Читать книгу The English Colony in New South Wales (Vol. 1&2). Narrative of the British First Settlement in Australia 1788-1801 онлайн

93 страница из 309

Mr. King, previous to his departure for his little government, was sworn in as a justice of the peace, taking the oaths necessary on the occasion, by which he was enabled to punish such petty offences as might be committed among his people, capital crimes being reserved for the cognisance of the criminal court of judicature established here.

Our own preservation depending in a great measure upon the preservation of our stores and provisions, houses for their reception were immediately begun when sufficient ground was found to be cleared; and the persons who had the direction of these and other works carrying on, found it most to the advantage of the public service to employ the convicts in task work, allotting a certain quantity of ground to be cleared by a certain number of persons in a given time, and allowing them to employ what time they might gain, till called on again for public service, in bringing in materials and erecting huts for themselves. But for the most part they preferred passing in idleness the hours that might have been so profitably spent, straggling into the woods for vegetables, or visiting the French ships in Botany Bay. Of this latter circumstance we were informed by M. de Clonard, the captain of the Astrolabe, in an excursion he made from the ships, to bring round some dispatches from M. de la Perouse, which that officer requested might be forwarded to the French ambassador at the court of London by the first of our transports that might sail from hence for Europe. He informed us, that they were daily visited by the convicts, many of whom solicited to be received on board before their departure, promising (as an inducement) to be accompanied by a number of females. M. de Clonard at the same time assured us, that the general (as he was termed by his officers and people) had given their solicitations no kind of countenance, but had threatened to drive them away by force.