28 DAY CHALLENGE DAY 15 - STITCHING AND THOUGHTS(Winter 1792)

Things settled down into a form of routine, over the next few months.

Elizabeth was alone a lot of the time. Thomas’ duties kept him busy for long periods and she was left to herself for much of the time.

She would have experienced many hardship in the fledgling colony, but with the prospect of a babe in the summer and the protection of a man who showed her kindness would have hopefully made her situation more bearable.

The sun settled early with the wintery days and Elizabeth looked out her precious window into the deepening shadows of early twilight. 

Jumping at the noise of the door opening she was surprised to find Thomas entering. She had’t heard him approaching, although it is a wonder that I did’t with the wobbly boot he seems to have on.

"Sir, sit down and let me take your boots off, you must be frozen with that bitter wind coming off the harbour.”

The scent of rum permeated the room, it must have been a slow day at the barracks today, she thought.

“Erlizabeeth, don’t you think it is time that youse, started calling me by me name? Youse can leave the Sir business, for when we are in company," he managed to slur before collapsing on the bed. 

Well, I’ll be!  Here I have been calling him Thomas in me thoughts for so long now, I guess I never thought he would want it too.

“I can have your dinner on the table in a minute Thomas, just let me pop outside and get us some out of the pot on the fire.”

When she came back in, it was to find Thomas snoring on the bed, dead to the world in a rum induced sleep.

Oh well, the more for me. I guess I can have the evening to myself, she thought closing the door on the bitter wind and night air.

Sitting down in what she thought as her little bit of luxury, Elizabeth remembered the day after she had told him of her condition. Thomas had shown up with some fabric and a needle and thread which he had traded for some of his rum. Rum was becoming more and more of a commodity in the colony. So now she was able to renew a skill she could remember her Mam teaching her a long time ago.  She spent many an evening with a needle in her hand. 

England seemed so very far away, I wonder if anyone from home remembers me? I don’t think I will ever get back there. Once this babe arrives I will become part of this country for all time. Patting her growing belly, a free settler, that’s what it will be called, she smiled at the thought. I can feel this land taking possession of me thoughts and soul each passing day,

Sighing in contentment she picked up her needlework and continued with the stitching for her new free settler.

28 DAY CHALLENGE DAY 14 - STILL SAFE (Feb/Mar?? 1792)

“I’m sorry Sir, I don’t know how it happened, I mean I know how it happened, I just don’t…”

“Elizabeth, stop blabbering and just breathe and drink your tea.”

Tea? He has made me tea? Lors above, whatever is the world coming to?

“Now as you have so kindly informed me you are going to have a babe. Is that correct?”

“Yes Sir, I am fairly sure that is what is happening, I haven’t had my bleed of late and I have been awful sickly. I don’t know what else it could be, but maybe the salted pork, or, or it could be something that I got on the boat. Or, or…”

“Elizabeth, calm yourself. Yes I think you may be right, I think having a babe might be the answer, but I am sure we will know definitely soon enough.”

“I can have me things packed in no time Sir, can I keep this gown, Sir? I know you said it was mine last time, but do you still mean it now?”

“Elizabeth, what are you talking about? You aren’t going anywhere. I may not be able to marry you, but I can still keep you under my protection and for all intent and purposes, you will still be my housekeeper. We rub along nicely together don’t we, I don’t want you to go.”

With that Elizabeth burst into tears as she ran out the door again, for another appointment with her favourite bush!

Thomas sighed and took himself off to the barracks for his guard duty. He knew that it wouldn’t be easy but he also knew that he had gotten used to having the slip of a girl around.

Returning to the hut Elizabeth realised that Thomas had left for the day. She realised that she had been given a gift. A gift of respectability. Thomas as an officer is not able to marry me, a convict. But he is going to keep me.  Blind eyes are being turned everyday to relationships between soldiers and convicts. 

I guess I just need to keep him interested and wanting me around. I can’t bring this babe up on me own. I don’t want me babe to be taken away. I don’t know how to be a Ma. But I guess I will just have to learn. 

I can do this!

