They were immediately secured
and committed to prison. Soon after Captain Edwards of the Pandora,
who had been wrecked near Endeavour straits, arrived at Timor, and they were
delivered up to him, by which means they became passengers in the Gorgon.
I confess that I never looked at these people without pity and astonishment.
They had miscarried in a heroic struggle for liberty after having combated
every hardship and conquered every difficulty.
The woman, and one of the men, had gone out to Port Jackson in the ship
which had transported me thither. They had both of them been always
distinguished for good behaviour. And I could not but reflect with admiration
at the strange combination of circumstances which had again brought us
together, to baffle human foresight and confound human speculation.]
April, 1791. Notwithstanding the supplies which had recently arrived
from Batavia, short allowance was again proclaimed on the 2nd of April,
on which day we were reduced to the following ration:
Three pounds of rice, three pounds of flour and three pounds of pork per week.
It was singularly unfortunate that these retrenchments should always happen
when the gardens were most destitute of vegetables. A long drought had nearly
exhausted them. The hardships which we in consequence suffered were great,
but not comparable to what had been formerly experienced. Besides,
now we made sure of ships arriving soon to dispel our distress. Whereas,
heretofore, from having never heard from England, the hearts of men sunk
and many had begun to doubt whether it had not been resolved to try how long
misery might be endured with resignation.
Notwithstanding the incompetency of so diminished a pittance, the daily task
of the soldier and convict continued unaltered. I never contemplated
the labours of these men without finding abundant cause of reflection
on the miseries which our nature can overcome. Let me for a moment quit
the cold track of narrative. Let me not fritter away by servile adaptation
those reflections and the feelings they gave birth to. Let me transcribe them
fresh as they arose, ardent and generous, though hopeless and romantic.
I every day see wretches pale with disease and wasted with famine,
struggle against the horror's of their situation. How striking is the effect
of subordination; how dreadful is the fear of punishment! The allotted task
is still performed, even on the present reduced subsistence. The blacksmith
sweats at the sultry forge, the sawyer labours pent-up in his pit and
the husbandman turns up the sterile glebe. Shall I again hear arguments
multiplied to violate truth, and insult humanity! Shall I again be told
that the sufferings of the wretched Africans are indispensable for the culture
of our sugar colonies; that white men are incapable of sustaining the heat
of the climate!
