Representations of life in the penal settlement at Sydney Cove
John White ESQ
Source: Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales
Author: John White Esq
Source type: Primary source
Useful for: Experiences of men, women and children on the First Fleet voyage
About
John White was a key figure in the early history of Australia—best known as the chief surgeon of the First Fleet and the author of one of the earliest detailed accounts of the new colony. As chief surgeon, White was responsible for treating convicts, marines, and officers, managing health during the eight-month voyage, establishing early medical care in Sydney Cove, and studying local plants for medicinal use.
Settlement chapters
Overview
Arthur Phillip ~ 1788
Arthur Phillip ~ 1789
Watkin Tench
John White
Arthur Bowes-Smyth
Newton Fowell
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-Sydney Cove, hospital, governor's house, survey of harbour
"January 26, 1788...Port Jackson I believe to be, without exception, the finest and most extensive harbour in the universe, and at the same time the most secure, being safe from all the winds that blow. It is divided into a great number of coves, to which his excellency has given different names. That on which the town is to be built, is called Sydney Cove. It is one of the smallest in the harbour, but the most convenient, as ships of the greatest burden can with ease go into it, and heave out close to the shore...
The Supply had arrived the day before, and the governor, with every person that could be spared from the ship, were on shore, clearing the ground for the encampment. In the evening, when all the ships had anchored, the English colours were displayed; and at the foot of the flag-staff his Majesty's health, and success to the settlement, was drank by the governor, many of the principal officers, and private men who were present...
27th January. A number of convicts from the different transports were landed to assist in clearing the ground for the encampment. His excellency marked the outlines, and, as much as possible to prevent irregularity, and to keep the convicts from straggling, the provost marshal, aided by the patrole, had orders to take into custody all convicts that should be found without the lines, and to leave them in charge of the main or quarter guard.
The boats sent this day to fish were successful. Some of the natives came into the little bay or cove where the seine was hauled, and behaved very friendly. Indeed they carried their civility so far, although a people that appeared to be averse to work, as to assist in dragging it ashore. For this kind office they were liberally rewarded with fish, which seemed to please them and give general satisfaction.
29th January. A convenient place for the cattle being found, the few that remained were landed. The frame and materials for the governor's house, constructed by Smith in St. George's Fields, were likewise sent on shore, and some preparations made for erecting it.
This day Captain Hunter and Lieutenant Bradley began to take a survey of the harbour. In the course of the last week, all the marines, their wives and children, together with all the convicts, male and female, were landed. The laboratory and sick tents were erected, and, I am sorry to say, were soon filled with patients afflicted with the true camp dysentery and the scurvy. More pitiable objects were perhaps never seen. Not a comfort or convenience could be got for them, besides the very few we had with us.
His excellency, seeing the state these poor objects were in, ordered a piece of ground to be enclosed, for the purpose of raising vegetables for them. The seeds that were sown upon this occasion, on first appearing above ground, looked promising and well, but soon after withered away, which was not extraordinary, as they were not sown at a proper season of the year.
The sick have increased since our landing to such a degree, that a spot for a general hospital has been marked out and artificers already employed on it. A proper spot, contiguous to the hospital, has been chosen, to raise such vegetables as can be produced at this season of the year; and where a permanent garden for the use of the hospital is to be established.
Storehouse, criminal court, marriages, punishment
5th February. A storehouse has been begun, for the purpose of receiving the stores and provisions of the three transports bound to China. On a muster of the convicts this morning, some were found to be missing, and supposed to have gone to Botany Bay, in hopes of being received on board the French ships, which are said to be short of hands...
7th February. The governor's commission, and that for establishing a criminal court of judicature, admiralty court, etc. were read. After this was done the troops under arms fired three volleys, when his excellency thanked the soldiers for their steady and good conduct...
