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A COMPLETE ACCOUNT OF THE SETTLEMENT AT PORT JACKSON

by Watkin Tench





PREFACE




When it is recollected how much has been written to describe the Settlement
of New South Wales, it seems necessary if not to offer an apology, yet to
assign a reason, for an additional publication.

The Author embarked in the fleet which sailed to found the establishment at
Botany Bay. He shortly after published a Narrative of the Proceedings and
State of the Colony, brought up to the beginning of July, 1788, which
was well received, and passed through three editions. This could not
but inspire both confidence and gratitude; but gratitude, would be badly
manifested were he on the presumption of former favour to lay claim
to present indulgence. He resumes the subject in the humble hope of
communicating information, and increasing knowledge, of the country, which
he describes.

He resided at Port Jackson nearly four years: from the 20th of January,
1788, until the 18th of December, 1791. To an active and contemplative
mind, a new country is an inexhaustible source of curiosity and
speculation. It was the author's custom not only to note daily occurrences,
and to inspect and record the progression of improvement; but also, when
not prevented by military duties, to penetrate the surrounding country in
different directions, in order to examine its nature, and ascertain its
relative geographical situations.

The greatest part of the work is inevitably composed of those materials
which a journal supplies; but wherever reflections could be introduced
without fastidiousness and parade, he has not scrupled to indulge them, in
common with every other deviation which the strictness of narrative would
allow.

When this publication was nearly ready for the press; and when many of
the opinions which it records had been declared, fresh accounts from Port
Jackson were received. To the state of a country, where so many anxious
trying hours of his life have passed, the author cannot feel indifferent.
If by any sudden revolution of the laws of nature; or by any fortunate
discovery of those on the spot, it has really become that fertile and
prosperous land, which some represent it to be, he begs permission to add
his voice to the general congratulation. He rejoices at its success: but
it is only justice to himself and those with whom he acted to declare, that
they feel no cause of reproach that so complete and happy an alteration did
not take place at an earlier period.





CHAPTER I.



A Retrospect of the State of the Colony of Port Jackson, on the Date of my
former Narrative, in July, 1788.


Previous to commencing any farther account of the subject, which I am about
to treat, such a retrospection of the circumstances and situation of the
settlement, at the conclusion of my former Narrative, as shall lay its
state before the reader, seems necessary, in order to connect the present
with the past.

The departure of the first fleet of ships for Europe, on the 14th of July,
1788, had been long impatiently expected; and had filled us with anxiety,
to communicate to our friends an account of our situation; describing the
progress of improvement, and the probability of success, or failure, in
our enterprise. That men should judge very oppositely on so doubtful and
precarious an event, will hardly surprise.

Such relations could contain little besides the sanguineness of hope, and
the enumeration of hardships and difficulties, which former accounts had
not led us to expect. Since our disembarkation in the preceding January,
the efforts of every one had been unremittingly exerted, to deposit the
public stores in a state of shelter and security, and to erect habitations
for ourselves. We were eager to escape from tents, where a fold of canvas,
only, interposed to check the vertic beams of the sun in summer, and the
chilling blasts of the south in winter. A markee pitched, in our finest
season, on an English lawn; or a transient view of those gay camps, near
the metropolis, which so many remember, naturally draws forth careless and
unmeaning exclamations of rapture, which attach ideas of pleasure only, to
this part of a soldier's life. But an encampment amidst the rocks and wilds
of a new country, aggravated by the miseries of bad diet, and incessant
toil, will find few admirers.

Nor were our exertions less unsuccessful than they were laborious. Under
wretched covers of thatch lay our provisions and stores, exposed to
destruction from every flash of lightning, and every spark of fire. A few
of the convicts had got into huts; but almost all the officers, and the
whole of the soldiery, were still in tents.

In such a situation, where knowledge of the mechanic arts afforded the
surest recommendation to notice, it may be easily conceived, that attention
to the parade duty of the troops, gradually diminished. Now were to be
seen officers and soldiers not "trailing the puissant pike" but felling the
ponderous gum-tree, or breaking the stubborn clod. And though "the broad
falchion did not in a ploughshare end" the possession of a spade, a
