Chapter XII

TRANSACTIONS AT NORFOLK ISLAND

April 1788 to October 1788

-Regular employment of the convicts.—­Meet with an unlucky accident.—­Thefts detected.—­The robbers punished.—­Pestered with rats.—­Method of destroying them.—­Live stock on the settlement.—­Trees discovered which afford food for hogs.—­Some of the settlers poisoned.—­Cured with sweet oil.—­A convict punished for using seditious language.—­Birds on the island.  Description of Arthur’s Vale.—­His Majesty’s birth-day kept.—­Flourishing state of the gardens.—­Arrival of the Supply.—­Four persons drowned.—­Provisions and stores received.—­Queries from Governor Phillip, and the answers.—­Ball-Bay described.—­The landing-place cleared.—­Arrival of the Golden Grove transport.—­Marines and convicts brought in the Golden Grove.—­Provisions and stores.-

The settlement being now brought to some degree of order, I distributed the people into regular working parties, in order to facilitate the different operations which I was anxious to get forward as fast possible.  Five men were sent to clear away ground on the north-east side of Mount George; two were employed in clearing a road from the ground where we had pitched the tents, to the fresh-water rivulet; two sawyers were sawing timber to build me a house; two men were employed in building huts; and I sent Mr. Altree, (the surgeon’s assistant) to the valley which has already been mentioned, in order to make a commencement there, but as he had only a boy to assist him, his progress was of course very flow.

For some time, the people were thus invariably employed; but the work was often retarded by colds, which was the only sickness we had as yet experienced:  the workmen, indeed, had been often blinded for four or five days together, by the white sap of a tree, which getting into their eyes, occasioned a most excruciating pain for several days.  The best remedy we could apply, was Florence oil; which, dropped into the eye, destroyed the acrimony of the sap.  One man was totally blinded with it, for want of making timely application to the surgeon.

On the 17th, I detected John Batchelor, one of the marines, in my tent, stealing rum out of a small vessel, which contained what was drawn off to serve the officers and men belonging to the Sirius; and was kept in my tent, as I had not a more secure place to put it in.  In the afternoon, I assembled the settlement, and punished the thief with three dozen lashes; causing him to be led by a halter to the place of punishment:  I also stopped the deficiency of rum out of his allowance.

Though there was reason to hope that this example would deter others from committing crimes of the like nature, yet it had not the desired effect; for on the 20th, a convict boy was detected stealing the surgeon’s allowance of rum, out of his tent.  This boy was only fifteen years old, and was transported for seven years.  I ordered him to be punished with an hundred lashes, which I hoped would have a good effect.