers by the look-out man with the news that a sail was in sight. The ship, as she neared the land, was judged by him to be the Supply, though he wondered at her returning so soon. Foreboding an accident, he 'desired the gunner to notice if the people mustered thick on her decks as she came in under the headland.'
His misgivings were too well-founded—the ship was the Supply, the Sirius had left her bones on Norfolk Island.