The governor then addressed the convicts in a short speech, extremely well adapted to the people he had to govern... Among many circumstances that would tend to their future happiness and comfort, he recommended marriage, assuring them that an indiscriminate and illegal intercourse would be punished with the greatest severity and rigour. Honesty, obedience, and industry, he told them, would make their situation comfortable, whereas a contrary line of conduct would subject them to ignominy, severities, and punishment. When the ceremony was concluded, his excellency, attended by all the officers of the colony, withdrew to a tent pitched for the occasion, where a cold dinner was laid out; and, after the cloth was removed, many loyal and public toasts were drank...
During the course of this week fourteen marriages were solemnized.
The criminal court, consisting of six officers of his Majesty's forces by land or sea, with the judge advocate, sat for the first time, before whom several convicts were tried for petty larceny. Some of them were acquitted, others sentenced to receive corporal punishment, and one or two were, by the decision of the court, ordered to a barren rock, or little island, in the middle of the harbour, there to remain on bread and water for a stated time.
14th February. The Supply sailed for Norfolk Island, with Lieutenant King and his detachment, consisting of Mr. Cunningham, master's mate, and Mr. Jameson, surgeon's first mate, of the Sirius, two marines, and twelve male and female convicts. The governor furnished him with provisions and stores of every kind for six months, and with tools for cutting down timber, which last employment was the purpose of his mission.
27th February. Thomas Barrett, Henry Lovel, and Joseph Hall, were brought before the criminal court and tried for feloniously and fraudulently taking away from the public store beef and pease, the property of the crown. They were convicted on the clearest evidence, and, sentence of death being passed on them, they were, about six o'clock the same evening, taken to the fatal tree, where Barrett was launched into eternity, after having confessed to the Rev. Mr. Johnson, who attended him, that he was guilty of the crime, and had long merited the ignominious death which he was about to suffer, and to which he said he had been brought by bad company and evil example. Lovel and Hall were respited until six o'clock the next evening. When that awful hour arrived, they were led to the place of execution, and, just as they were on the point of ascending the ladder, the judge advocate arrived with the governor's pardon, on condition of their being banished to some uninhabited place.
29th February. Daniel Gordon and John Williams were tried and convicted of stealing wine, the property of Mr. Zachariah Clarke. Williams being an ignorant black youth, the court recommended him to the governor as a proper object of mercy, and he was accordingly pardoned. Gordon, who was another black, had his sentence of death, while at the gallows, changed to banishment with Lovel and Hall.
30th February. John Freeman was tried for stealing from another convict seven pounds of flour. He was convicted and sentenced to be hanged; but while under the ladder, with the rope about his neck, he was offered his free pardon on condition of performing the duty of the common executioner as long as he remained in this country; which, after some little pause, he reluctantly accepted. William Sheerman, his accomplice, was sentenced to receive on his bare back, with a cat-o'nine-tails, three hundred lashes, which were inflicted.
...Thefts and depredations on one another have become so very frequent and glaring among the convicts, that scarcely a day passes without some of these miserable delinquents being punished. So hardened in wickedness and depravity are many of them, that they seem insensible to the fear of corporal punishment, or even death itself.
The principal business going forward at present is erecting cabbage-tree huts for the officers, soldiers, and convicts; some storehouses, etc; and a very good hospital; all which in the completion will cost a great deal of time and trouble, as the timber of this country is very unfit for the purpose of building. Nor do I know any one purpose for which it will answer except for fire-wood; and for that it is excellent: but in other respects it is the worst wood that any country or climate ever produced, although some of the trees, when standing, appear fit for any use whatever, masts for shipping not excepted. Strange as it may be imagined, no wood in this country, though sawed ever so thin, and dried ever so well, will float. Repeated trials have only served to convince me that, immediately on immersion, it sinks to the bottom like a stone.
The stone of this country is excellent for building, could any kind of cement be found to keep it together. There is not any limestone (I believe) in New South Wales. The governor, notwithstanding that he had collected together all the shells which could be found, for the purpose of obtaining from them the lime necessary to the construction of a house for his own residence, did not procure even a fourth part of the quantity which was wanted. The foundation stone of a private house for him has been laid, and a plate of copper, with the following inscription engraved on it, is to be placed in the wall:
ARTHUR PHILLIP, ESQ.