28 DAY CHALLENGE DAY 13 - NOT THE SALTED PORK! (Feb/Mar?? 1792)

Today is the day! Thomas has been granted a hut. We can get out of this tent.

Packing his possessions, so as to be ready when he returned, she thought, I wonder if I will ever have possessions of me own? 

It didn’t take long to set up the hut, as they didn’t have much to show for their time in the colony.

It was just one room, but it could be divided to accommodate living and sleeping arrangements. I will still be cooking outside but we have a solid roof over our heads. I have windows as well, I can open them to let in fresh air. 

They sat over the rum Thomas had bought home with him, before opening the windows to the night sky and watching the moon travel over their hut before they drifted off to sleep.

The next morning she woke with a start and rushed out the door, making her way to the bushes past the campfire.

Holding her hair away from the bush, another wave of dry retching overtook her. Surely I can’t have anything else to bring up! How long will this last? How will I tell him? 

“Elizabeth, where the hell are you? Where is my breakfast?” bellowed Thomas, from inside the hut. Wiping her mouth on her sleeve, she hurried to get back inside.

“It won’t be long Sir, just had to use the privy,” she replied, as she came around the bush swallowing the bile in her throat again. On entering the hut she had to steady herself against the door. Just breathe, I can’t tell him yet, I don’t want to leave ’ere.

“Elizabeth, what is wrong?” asked the Lieutenant. “You are pale and I think you have been doing more than just relieving yourself.”

I should have been more careful, he didn’t want a babe! Could I get rid of it? How could a convict bring up a baby without a father? He will send me to the factory.

“I’m with child!” she blurted, running back out to her favourite bush! So much for breakfast! 

Rising with a look of confusion Thomas followed. It wasn’t long before he found her, on her knees, behind an innocuous spindly bush. It was the guttural retching sounds that gave her away!

Approaching slowly, his nostrils flared with the acrid scent of vomit. Stopping away from her, breathing through his mouth, he called, “Are you all right?”

I’m just dandy! Do I look all right? Here I have just ‘shot the cat’ and you are asking me if I am all right, you great oaf?
“Yes, I am fine, I will be back directly and pour your tea.”

“Take your time Elizabeth. When you come in, I think we need to talk” he replied, retreating to the hut.

Blinking on entering the room after the brilliant sunshine of the late March day outside, Elizabeth noticed the teapot, two dainty cups - where had they come from? - and a bottle of rum on the table. Sipping from his pannikin of rum,Thomas looked up motioning to her to sit across from him.

“Well Betsey my dear, I gather we have a situation to attend to? Do you want tea or rum?” he asked gently with a smile.

28 DAY CHALLENGE DAY 12 - THE EARLY DAYS (1792)

The days morphed into a string of endless hard work and hunger.

It was all she could do to keep the dust out of his clothes and to keep the food in their bellies. Thomas seemed to be constantly on duty and away for long periods of time.

I hope we get out of this tent soon and into one of them huts, they are building up on the hill, Elizabeth thought on a daily basis. Thomas keeps telling me that we will have our own dwelling soon. I hope he is right, a place to tend to the garden and grow things, would be good. 

The rations in the colony were reduced regularly. Elizabeth was challenged many times with the task of feeding them both, but it was a challenge that she relished and a challenge she rose up to.

If I wasn’t with Thomas, I don’t think I would have lasted this long. She had seen the treatment meted out to the single female convicts and she knew she was better off with the protection of her Red Coat.

This country is so dry, does it never rain? This harsh land has taken so many in the last couple of years. I hope the building of the Tank Stream finishes soon. If it does rain Thomas reckons it will provide us all with a reliable water storage in the dry times.

While she tended the fire and stirred the stew for supper, Elizabeth was assailed with waves of nausea. Running over to the edge of their camp she found herself hurling up much of her lunch.

Well I know that last bit of salted pork was just about to turn, but I didn’t think it had already!

Returning to the camp fire she resumed her stirring of the stew.

I hope he is home soon and not in his cups, she thought giving the stew a vicious stir.  It will be as tough as old bags soon and not fit for eating.

