Dr. Doyle’s sermon—Ordered to New South Wales—Sail for Sydney with three hundred convicts—Mutiny at Norfolk Island—Appointed colonel commandant there

I WAS detached with four companies to Maryborough: soon afterwards the well-known priest, the Rev. Dr. Doyle, visited the place, and on the Saturday of his arrival it was publicly announced that he would preach in the Catholic chapel. Being a very celebrated and popular preacher, many of the Protestant inhabitants attended; the church was crowded beyond comfort and standing-room, and all waited past the appointed hour with anxiety and impatience. At last he appeared in front of the altar in his full white robes, and, fronting the congregation, stared fiercely and wildly all around the assembled crowd; he then took off his biretta and threw it violently at his feet, and with his right arm stretched out and his fist clenched he shouted: “I have not come to preach to you, you midnight assassins, you skull-crackers! I am come to tell you that the hand of God is suspended over you, and that you shall not know the end thereof, until you are swept from the face of this earth and open your eyes in hell!”

The congregation moaned and crossed themselves again and again; there followed endless sobs and lamentation, then a dead silence for a minute or two. The Rev. Father now roused himself again and said (pointing to me), “There is the officer commanding the troops, he has got the King’s commission in his pocket; and” (turning round to another part of the gallery) “there is the officer commanding the police, he has got the Lord-Lieutenant’s commission in his pocket; and I have got” (slapping his hand violently on his side) “the seal of Christ in my pocket. You midnight assassins, go and repent of your sins, while you have yet time.” He then retired, and the congregation broke up moaning and crossing themselves as before, and my dear wife and I were truly glad to escape without further fear of molestation. The cholera was raging at this time, and such was the terror occasioned amongst the lower classes by the Rev. Father’s denunciation that it was said the deaths from cholera were more than usual for some time afterwards.

We returned to Birr barracks after this, leaving a strong detachment still at Maryborough, and early in April a letter was received by our commanding officer to hold the regiment in readiness to embark for New South Wales. The ship Parmelia took on board some of her freight of convicts at Gravesend, then sailed for the Cove of Cork to embark the remainder; there we received two hundred more, making in all about three hundred criminals. They were under the medical charge of Dr. Donoughoe, a very pleasing Irishman, and our captain during the voyage was equally pleasant. We were detained some weeks at the Cove from adverse winds and other causes, and during that time it was very distressing to witness the daily scenes which took place between the Irish convicts and their numerous heart-broken relations. They came in boatloads to our ship daily; they were not allowed to come on board, but only to talk to their kindred, who crowded over the ship’s side or at the port-holes, and these interviews lasted for hours. At last, about the beginning of November, 1833, we got clear off and sailed for Sydney. The voyage was long, but on the whole pleasant. The convicts behaved well except on one occasion, when one nearly murdered another by striking him violently on the head with a pumice stone used for scrubbing the decks. For this daring and murderous assault the offender was placed in heavy irons, and next morning the whole of the convicts were paraded on deck, and with my detachment under arms and loaded, on the poop and in the cuddy, the prisoner was brought forward, stripped, and tied to the main rigging, and there received the severe corporal punishment of a hundred lashes. This had the desired effect, and from that day all was order and regularity. We arrived in Sydney on the 2nd March, 1834; the convicts were landed next day and marched to their quarters, and my detachment to the Sydney barracks.

I brought letters of introduction to the governor, General Sir Richard Bourke, from Sir Hussey Vivian, and also from Lord Stanley, then Secretary for the Colonies. With these I called at Government House; but the governor was at that time engaged and could not see me, so I left my letters with the aide-de-camp, who requested me to call next morning. Meanwhile Sydney was in a great state of excitement in consequence of news having just been received of a general mutiny of the prisoners at Norfolk Island, and an attack upon the troops there, with the loss of several lives. This mutiny had occupied the minds of the prisoners for many months, and was so planned that they were to attack the guards in gangs simultaneously, armed with hatchets, hoes, crowbars, and hammers, on going forth from their prisons to work; they were then to bind their victims and keep them in front, as shields, while others, with the captured arms, attacked the main body of the troops in barracks. They had arranged to treat the free population with barbarity and cruelty too fearful to mention, and to quarter the colonel and the captain alive. I may mention that it came out in evidence during the trials that more than half the prisoners were for weeks consulting and planning the best modes of attack and of securing their purpose, and settling what to do afterwards, if successful. Their final decision was that an unusually large number should sham illness on the morning fixed for the attack, and so go (as usual each morning) to the hospital, and there secure the doctor and all the attendants, and then wait ready to make a rush behind a corner of the gaol, where a sergeant’s guard of twelve men from the garrison attended daily to receive and to take charge for the day of the gaol-gang—amounting generally to thirty or forty of the very worst convicts in double heavy irons. After this they intended to escape from the island by the next Government vessel arriving. There were at this time only a hundred soldiers with a captain and two subalterns of the 4th Regiment on the island, and the prisoners amounted to seventeen hundred of the most desperate culprits on the face of the earth, but happily they were completely defeated, with the loss of only a few lives.