Captain General in and over his Majesty's Territory
of New South Wales, and its Dependencies;
Arrived in this Country on the 18th Day of
January, 1788, with the first Settlers;
And on the 15th Day of May, in the same Year,
the first of these Stones was laid.​
April 15, 1788 - Manly, convict speared, Lord Howe Island, scurvy. poor wood quality, Aborigines indicate poisonous foods. cabbage tree huts
...His excellency, attended by Lieutenant Ball of the navy, Lieutenant George Johnston of the marines, the judge advocate, myself, three soldiers, and two seamen, landed in Manly Cove (so called from the manly conduct of the natives when the governor first visited it), on the north side of the entrance into Port Jackson harbour, in order to trace to its source a river which had been discovered a few days before. We, however, found this impracticable, owing to a thicket and swamp which ran along the side of it.
The governor, anxious to acquire all the knowledge of the country in his power, forded the river in two places, and more than up to our waists in water, in hopes of being able to avoid the thicket and swamp; but, notwithstanding all his perseverance, we were at length obliged to return and to proceed along the sea-shore, a mile or two to the northward.
At the end of this we fell in with a small salt-water lagoon, on which we found nine birds that, whilst swimming, most perfectly resembled the rara avis of the ancients - a black swan (other birdlife and details of explorations - including newly named Richmond Hills also outlined) ...
21st May. William Ayres, a convict, who was in a state of convalescence, and to whom I had given permission to go a little way into the country, for the purpose of gathering a few herbs wherewith to make tea, was, after night, brought to the hospital with one of the spears used by the natives sticking in his loins... After dilating the wound to a considerable length and depth, with some difficulty I extracted the spear, which had penetrated the flesh nearly three inches.
After the operation, he informed us that he received his wound from three of the natives, who came behind him at a time when he suspected no person to be near him except Peter Burn, whom he had met a little before, employed on the same business as himself. He added that after they had wounded him they beat him in a cruel manner, and, stripping the cloaths from his back, carried them off... He further related that after they had left him he saw Burn in the possession of another party of the natives, who were dragging him along, with his head bleeding, and seemingly in great distress...
25th May. The Supply arrived from Lord Howe's Island without a single turtle, the object for which she was sent: a dreadful disappointment to those who were languishing under the scurvy, many of whom are since dead, and there is great reason to fear that several others will soon share the same fate. This disorder has now risen to a most alarming height, without any possibility of checking it until some vegetables can be raised, which, from the season of the year, cannot take place for many months. And even then I am apprehensive that there will not be a sufficiency produced, such are the labour and difficulty which attend the clearing of the ground.
It will scarcely be credited when I declare that I have known twelve men employed for five days in grubbing up one tree; and, when this has been effected, the timber (as already observed) has been only fit for fire-wood; so that in consequence of the great labour in clearing of the ground and the weak state of the people, to which may be added the scarcity of tools, most of those we had being either worn out by the hardness of the timber or lost in the woods among the grass through the carelessness of the convicts, the prospect before us is not of the most pleasing kind.
All the stock that was landed, both public and private, seems, instead of thriving, to fall off exceedingly. The number at first was but inconsiderable, and even that number is at present much diminished. The sheep, in particular, decrease rapidly, very few being now alive in the colony, although there were numbers, the property of Government or individuals, when first landed...
30th May. Captain Campbell of the marines, who had been up the harbour to procure some rushes for thatch, brought to the hospital the bodies of William Okey and Samuel Davis, two rush-cutters, whom he had found murdered by the natives in a shocking manner...
...there appeared not to be less than three hundred of them in this bay, all armed... These people seem to dislike red coats and those who carry arms, but on the present occasion they shewed very little fear or distrust; on the contrary, they in a few minutes mixed with us, and conducted us to a very fine stream of water, out of which some of them drank, to shew that it was good.
The women and children kept at some distance, one or two more forward than the rest excepted, who came to the governor for some presents. While he was distributing his gifts, the women danced (an exercise every description of people in this country seem fond of) and threw themselves into some not very decent attitudes. The men in general had their skins smeared all over with grease, or some stinking, oily substance; some wore a small stick or fish-bone, fixed crossways, in the division of the nose, which had a very strange appearance; others were painted in a variety of ways, and had their hair ornamented with the teeth of fish, fastened on by gum, and the skin of the kangaroo.
