August 13, 1788

It has now been six months six we arrived in New South Wales.  I am now allowed more freedom.  I walk around the town, to see what is happening.  I wonder if I run off what will happen to me.  I am quite happy to stay though, I now live in the house and have a bed of my own.  I was given a blanket, though it maybe thin it keeps me warm.  The children have been sick so I have been helping the mother.  They have a dreadful cough and the some of the indigenous people also.  There has been some fighting with them.  They are not happy we have the land and they do not.  They do not come to the house anymore.  My boss is sometimes seen with other soldiers talking about them.  We have been lucky we will have rabbit for dinner tonight but no vegetables, the garden is not working too well.  There is talk we may move to better land.

                                           Google Images: Art of the First Fleet

June 15, 1788

Rations are getting even less.  The crops are not as successful as they should be.  The weather is getting colder.  The winds are very harsh and there has not been much rain.  I have to walk to the river everyday to get water.  I just want to sleep.  The children are very boisterous and enjoy running outside.  I have been given a jacket to wear to keep my warm.  This is my only defense against the cold winds at night.   The family all sleep in one room to keep warm and I am still sleeping in my tent.  I wonder does it snow here, I sometimes question why I was sent here, I think my penalty of 7 years and being sent to another country was  a bit harsh.  We are waiting for the next ships to arrive with more rations.  There is no much work done anymore because of the lack of food.

March 3, 1788

The sun has not been bearing down on me so hard.  The indigenous people have been coming to our farm and getting some sugar from us.  They do not know what to do with it.  They wear clothing made from the local jumping animal, I think it is kangaroo.  They eat the nice green grass first thing in the morning.  I am up early every morning cooking for the boss and his family.  There is him and his wife and 3 children.  They had one of their children die from illness on the ship.  The mother keeps busy by working in the vegetable garden with her children.  I am left in the house that has been built to clean it and make meals.   Maybe I will marry someone to leave this place.  I want to go back to England...

                                             Google Images; Voyage First Fleet

Feb 1, 1788

There was a storm like I had never seen before.  The weather is still unpleasant.  Our rations have been cut once again.  I have been picked by a military family to be a servant.  I have been told that I am lucky I have a good family to live with.  They gave me new clothes to wear.  My other clothes were cut up for rags, you could see all the way through them.  I am currently living in a makeshift tent next the family that I am working for.

January 26, 1788

The Captain has erected flag declaring this a colony of England.  The weather is so hot, the sun is relentless.  My skin is so red, my cheeks burn and my skin is falling off my arms and face.  The clothes that we wore on the ship are so dirty, I only have one set of clothes until the other ships are unloaded.  I am hoping that I will get some new ones or at least clean ones.  Some prisoners have escaped, they do want to stay and starve.  The men receive more food than we do as there jobs are more physical than ours.

                                         Google Image: Flag Raising

There is talk that some of  female prisoners will marry so they are no longer a prisoner.  This seems like a good idea, more food, less work and be able to walk freely.

January 21, 1788

We have finally found land that we can walk on.  My legs are so shaky, I keep swaying from side to side even though I am not on the ship.  The weather is very warm.  When we left England the weather was pleasant, the flowers were in bloom.  Here there are flies and people that I have never seen before.  They hide in the bushes just far enough away from us all.  The heat it is relentless.  The Captain wants to make it comfortable for him and his men, then we can go and make our tents.  There are things I think animals that I have never seen before...They hop with a large tail.

I am so hungry like I was when we were on the ship. The conditions on the ship were so cramped downstairs and smelly.  There has to be more food than we what we have now.  I wonder when they will look for food or plant it...

A day in the life a convict

January 18,1788 -

Susannah Allen - Princes of Wales Susannah Allen
 We have been sailing forever, though the Captains says it has been 252 days on these seas, I sometimes think I should not of stolen that dress, but I was just cold and I had holes in my clothes.   Today we have been woken abruptly they have seen the new land, the place that I shall be calling home from now on.  The Captain has left the ship with some soldiers to look at the new land.  We are busy gathering belongings together to go ashore.  To have land underneath my feet will be so nice.  The Captain has come back and we will not leaving the ship today....I vomit with fear that we will be sailing on for another 252 days...

                                          Google Images: Sydney Cove