John Hunter

“ The roads, or rather handsome avenues, which lead from the different gates of the city, are lined with buildings, where nature and art have been exhausted to render them elegant and commodious beyond description: each house has a large garden, in which a degree of elegance and convenience is observable, equal to what there is in the magnificent piles which they surround. ”

“ A good landing place may easily be made, where any thing might be landed from half ebb to half flood. It is the intention of the lieutenant-governor to erect a store-house, and make a good landing place; indeed this would have been done before, but the want of hands prevented it. The Golden-Grove and Supply have both lain at anchor in this bay, bringing the great Cascade to bear south-west, at one mile from the shore, in seventeen fathoms coral and sand, but the bottom is foul, as there is great reason to suppose it is all round the island. ”

“ Those which grow on the south-east point of the island, where the land is low, are those which have hitherto been made use of.
Norfolk Island, if correctly laid down in a plan, with all the hills and vallies represented accurately, would very much resemble the waves of the sea in a gale of wind; for it is composed wholly of long, narrow, and very steep ridges of hills, with deep gullies, which are as narrow at the bottom as the hills are on the top, so that there is scarcely any level country upon it ”

“ I was one day on shore in another part of the harbour, making friendship with a party of natives, when in a very short time, their numbers encreased to eighty or ninety men, all armed with a lance and throwing-stick, and many with the addition of a shield, made of the bark of a tree ”

“ When any person approaches the general to speak to him, his behaviour and address must be the most abject imaginable, and the respect and profound submission which every servant of the company, and every inhabitant must necessarily assume on these occasions, are little short of the adoration paid to the Divinity: this homage is carried to so great a height, that when the general enters the church, although the congregation may be at prayers, yet every person is obliged to get up and face him until he is seated in his pew, bowing as he passes. ”

“ Rose Hill is certainly a pretty situation, but the country will require much manure, much dressing, and good farmers to manage it, before good crops can be expected from it; the best they have ever had, I have been informed, has amounted only to six or seven to one, and this last season has been little more than two to one, but that may in some measure be accounted for by there being a great scarcity of rain.
If it be the determination of government to persevere in establishing a settlement in this country, upon an extensive plan, the nation must be contented to submit to a very heavy expence. ”

“ It had hitherto been the opinion at Sydney, that the custom of losing the front tooth amongst the natives was confined to the men only, but a woman was lately seen who had lost the front tooth, and two women were met with who had the septum of the nose perforated; one of them was Barangaroo, who now visited the settlement daily, in company with her husband, and seemed to be pleased as though she thought herself drest when her nose was occasionally ornamented with a small bone or a bit of stick: she is very strait and exceeding well made ”

“ This island I judge to be about three miles and a half long, north-north-west and south-south-east; it is very narrow across. There is anchorage on both sides of it, but the bottom is foul. On the west side there is a bay, off which lies a reef parallel to the shore, with good swatches, or passages through for boats; this reef breaks off the sea from the shore, which is a fine sandy beach, so that there is no difficulty in landing. I have observed before, that turtle are sometimes caught here, and that there are many birds upon the island. ”

“ The advantage of being able to ascertain the ship's place in longitude, by observations of the moon, will ever be satisfactory, but more particularly through so vast a tract of sea, in which the error of the log may considerably accumulate, when ships arrive upon that coast where the land lies so nearly in a north and south direction, there can be no difficulty in discovering what part of the coast they are upon, their latitude observed will always point that out, by applying to the general chart, given from the authority of that most correct and able navigator Captain Cook. ”

“ A little within the south head of the bay is the entrance of the Southern Branch or Pitt-Water; this is a good harbour, though the entrance is rendered rather narrow by a shoal bank, which extends from the eastern point full two-thirds across; keep the west shore on board, which is pretty bold, and is a high, steep, rocky point, and steer right up the branch; three fathoms is the most you will have at low water, and that depth is only in the narrows, which are of very short extent, for as you run up, you very soon deepen to four, five, six, and eight fathoms ”

“ All the human race, which we have seen here, appear to live chiefly on what the sea affords, and consequently we find the sea-coast more fully inhabited than the interior, or that part of the country which we have had an opportunity of visiting more remote from the sea. The men fish with a spear, or fish-gig, in the use of which, it is apparent they are very dextrous. The fish-gig is in length something more than the war lance, but they can, according to the depth of water, increase its length, by a variety of joints ”

“ Early in the morning of the 28th, the wind veered to south-west, and, imagining ourselves to be about fifteen leagues to the westward of Norfolk-Island, we hove to at seven in the evening. The next morning, at day-light, we made sail, steering east: we had great numbers of birds round us, and the clouds hanging very thick to the eastward, indicated our being near the land; but it was not till eleven o'clock in the forenoon that we made the largest of the two small islands which lie off the south-west end of Norfolk-Island, bearing east 16° north, five leagues distant. ”