References 
The History of Sydney: Early Colonial Sydney, http://www.visitsydneyaustralia.com.au/history-6-early-col.html

STARR, MARION, Unhappy Exiles Convicts of the Pitt and Kitty 1792, Australia 1016

28 DAY CHALLENGE DAY 11 - VALENTINE'S DAY (1792)

“Stay here Elizabeth, I need to report to my commander, and get my orders. I will also find out where I will be quartered,” Thomas ordered before he left her in the shade of a tree, after disembarking.

Where would I go, she thought? All around her was blinding sunshine and bush, dirt and tents. Realising that the guards were approaching she noticed that chains were being taken off most of the convicts. They were a superfluous piece of equipment now. There was nowhere to escape to. The landscape was enough of a deterrent on it’s own! The bush was almost certain death.

Returning a couple of hours later, Thomas stirred Elizabeth from her rest. Sweat was glistening on her skin.

“Come, I have been given a tent. I have to report for duty this evening, so you will need to set up camp quickly, if I am to eat before I go.”

Lors above, I don’t know how to put up a tent.

Thankfully Thomas knew how and proceeded with this occupation while Elizabeth started a fire and prepared a meal from the rations that he gave her.

Over their joint meal Thomas explained, “The colony have been sorely disappointed with the arrival of the Pitt. They were expecting a lot more provisions and what has arrived only adds to the current store rations for a further 40 days.⁠[1] This place needs to be farmed Elizabeth, there could be great things happening in this new land. Land will be the key, yes land is the key.”

Elizabeth smiled and nodded, it wasn’t her place to have an opinion. She was just content that she was safe with someone she had come to know.

“What is the date Sir?”

“Why Elizabeth, it is the 14th February, 1792. Now there’s a date to remember for sure. We have arrived in this new land on Valentine’s Day. Will you be awake when I come home I wonder?”

I don’t know what Valentine’s Day is, but if the master wants me awake when he comes home I will be. 

The sun took a long time to set after Thomas left. The noises of the new colony ensured that Elizabeth was awake when Thomas returned. It had been impossible for her to sleep, what with each new unknown sound and the relentless heat that didn’t go away with the setting sun.

She felt him join her in the makeshift cot that she had assembled on the dirt floor.

“Elizabeth, why did you leave the dress I gave you behind in the cabin today?” he asked nuzzling up to her.

“I didn’t think it was mine to keep, I thought I was going back to the convict gang,” she replied turning over to look at him.

“Silly girl, why would I do that?”

Drifting off to sleep later in the arms of a snoring Red Coat she reflected, I guess there won’t be any bed bugs out here, but I hope there aren’t any other crawly things more bitey.

_________

1 STARR, MARION, Unhappy Exiles Convicts of the Pitt and Kitty 1792, Australia 1016

28 DAY CHALLENGE DAY 10 - THE ARRIVAL (1792)

Sweat gathered in places Elizabeth never knew she could sweat!

How can a body endure this heat and moisture? Me skin is always wet and me clothes always feel as if they are sticking to me. Even me precious air coming in through the porthole doesn’t refresh me, it is always hot and I never feel refreshed after me sleep.

Elizabeth jumped as a voice spoke from behind her at the door. “Elizabeth, please pack my belongings and your own, we will be docking at Sydney Cove today. You will need to rejoin the other females on deck when we dock. I will be busy all day so I won’t be down again.”

So the time has come.

I am to leave him and go back to me chains and whatever fate has in store for me. Pack me things. What things? I have been with him for nearly six months and he still doesn’t know that I have naught, other than the dress he gave me.

Elizabeth dragged her feet as she approached the other females gathering on the deck. One of the guards approached her with a smirk and quickly put her chains on again, while also giving her a quick smack across the face for good measure. Well I suppose I should have expected that.

Suddenly she jumped as overhead there sounded a bang as the guns rang out. Thomas had warn me last night that there would be a 13 gun salute when we approach the harbour. What was the point?

Standing near the rail, shading her eyes, Elizabeth was amazed at all the sights vying for her attention. If only it wasn’t so blasted hot. The view shimmered in the heat haze, but she was struck by the brilliant blue of the sea. Where are all the buildings? I thought there would be more buildings. So many tents and rough huts. Not like England at all. Breathing erratically, she realised that this was a very different place from her homeland.

