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TITLE: A NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION TO BOTANY BAY
AUTHOR: WATKIN TENCH
EBOOK: E04648 (O'Briens Book Cellar)

A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay

by Watkin Tench

INTRODUCTION

In offering this little tract to the public, it is equally the writer's wish
to conduce to their amusement and information.

The expedition on which he is engaged has excited much curiosity,
and given birth to many speculations, respecting the consequences to arise
from it.  While men continue to think freely, they will judge variously.
Some have been sanguine enough to foresee the most beneficial effects
to the Parent State, from the Colony we are endeavouring to establish;
and some have not been wanting to pronounce the scheme big with folly,
impolicy, and ruin.  Which of these predictions will be completed,
I leave to the decision of the public.  I cannot, however, dismiss the subject
without expressing a hope, that the candid and liberal of each opinion,
induced by the humane and benevolent intention in which it originated,
will unite in waiting the result of a fair trial to an experiment,
no less new in its design, than difficult in its execution.

As this publication enters the world with the name of the author,
candour will, he trusts, induce its readers to believe, that no consideration
could weigh with him in an endeavour to mislead them.  Facts are related
simply as they happened, and when opinions are hazarded, they are such as,
he hopes, patient inquiry, and deliberate decision, will be found
to have authorised.  For the most part he has spoken from actual observation;
and in those places where the relations of others have been
unavoidably adopted.  he has been careful to search for the truth,
and repress that spirit of exaggeration which is almost ever the effect
of novelty on ignorance.

The nautical part of the work is comprized in as few pages as possible.
By the professional part of my readers this will be deemed judicious;
and the rest will not, I believe, be dissatisfied at its brevity.
I beg leave, however, to say of the astronomical calculations, that they may
be depended on with the greatest degree of security, as they were communicated
by an officer, who was furnished with instruments, and commissioned
by the Board of Longitude, to make observations during the voyage,
and in the southern hemisphere.

An unpractised writer is generally anxious to bespeak public attention,
and to solicit public indulgence.  Except on professional subjects,
military men are, perhaps, too fearful of critical censure.
For the present narrative no other apology is attempted, than the intentions
of its author, who has endeavoured not only to satisfy present curiosity,
but to point out to future adventurers, the favourable, as well as adverse
circumstances which will attend their settling here.  The candid, it is hoped,
will overlook the inaccuracies of this imperfect sketch, drawn amidst
the complicated duties of the service in which the Author is engaged,
and make due allowance for the want of opportunity of gaining
more extensive information.

Watkin Tench, Capt. of the Marines.

Sydney Cove, Port Jackson, New South Wales, 10 July, 1788.

CHAPTER I

From the Embarkation of the Convicts, to the Departure
of the Ships from England.

The marines and convicts having been previously embarked in the River,
at Portsmouth, and Plymouth, the whole fleet destined for the expedition
rendezvoused at the Mother Bank, on the 16th of March 1787, and remained there
until the 13th of May following.  In this period, excepting a slight appearance
of contagion in one of the transports, the ships were universally healthy,
and the prisoners in high spirits. Few complaints or lamentations
were to be heard among them, and an ardent wish for the hour of departure
seemed generally to prevail.

As the reputation, equally with the safety of the officers and soldiers
appointed to guard the convicts, consisted in maintaining due subordination,
an opportunity was taken, immediately on their being embarked,
to convince them, in the most pointed terms, that any attempt on their side,
either to contest the command, or to force their escape, should be punished
with instant death; orders to this effect were given to the centinels
in their presence; happily, however, for all parties, there occurred not any
instance in which there was occasion to have recourse to so desperate
a measure; the behavior of the convicts being in general humble, submissive,
and regular:  indeed I should feel myself wanting in justice to those
unfortunate men, were I not to bear this public testimony of the sobriety
and decency of their conduct.

Unpleasant as a state of inactivity and delay for many weeks appeared to us,
it was not without its advantages; for by means of it we were enabled
to establish necessary regulations among the convicts, and to adopt
such a system of defence, as left us little to Apprehend for our own security,
in case a spirit of madness and desperation had hurried them on
to attempt our destruction.

Among many other troublesome parts of duty which the service we were engaged on
required, the inspection of all letters brought to, or sent from the ships,
was not one of the least tiresome and disagreeable.  The number and contents
of those in the vessel I was embarked in, frequently surprised me very much;
they varied according to the dispositions of the writers: but their constant
language was, an apprehension of the impracticability of returning home,
the dread of a sickly passage, and the fearful prospect of a distant
and barbarous country.  But this apparent despondency proceeded
in few instances from sentiment.  With too many it was, doubtless, an artifice
to awaken compassion, and call forth relief; the correspondence
invariably ending in a petition for money and tobacco.  Perhaps a want
of the latter, which is considered a great luxury by its admirers
among the lower classes of life, might be the more severely felt,
from their being debarred in all cases whatever, sickness excepted,
the use of spirituous liquors.

