1795: Bennelong Returns From a Visit To England

Woollarawarre Bennelong (1764 – 1813), after whom Bennelong Point in Sydney is named, was an Aboriginal man who is often described as a friend of the British in the colony's early days. However, Bennelong was probably playing a canny political game.

It is evident, however, that Bennelong and Governor Phillip did share a special friendship. So when Phillip returned to England in 1792, Bennelong, who had learnt to speak English, accompanied him, along with another Aboriginal man named Yemmerrawanne, onboard the Atlantic.

Whist in London, Bennelong and Yemmerrawanne stayed with Henry Waterhouse, a British Naval Officer, at 125 Mount Street, Mayfair. However, Yemmerrawanne became ill with a chest infection and so, the pair moved to the residence of Edward Kent, at South End, Eltham, in the county of Kent.

Whist in London, Bennelong and Yemmerrawanne were provided with fashionable clothes suitable to the London scene. It is said that they were presented to King George III (contested) and that they visited many London attractions like the Tower of London, museums, St Paul's Cathedral and theatre performances.

An undated portrait thought to depict Bennelong, signed "W.W." now in the Dixson Galleries of the State Library of New South Wales

A natural Comedian

It was reported in the London Observer, of Bennelong and Yemmerrawanne:

[T]hey seem constantly dejected, and every effort to make them laugh has been for many months ineffectual.

Bennelong who has been described as a natural comedian, afterwards seemed to have a return of good humour, as he is recorded as joking about experiencing the lack of his three wives, left back in Australia, with a reporter from the Oracle.

One of them, a very merry fellow, says, he regrets nothing so much as the inconvenience he finds in the absence of his three wives, for whom he had not yet been able to find a substitute in this country.

Sadly, Yemmerrawanne would die on the 18th of May 1794, in Kent, far from home. Bennelong is described by Captain John Hunter as being "broken in Spirit".

Yemmerrawanne's grave marker, St John the Baptist Churchyard Eltham, Royal Borough of Greenwich, Greater London, England

Home Again

After being away from home for two years and 10 months, Bennelong arrived home 7 September 1795 on the HMS Reliance. In the following year, in a letter dictated by Bennelong, probably to his friend, the former, Governor Philip: "Not me go to England no more. I am at home now"

Bennelong died at Kissing Point on 3 January 1813 and he was buried in the orchard of his other close European friend, brewer James Squire, along with his last wife, Boorong.

1793: Spanish Expedition Arrives in the Colony

The Royal Spanish Navy ships, Descubriete and Atrevida commanded by Captains Alejandro Malaspina and Jose Bustamante arrived at Port Jackson in March 1793.

This scientific and political expedition, modelled on the voyages of James Cook, was the important scientific voyage ever undertaken by Spain and the first foreign delegation to visit the infant colony.

Malaspina made many comments and observations in his Journal of the Voyage by Alejandro Malaspina, about the fledgeling colony, the convicts, the British and the Aboriginal people. Many of them not of a complementary nature.

Image of the Malaspina Expedition (1789–1794) — at the island of Samar, the Philippines. 1875 drawing by Fernando Brambila

Plan to Destroy Sydney

He not only wrote of being approached by the colony's prostitutes and “easy women”, but according to Spanish naval documents found by Chris Maxworthy, from The Australian Association for Maritime History, a detailed military plan was devised to destroy the Sydney British colony.

Three years later, the planned invasion became a possibility, when war between Britain and Spain looked likely, as King Carlos IV of Spain believed that the British could cause "great harm" to Spain's colonial interests. Bustamante wrote to the Spanish government about the Sydney colony.

"The entirely helpless state in which I observed that settlement in 1793, and the general discontent of its inhabitants, would so facilitate its conquest that I believe it would be achieved with the surprise that the convincing presence of our fleet would cause. But even if some resistance were offered, it could never triumph over the gunfire from our ships or prevent the total destruction of houses, warehouses and goods located in the principal settlement.”

The plan was to attack Sydney from the Spanish colonies in South America, with a fleet of 100 medium-sized boats armed with cannons and "hot shot" cannon, that involved firing heated shots, that could set fire to ships or buildings.

Bustamante proposed that after defeating the British at Sydney, the entire population of about 7000 prisoners, from Sydney and Norfolk Island, could be sent to South America to build the Spanish colonies.

Books To read

The Birth of Sydney, by Tim Flannery.

Leviathan: The Unauthorised Biography of Sydney by John Birmingham.

1770: Captain Cook Claimed The East Coast of New Holland

The British navigator and explorer, Lieutenant James Cook, departed England in July 1768,  onboard the HMS Endeavour. Cook and his crew were headed toward the South Pacific Ocean, on his first voyage, to observe the 1769 transit of Venus at Tahiti and perhaps, find the "unknown southern land" (Terra Australis Incognita).

Earl of Pembroke, later HMS Endeavour, leaving Whitby Harbour in 1768. By Thomas Luny, dated 1790

Europeans already knew about the existence of New Holland (Australia), named by the Dutch seafarer Abel Tasman in 1606, as 180km of Western Australia's south-west coast had already been mapped by the Dutch ship Leeuwin in 1627.

Many Europeans, including the British, thought that another larger Terra Australis (South Land), should exist in addition to New Holland, as it had been believed since antiquity, that the landmass of the Northern Hemisphere, should be balanced by land in the south. 

Cook's journey to the other side of the globe, across thousands of miles of ocean, navigating in uncharted and unknown waters, is often compared to astronauts going to the Moon or Mars. This is well expressed by Cook, who later wrote, "Ambition leads me not only farther than any other man has been before me, but as far as I think it possible for man to go".

After spending six months charting the New Zealand coast, Cook and his crew set sail into open sea, on 1 April 1770, sailing west toward New Holland.

The Endeavour first sighted the east coast of Australia at Point Hicks on 20 April 1770 and on the 29th April, Cook and his crew became the first Europeans to land on the east coast of Australia, at what Cook called Stingray Harbour, later, Botany Bay. The Endeavour then headed north charting the east coast.

Landing of Captain Cook at Botany Bay, 1770, E. Phillips Fox

Lively Eyes

Whilst observing the Aboriginal inhabitants of New Holland, the official botanist, Joseph Banks wrote: "Their eyes were in many lively and their teeth even and good" and “They were all of them clean limn’d, active and nimble. Cloaths they had none, not the least rag, those parts which nature willingly conceals being exposed to view compleatly uncovered”.

Daguerreotype photograph (circa 1847) described as "Group of Koorie men" by the National Gallery of Victoria

On June 10, the Endeavour struck the Great Barrier Reef, almost coming to grief and resulting in severe damage to the ship. After repairs were carried out, the Endeavour rounded Cape York, stopping at Possession Island in the Torres Strait on 22 August, which Cook later claimed in the name of King George III, naming it "Possession Island". This ceremony probably did not occur.

The Endeavour then returned to England, after having circumnavigated the globe and venturing further south than had ever been done before.

Endeavour replica in Cooktown harbour, QLD, Australia

Books To Read

Captain Cook: Master of the Seas, Frank McLynn

Talking to My Country, Stan Grant

Banished beyond the seas, By Sue Cox