“ In latitude 8° 30' north, the wind fixed in the south-west quarter (rather an extraordinary circumstance in these latitudes) and blew a fresh gale, with which we stood to the eastward; but as it was generally far southerly, we were soon in longitude 18° 26' west, by the time-piece, on which we had more reliance than on the dead reckoning, for here we found a current setting considerably strong to the eastward; our lunar observations, which we never failed to make at every opportunity, constantly confirmed the truth of the watch. ”

“ I expressed, when at the governor's, much surprize, at not having seen a single native on the shore, or a canoe as we came up in the ship; the reason of which I could not comprehend, until I was informed that the small-pox had made its appearance, a few months ago, amongst these unfortunate creatures, and that it was truly shocking to go round the coves of this harbour, which were formerly so much frequented by the natives; where, in the caves of the rocks, which used to shelter whole families in bad weather, were now to be seen men, women, and children, lying dead. ”

“ We saw several natives in these branches, but they fled into the woods on our approach: the wretched condition of the miserable natives who have taken up their residence, for a time, so far back from the sea coast, where no fish are to be had, is far beyond my description; they, no doubt, have methods of snaring or killing the different kinds of animals which are to be found here, otherwise I think it impossible they could exist at any distance from the sea: for the land, as far as we yet know, affords very little sustenance for the human race. ”

“ Ballederry, on hearing this, went off pretty briskly to the other side of the harbour, but, in answer to the threats of punishment, spears were mentioned, though he was then at so great a distance that the governor could not distinguish whether it was himself or the soldiers which he threatened: certain it is, that these people set little value on their lives, and never fail to repay you in kind, whether you praise or threaten; and whenever a blow is given them, be it gentle or with force, they always return it in the same manner. ”

“ On a hill, near the middle of the island, between Cascade and Sydney bays, there is a pond of fresh water, about half an acre: there is no rivulet near it, nor can any spring be perceived, yet, in the greatest drought, it constantly remains full, and has a very good taste. All these streams abound with very fine eels.
Soil.--From the sides of the cliffs which surround the coast, to the summit of Mount Pitt, there is a continuation of the finest soil, varying from a rich brown mould to a light red earth. Some large stones are found on different parts of the island. ”

“ The soil is a light red earth, and was so full of holes, which had been made by the birds, that walking was very laborious. A small valley runs the whole length of the island, in which, and on some of the hills, a few pines grow, but I think the whole island does not produce more than one hundred and fifty. I found no fresh water on the island, but probably there may be some, as I saw a number of hawks, pigeons, and parrots; but as I had only two convicts to row the boat, I left the island, and got to Sydney Bay in the evening. ”

“ I apprehend, from the goodness of the soil, that Norfolk-Island is very capable of maintaining at least one hundred families, allowing to each an hundred acres of ground, and reserving two thousand acres for fuel: with industry, they would have in a short time, all the necessaries of life, except cloathing, and that must depend on the flax of the island, or the growth of European flax. ”

“ The tide flows here at full and change of the moon, north-east by north and south-west by south, and rises between six and seven feet.
The harbour is very extensive and commodious; there are many convenient bays in it, where a vast many ships may be laid up in perfect security from any bad weather. The town is large, well built, and populous, but ill situated for the health of its inhabitants: it stands upon low ground, which was formerly swampy, and is surrounded with hills of immense height, which entirely exclude the benefit of the refreshing sea and land breezes ”

“ In the woods we frequently saw fires, and sometimes heard the natives; in the afternoon we saw a considerable number of people in the wood, with many fires in different places; we called to them in their own manner, by frequently repeating the word Co-wee, which signifies, come here; at last, two men came to the water-side with much apparent familiarity and confidence: I thought, from this circumstance, that they had certainly seen us before, either at Botany-Bay, Port Jackson, or Broken-Bay; they received a hatchet, and a wild duck, which had been just before shot from the boat ”

“ One or two others had been so employed for a short time, but were removed, as wanting either industry or probity; and if the person who has at present the entire management of all the convicts, who are employed in clearing and cultivating the land, should be lost, there would be no one in the settlement to replace him.
It was originally supposed that a sufficient number of good farmers might have been found amongst the convicts to have superintended the labours of the rest; and men have been employed who answer the purpose of preventing their straggling from their work ”

“ These people have not the most distant idea of building any kind of place which may be capable of sheltering them from the severity of bad weather; if they had, probably it would first appear in their endeavours to cover their naked bodies with some kind of cloathing, as they certainly suffer much from the cold in winter.
Their ignorance in building, is very amply compensated by the kindness of nature in the remarkable softness of the rocks, which encompass the sea coast, as well as those in the interior parts of the country: they are a soft, crumbly, sandy stone ”

“ Of the convicts who were received by the last ships, there were great numbers of the worst of characters, particularly amongst those who came from Ireland, and whose great ignorance led them into schemes more destructive to themselves than they were likely to be to the settlement. Some of these people had formed an idea that they could go along the coast, and subsist on oysters and other shell-fish, till they reached some of the Chinese settlements: others had heard that there were a copper coloured people only one hundred and fifty miles to the northward, where they would be free. ”