It may be thought proper for me to mention, that during our stay
at the Mother Bank, the soldiers and convicts were indiscriminately served
with fresh beef.  The former, in addition, had the usual quantity of beer
allowed in the navy, and were at what is called full allowance of all species
of provisions; the latter, at two thirds only.

CHAPTER II.

From the Departure, to the Arrival of the Fleet at Teneriffe.

Governor Phillip having at length reached Portsmouth, and all things
deemed necessary for the expedition being put on board, at daylight
on the morning of the 13th, the signal to weigh anchor was made in the
Commanding Officer's ship the Sirius.  Before six o'clock the whole fleet
were under sail; and, the weather being fine and wind easterly, proceeded
through the Needles with a fresh leading breeze.  In addition to our
little armament, the Hyena frigate was ordered to accompany us a certain
distance to the westward, by which means our number was increased to
twelve sail: His Majesty's ships 'Sirius', 'Hyena', and 'Supply', three Victuallers
with two years stores and provisions on board for the Settlement,
and six Transports, with troops and convicts.  In the transports were embarked
four captains, twelve subalterns, twenty-four serjeants and corporals,
eight drummers, and one hundred and sixty private marines, making the whole
of the military force, including the Major Commandant and Staff on board
the Sirius, to consist of two hundred and twelve persons, of whom
two hundred and ten were volunteers.  The number of convicts was
five hundred and sixty-five men, one hundred and ninety-two women,
and eighteen children; the major part of the prisoners were mechanics
and husbandmen, selected on purpose by order of Government.

By ten o'clock we had got clear of the Isle of Wight, at which time,
having very little pleasure in conversing with my own thoughts, I strolled
down among the convicts, to observe their sentiments at this juncture.
A very few excepted, their countenances indicated a high degree
of satisfaction, though in some, the pang of being severed, perhaps for ever,
from their native land, could not be wholly suppressed; in general,
marks of distress were more perceptible among the men than the women;
for I recollect to have seen but one of those affected on the occasion,
"Some natural tears she dropp'd, but wip'd them soon."  After this the accent
of sorrow was no longer heard; more genial skies and change of scene
banished repining and discontent, and introduced in their stead cheerfulness
and acquiescence in a lot, now not to be altered.

To add to the good disposition which was beginning to manifest itself,
on the morning of the 20th, in consequence of some favorable representations
made by the officers commanding detachments, they were hailed and told
from the Sirius, that in those cases where they judged it proper,
they were at liberty to release the convicts from the fetters in which
they had been hitherto confined.  In complying with these directions,
I had great pleasure in being able to extend this humane order to the whole
of those under my charge, without a single exception.  It is hardly necessary
for me to say, that the precaution of ironing the convicts at any time
reached to the men only.

In the evening of the same day, the Hyena left us for England, which afforded
an early opportunity of writing to our friends, and easing their apprehensions
by a communication of the favourable accounts it was in our power to send them.

From this time to the day of our making the land, little occurred
worthy of remark.  I cannot, however, help noticing the propriety of employing
the marines on a service which requires activity and exertion at sea,
in preference to other troops.  Had a regiment recruited since the war
been sent out, sea-sickness would have incapacitated half the men
from performing the duties immediately and indispensably necessary;
whereas the marines, from being accustomed to serve on board ship,
accommodated themselves with ease to every exigency, and surmounted
every difficulty.

At daybreak, on the morning of the 30th of May we saw the rocks named
the Deserters, which lie off the south-east end of Madeira; and found
the south-east extremity of the most southerly of them, to be in the latitude
of 32 deg 28 min north, longitude 16 deg 17 1/2 min west of Greenwich.
The following day we saw the Salvages, a cluster of rocks which are placed
between the Madeiras and Canary Islands, and determined the latitude
of the middle of the Great Salvage to be 30 deg 12 min north, and the longitude
of its eastern side to be 15 deg 39 min west.  It is no less extraordinary
than unpardonable, that in some very modern charts of the Atlantic,
published in London, the Salvages are totally omitted.

We made the island of Teneriffe on the 3d of June, and in the evening
anchored in the road of Santa Cruz, after an excellent passage
of three weeks from the day we left England.

CHAPTER III.

From the Fleet's Arrival at Teneriffe, to its Departure
for Rio de Janeiro, in the Brazils.

There is little to please a traveller at Teneriffe.  He has heard wonders

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