1793 to 1795 1794 1795: overview
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- October 1794
- October 1794: Bench of Magistrates
- October 1794: Collins – The Surprize
September 1794September 1794: Collins‘In fact, we still knew very little of the manners and customs of these people, not withstanding the advantage we possessed in the constant residence of many of them among us, and the desire that they showed of cultivating our friendship. At the Hawkesbury they were not so friendly; a settler there and his servant were nearly murdered in their hut by some natives from the woods, who stole upon them with such secrecy, as to wound and overpower them before they could procure assistance. The servant was so much hurt by them with spears and clubs, as to be in danger of losing his life. A few days after this circumstance, a body of natives having attacked the settlers, and carried off their clothes, provisions and whatever else they could lay their hands on, the sufferers collected what arms they could, and following them, seven or eight of the plunderers were killed on the spot. This mode of treating them had become absolutely necessary, from the frequency and evil effects of their visits; but whatever the settlers at the river suffered was entirely brought on them by their own misconduct: there was not a doubt but many natives had been wantonly fired upon; and when their children, after the flight of the parents, have fallen into the settlers hands, they have been detained at their huts, notwithstanding the earnest entreaties of the parents for their return.’78 October 1794October 1794: Collins‘From the Hawkesbury were received accounts which corroborated the opinion that the settlers there merited the attacks which were from time to time made upon them by the natives. It was now said that some of them had seized a native boy, and, after tying him hand and foot, had dragged him several times through a fire, or over a place covered with hot ashes, until his back was dreadfully scorched, and in that state threw him into the river, where they shot at and killed him. Such a report could not be heard without being followed by the closest examination, when it appeared that a boy had actually been shot when in the water, from a conviction of his having been detached as a spy upon the settlers from a large body of natives, and that he was returning to them with an account of their weakness, there being only one musket to be found among several farms. No person appearing to contradict this account, it was admitted as a truth; but many still considered it as a tale invented to cover the true circumstance, that a boy had been cruelly and wantonly murdered by them. The presence of some person with authority was becoming absolutely necessary among those settlers, who, finding themselves freed from bondage, instantly conceived that they were above all restrictions; and, being without internal regulations, irregularities of the worst kind might be expected to happen.’79 October 1794: Bench of Magistrates“[375] Examination of the persons supposed to have murdered a Native Boy at the Hawkesbury, and the Evidence against them. ‘Alexander Wilson80 says that Robert Forrester informed him that he had shot a native Boy, and that he was induced to it from motives of humanity. The Boy having been previously thrown into the River by the neighbouring settlers, with his hands so tied, that it was impossible he could swim to the opposite side. Robert Forrester says that a large party of natives having appeared at the back of his Farm he alarmed his neighbours and went out to observe them. That in the road to the natives they met a Native Boy who they supposed was coming in for the purpose of discovering what arms they had. That they made him a prisoner; tied his hands behind his back [376] and delivered him to Michael Doyle to take to his [?]. That he was soon after alarmed by a cry from Doyles that the boy was escaped and had jumped into the River. That he and Twyfield immediately ran to the river and saw the boy swimming. That he then was prevailed on to shoot the boy by the importunities and testacies of all around. That the boy should get back to the natives and induce them to an attack by discovering there was no more than one musket in the whole neighbourhood. That the boy was not ill treated with his knowledge in any other manner than he was declared, and that the declaration of Wilson as far as it varies from this is false. Roger Twyfield corroborates the foregoing.81 Parramatta and ... 17 Oct1794’82 On the 25th October 1794 the transport Surprize arrived, bringing with it four “gentlemen convicts”83 and a detachment of the NSW Corps. As well, William Baker, a former marine returned to the colony to become the superintendent of the government store at Windsor. I have included Collins’s account of the Surprize’s arrival as it provides additional insight into the quality of the soldiers of the NSW Corps and introduces the “gentlemen convicts”, one of whom, Thomas Fyshe Palmer, was to write an illuminating letter about the activities of a detachment of the NSW Corps under the command of Lieutenant Abbott on the Hawkesbury. October 1794: Collins – The Surprize‘In the evening of the same day the Surprize transport arrived from England, whence she sailed on the 2nd of last May, having on board sixty female and twenty-three male convicts, some stores and provisions, and three settlers for this colony. Among the prisoners were, Messrs. Muir, Palmer, Skirving, and Margarot, four gentlemen lately convicted in Scotland of the crime of sedition, considered as a public offence, and transported for the same to this country. We found also on board the Surprize a Mr. James Thompson, late surgeon of the Atlantic transport, but who now came in quality of assistant-surgeon to the settlement; and William Baker,84 formerly here a sergeant in the marine detachment, but now appointed a superintendant of convicts. A guard of an ensign and twenty-one privates of the New South Wales corps were on board the transport. Six of these people were deserters from other regiments brought from the Savoy;85 one of them, Joseph Draper, we understood had been tried for mutiny (of an aggravated kind) at Quebec. This mode of recruiting the regiment must have proved as disgusting to the officers as it was detrimental to the interests of the settlement. If the corps was raised for the purpose of protecting the civil establishment, and of bringing a counterpoise to the vices and crimes which might naturally be expected to exist among the convicts, it ought to have been carefully formed from the best characters; instead of which we now found a mutineer (a wretch who could deliberate with others, and consent himself to be the chosen instrument of the destruction of his sovereign's son) sent among us, to remain for life, perhaps, as a check upon sedition, now added to the catalogue of our other imported vices’.86 Directory: docs docs -> Application for acem docs -> Observational Assessment of Teaching Practices Teaching Assessment Initiative Proposal Submitted to The Teachers for a New Era project docs -> Traditional British values docs -> From Warfighters to Crimefighters: The Origins of Domestic Police Militarization docs -> Borzoi Club of America Register of Merit Program I. 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