The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay: With an Account of the Establishment of the Colonies of Port Jackson and Norfolk Island (1789)Phillip, Arthur
History
The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay: With an Account of the Establishment of the Colonies of Port Jackson and Norfolk Island (1789)
Phillip, Arthur
Natural history -- Australia -- New South Wales; New South Wales -- Discovery and exploration; Norfolk Island
The fourth of June was not suffered to pass without due celebration. It
was a day of remission from labour, and of general festivity throughout
the settlement. At sun-rise the Sirius and Supply fired each a salute of
twenty-one guns, and again at one o'clock, when the marines on shore also
saluted with three vollies. At sunset the same honours were a third time
repeated from the ships; large bonfires were lighted, and the whole camp
afforded a scene of joy. That there might not be any exception to the
happiness of this day, the four convicts who had been reprieved from
death, and banished to an island in the middle of the harbour, received a
full pardon, and were sent for to bear their part in the general
exultation. The Governor, in his letters, with that humanity which so
strongly distinguishes his character, says, he trusts that on this day
there was not a single heavy heart in this part of his Majesty's
dominions. His own house was the centre of conviviality to all who could
be admitted to that society, nor was any thing neglected which in such a
situation could mark a day of celebrity, consistently with propriety and
good order. Perhaps no birth-day was ever celebrated in more places, or
more remote from each other, than that of his Majesty on this day.
It was now, it seems, first generally known, that the name of Cumberland
County had been given by the Governor to this part of the territory. This
name had been fixed before the assembling of the first courts, for the
sake of preserving regularity in the form of the public acts, in which it
is usual to name the county. The boundaries fixed for Cumberland County
were, on the west, Carmarthen and Lansdown Hills: on the north, the
northern parts of Broken Bay; and to the southward, the southern parts of
Botany Bay. Thus including completely these three principal bays, and
leaving the chief place of settlement at Sydney Cove nearly in the
centre.
On the 22d of June was a slight shock of an earthquake, which did not
last more than two or three seconds. It was felt by most people in the
camp, and by the Governor himself, who heard at the same time a noise
from the southward, which he took at first for the report of guns fired
at a great distance.
24 June 1788
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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