Orders were given for disembarkation. Shuffling behind the other female convicts, she found herself herded like sheep on one side of the deck, while the men were on the other side.

The soldier was reading out from a large scroll. I had better pay attention or risk another cuff across the face from the guard.

Then she saw him, her Red Coat, and heard the soldier read, “Elizabeth Selwyn, sentenced for seven years, assigned to Lieutenant Thomas Rowley, as Housekeeper.⁠”[1]

Grabbing her cloth bundle, she hurried to his side. Not a free choice, but I can do this. If I had a choice though, I would choose him!

___________

1 Ancestry.com. New South Wales and Tasmania, Australia Convict Musters, 1806- 1849 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007. Original data: Home Office: Settlers and Convicts, New South Wales and Tasmania; (The National Archives Microfilm Publication HO10, Pieces 5, 19-20, 32-51); The National Archives of the UK (TNA), Kew, Surrey, England.

28 DAY CHALLENGE DAY 9 - THE PITT (1791-1792)

Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Elizabeth woke to find a dress on the end of her cot and Thomas sitting on the chair watching her.

“Sorry Sir, I overslept. What is this?”

“Don’t worry Elizabeth, you haven’t overslept. I got that dress from one of the other soldier's wives, I thought you might like to change out of that one of yours.”

A new dress! Well not new really, but better than the rags I have on now. 

“Thank you Sir, I appreciate it. Do you want me to go and get your breakfast Sir?”

As the Lieutenant’s servant, she was now allowed some freedom on the ship. She could go to and from the galley but that was all. Thomas insisted that at all other times and everywhere else she was only to accompany him. At all other times she remained in the cabin.

Life onboard the Pitt soon became routine for Elizabeth. Her days consisted of keeping Thomas company and very few other duties. For the first time in her life she did’t have to worry about whether she would eat at the next mealtime. For the first time in a long while she had three meals a day.

Since leaving Yarmouth Roads, Plymouth they had being sailing for a month. There were cases of smallpox amongst the convicts and she was grateful that she was no longer amongst them. They had not long ago left St Jago and had been becalmed for a couple of weeks. Deaths were a daily occurrence, but funnily enough none of these, this time were convicts. I guess there is something for being confined to the ship, we don’t get to bring back any of the stinking illnesses, like the others do. 

Thomas said we were now low on water, so the Captain was going to head to a place called Rio de Janerio. We will be staying there again for a couple of weeks. It is hard to believe that it is now nearly November and we had been on the Pitt since July. I would like to get off this ship, but I don’t want to go to no prison. I wonder what the prisons in the new land will be like.

“Elizabeth, come up on deck with me, I need to walk off this inactivity,” Thomas was at the cabin door beckoning her to follow him.

“What’s wrong Sir, can I help?”

“Yes you can walk and talk with me, I have been cooped up listening to twaddle for over an hour now and I need distracting” he replied.

“Do you know it is nearly December Sir, how much longer before we get there, do you think?”

“I am not sure Elizabeth. There isn’t very far to go, but the weather isn’t looking good, I think there are storms brewing, that the Captain is worried about.”

Over the next few weeks the weather did indeed turn bad. Gale force winds plagued the vessel, with many of the convicts now being affected with illnesses. But still they sailed on.

Later that day Elizabeth found herself at her little window again. I don’t think I want this time to end. How will I fare when we dock in the new colony. What will happen to me? I suppose I will be back in chains. 

“Elizabeth, what are you looking at? You spend so much time at that porthole, I sometimes wondered if you will try squeezing through it to freedom.”

“Don’t be daft Sir, where would I go, I can’t even swim. Oh look, look, is that land in the distance.”

“Yes it is, we are coming into the Bass Strait and that is the little Island at the very south of the new land. It won’t be long now, a few weeks at the most. We will sail from here up the east coast and should be at Sydney Cove by mid February. We will soon be off this wretched boat and I will be back at my duties, thank heaven.”

But what of me? Elizabeth turned away from her precious fresh air, afraid that she would soon be denied it’s promise.