As they conducted us to the water, a toadstool was picked up by one of our company, which, some of the natives perceiving, they made signs for us to throw it away, as not being good to eat...
4th June. This being the anniversary of his Majesty's birth-day, and the first celebration of it in New South Wales, his excellency ordered the Sirius and Supply to fire twenty-one guns at sun-rise, at one o'clock, and at sunset...
After this ceremony had taken place, the lieutenant-governor, with all the officers of the settlement, civil and military, paid their respects to his excellency at his house. At two o'clock they all met there again to dinner, during which the band of musick played "God save the King" and several excellent marches. After the cloth was removed, his Majesty's health was drank with three cheers. The Prince of Wales, the Queen and royal family, the Cumberland family, and his Royal Highness Prince William Henry succeeded. His Majesty's ministers were next given; who, it was observed, may be Pitted against any that ever conducted the affairs of Great Britain.
When all the public toasts had gone round, the governor nominated the district which he had taken possession of, Cumberland County; and gave it such an extent of boundary as to make it the largest county in the whole world. His excellency said that he had intended to have named the town, and laid the first stone, on this auspicious day, but the unexpected difficulties which he had met with, in clearing the ground and from a want of artificers, had rendered it impossible; he therefore put it off till a future day. Its name, however, we understand, is to be ALBION.
The day was passed in cheerfulness and good-humour; but it was a little damped by our perceiving that the governor was in great pain, from a return of his complaint. Though his countenance too plainly indicated the torture which he suffered, he took every method in his power to conceal it, lest it should break in upon the festivity and harmony of the day.
His excellency ordered every soldier a pint of porter, besides his allowance of grog, and every convict half a pint of spirits, made into grog, that they all might drink his Majesty's health; and, as it was a day of general rejoicing and festivity, he likewise made it a day of forgiveness, remitting the remainder of the punishment to which the sailors of the Sirius were subject, and pardoning Lovel, Sideway, Hall, and Gordon, who had been confined on a little sterile island, or rather rock, situated in the harbour, until a place of banishment could be found.
This act of lenity and mercy, added to many others which the governor had shewn, it is to be hoped will work some change on the minds of these men. Indeed some good may be expected from Hall and Gordon, who, since their sentence, have appeared penitent; but from Lovel and Sideway very little change for the better can be expected, because they seem so truly abandoned and incorrigible.
At night every person attended an immense bonfire that was lighted for the occasion, after which the principal officers of the settlement, and of the men of war, supped at the governor's, where they terminated the day in pleasantry, good humour and cheerfulness.
The next morning we were astonished at the number of thefts which had been committed, during the general festivity, by the villanous part of the convicts, on one another, and on some of the officers, whose servants did not keep a strict look-out after their marquees. Availing themselves thus of the particular circumstances of the day, is a strong instance of their unabated depravity and want of principle. Scarcely a day passes without an example being made of some one or other of these wretches, but it seems to have no manner of effect upon them.
26th June. About four in the afternoon a slight shock of an earthquake was felt at Sydney Cove and its environs. This incident had so wonderful an effect on Edward Corbett, a convict, who had eloped about three weeks before, on a discovery being made of his having stolen a frock, that he returned and gave himself up to justice. A few days antecedent to his return he had been outlawed, and was supposed to have driven off with him four cows, the only animals of this kind in the colony. This, however, he declared himself innocent of, but confessed his having committed the theft laid to his charge.
The strictest search was made, but in vain, after the cows. It is probable that they have strayed so far off, in this endless wild, as to be irrecoverably lost.
Previously to the return of Corbett he must have suffered very severely from hunger; his eyes were sunk into his head and his whole appearance shewed that he had been half starved. While he was absent, he says, he frequently fell in with the natives, who, though they never treated him ill, did not seem to like his company...