I attended at Government House next morning as directed, and was kindly received by Sir Richard Bourke, and after asking me a few questions about our voyage he said, “You brought me some letters, Major Anderson, and I am told you would like to be actively employed. You have, of course, heard the news from Norfolk Island. I shall be happy to give you the command, if you like.” I answered that I myself would much like the appointment, but that I was a married man, and feared my wife would not like going there, after all we had heard of the desperate state of the prisoners, but that if his Excellency would give me an hour to consult my wife I should then return to him with my answer. He said, “Certainly, I will give you till to-morrow morning to make up your mind.” I hurried home and told my wife all, and said that I saw no risk in accepting so good an appointment; but she, under the alarm of all she had just read in the papers, said nothing could tempt her to go there. I almost despaired of getting her consent, till at last I proposed that I should submit to the consideration of Sir Richard Bourke that I would gladly accept the appointment, if he would kindly give me the option of giving it up at once, should my wife dislike to remain there. He received me kindly, heard my request, and said, “Certainly, I shall not keep you a day longer there than you wish; meantime, I am going to-morrow to my country house at Parramatta, and I shall be glad if you and Mrs. Anderson will spend a few days there with us, and we can talk the matter over.” I thanked him for his kindness, and said we should be most happy to accept his invitation; I then returned to my wife much pleased, and next day we went to Government House, Parramatta, and were very kindly received by the governor and his daughter. We remained there three days, and his Excellency took much pains to persuade my wife that there was no danger in going to Norfolk Island, as we should always have a sufficient number of troops to ensure our safety, that the climate was the best in the world, and our accommodation very good, and far beyond anything we could desire or expect. On leaving, the governor desired me to come to him next day in Sydney, saying that I should then receive my final instructions. I did so, and was told to hold myself in readiness to embark in a few days, and that my first duty on arrival should be to take depositions against all the convicts who were implicated in the late mutiny, and to transmit the same to the Colonial Secretary for the decision of the Attorney-General. I was then sent to the court to be sworn in as a magistrate of the territory, and finally told that the Government schooner Isabella would be ready to receive me and my family in a few days, and to sail at once for Norfolk Island.

We embarked on the 12th March, 1834, for my important command. For the first two or three days we had pleasant weather, but then it blew hard, with the wind right against us, and was very boisterous for a week. Our provisions now became short, and from this and the severity of the weather we were very much inconvenienced, but at last had a favourable change and made Norfolk Island in safety, and fortunately on a fine calm day; for in bad weather the landing there is always dangerous. I was received on the beach by a guard of honour of the 4th Regiment and by Captain Foster-Fyans, who was then acting-commandant (Colonel Morrisett and his family having previously sailed to Sydney). Captain Fyans invited us all to his quarters to breakfast, and an excellent one we had; nor must I omit mentioning how our dear children enjoyed the abundance of cream and fruits set before them, after the hard biscuits and salt pork which was their only food on board.

After breakfast, Captain Fyans took us to Government House, with which we were much pleased. It was a substantial building of one story and standing conspicuously by itself, on high ground; the rooms were numerous and well proportioned, the whole premises at the back being secured within a high wall and the windows in front by iron bars. Thus the whole residence might be considered (in case of an attack) a fortress; there were also in front of the house two eighteen-pounder guns mounted, and the military barracks were not a hundred yards distant. I may add the prisoners’ gaols and other buildings were within a thousand yards, and the guns before the house commanded the whole. The more we saw the more we were delighted with our future quarters and prospects. By this time a considerable portion of our baggage had been landed and was arriving fast at Government House, and before night we were as well settled and comfortable as if we had been there for months.