An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Volume 1: With Remarks on the Dispositions, Customs, Manners, Etc. of The; Native Inhabitants of That Country. to Which Are Added, Some; Particulars of New Zealand; Compiled, By Permission, From; The Mss. of Lieutenant-Governor King.Collins, David
History
An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Volume 1: With Remarks on the Dispositions, Customs, Manners, Etc. of The; Native Inhabitants of That Country. to Which Are Added, Some; Particulars of New Zealand; Compiled, By Permission, From; The Mss. of Lieutenant-Governor King.
Collins, David
New South Wales -- Description and travel
Of the change which had been effected in the system of government in
France we now first received information, and we heard with pleasure that
it was not likely to interrupt the tranquillity of our own happy
nation--happy in a constitution which might well excite the admiration
and become the model of other states not so free.
The _Justinian_ had sailed on the 17th of last January from Falmouth, and
touched only at St. Iago, avoiding, as she had not any convicts on board,
the circuitous passage by the Rio de Janeiro and the Cape of Good Hope.
On the day following her arrival, every thing seemed getting into its
former train; the full ration was ordered to be issued; instead of daily,
it was to be served weekly as formerly; and the drum for labour was to
beat as usual in the afternoons at one o'clock. How general was the wish,
that no future necessity might ever occasion another deduction in the
ration, or an alteration in the labour of the people!
That Norfolk Island, whose situation at this time every one was fearful
might call loudly for relief, should as quickly as possible reap her
share of the benefit introduced among us by these arrivals, it was
intended to send the _Lady Juliana_ thither; and as she required some
repairs, without which she could not proceed to sea, some carpenters from
the shore were sent on board her, and employed to sheath her bends, which
were extremely defective.
A shop was opened on shore by the master of this ship, at the hut lately
occupied as a bakehouse for the _Supply_, for the sale of some articles
of grocery, glass, millinery, perfumery, and stationary; but the risk of
bringing them out having been most injudiciously estimated too highly,
as was evident from the increase on the first cost, which could not be
disguised, they did not go off so quickly as the owners supposed they
would.
A report having been circulated soon after the establishing of this
settlement, that a considerable sum of money had been subscribed in
England, to be expended in articles for the benefit of the convicts who
embarked for this country, which articles had been entrusted to the Rev.
Mr. Johnson, to be disposed of according to the intention of the
subscribers after our arrival, Mr. Johnson wrote to his friends in
England to confute this report; and by accounts lately received, it
appeared that no such public collection had ever been made; at Mr.
Johnson's request, therefore, the governor published a contradiction of
the above report in the general orders of the settlement. The convicts
had hitherto imagined that they had a right to the articles which had
from time to time been distributed among them; but Mr. Johnson now
thought it necessary that they should know it was to his bounty they were
indebted for them, and that consequently the partakers of it were to be
of his own selection.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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