The principal business now going forward is the erecting huts for the marines and convicts, with the cabbage-tree. We have been here nearly six months and four officers only as yet got huts: when the rest will be provided with them seems uncertain, but this I well know, that living in tents, as the rainy season has commenced, is truly uncomfortable and likely to give a severe trial to the strongest and most robust constitution. (Extensive description of kangaroos.)
...23rd July. The blacksmith's shop, which was built of common brush wood, was burnt down. Very fortunately for us, the bellows and the other tools were, through the exertion of the people, saved. To effect this was no easy point, as in the course of three or four minutes, the wood being very dry, every part of the shop was in flames.
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Letter from John White to Captain Arthur Phillip, Sydney Cove, Port Jackson, July 4, 1788
"Sir, Among the troops, their wives and children, as well as among the convicts who have been ill, the want of necessities to aid the operation of medicine has been most materially and sensibly felt. My duty leads me to mention this circumstance to your Excellency in order that you may use all means for their procurement as may seem most expedient.
For your Excellency's information I have taken the liberty to insert the articles in the margin which come under the head of necessaries, to which I beg leave to add blankets and sheets for the hospital, none of which are in the colony, altho' they are essential and absolutely necessary. The want of them makes that observance and attention to cleanliness (a circumstance which among sick persons cannot be too much inculcated or attended to), utterly impossible. With respect to necessaries, our situation here, constantly living on salt provisions without any possibility of a change, makes them more necessary than perhaps in any other quarter of the globe."
August 25, 1788 - Discovery of 'gold
"...as soon as the governor landed he was informed that a gold mine had been discovered, near the entrance of the harbour, by a convict.
During his excellency's absence, the convict had made this discovery known to the lieutenant governor and the judge advocate; for which he said that he hoped and expected to have his freedom, and a pecuniary reward. The gentlemen to whom he applied answered that they could not promise to grant his request until he should have put them in possession of the mine; but that they were well assured that the governor would bestow on him a proper recompence, after sufficient proof of the discovery. A boat was, in consequence, ordered from the Sirius, to carry him and Captain Campbell down to the place where he declared that the mine was situated. At their landing, he begged leave to withdraw a little, on some necessary occasion; when, instead of returning to Captain Campbell, he went back to the camp, and, waiting on the lieutenant governor and judge advocate, asserted that he had put Captain Campbell in possession of the mine, who had dispatched him over land for another officer and a proper guard.
His account not being doubted, he was well fed and treated; and Lieutenant Paulden, with a guard and all necessary articles, was ordered to attend him to the place. But, before they could set out, to the great astonishment of all Captain Campbell arrived, and unravelled the whole of this extraordinary deception. This produced an unexpected revolution. Instead of receiving a reward for his golden discoveries, the impostor was immediately taken into custody, with two others, supposed to be concerned in carrying on the artifice. The next day he was examined, with great privacy and strictness; but, no satisfactory elucidation being obtained from him, he was ordered to be severely whipped.
Subsequently to this punishment, of which he was prepared to expect a weekly repetition, between the intervals of hard labour, and to be loaded incessantly with heavy irons, during the time of his remaining in the colony, he most audaciously persisted in endeavouring to maintain the delusion, and declared that if an officer was sent with him he would show him the mine; adding that he was heartily sorry for what had happened.
Accordingly, he was suffered to accompany Lieutenant G. Johnston, the Governor's Adjutant of Orders, to the place in question. Before the boat had reached its destination Mr. Johnston argued with him, yet not without protesting that if he either attempted to deceive him as he had imposed upon Captain Campbell or presumed to move five yards from him and his party, he would instantly order him to be shot. Finding that this officer was not to be trifled with, but seemed determined, he acknowledged that it was unnecessary to proceed any farther; that he was ignorant of the existence of any such mine, and that the specimens shown by him were only a composition of brass and gold, which he had filed down and melted.
Mr. Johnston brought him back, when he was again examined, and ordered to be punished. It is needless to add that no further discovery was made. He is now at liberty. He is, however, obliged to wear a large R on his back. The man, whose name is Daily, appears insane; yet others cannot be persuaded that he is a lunatic, but are rather of opinion that he is a designing miscreant..."
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