Page 8 - eMuse Vol.9 No.01_Classical

Australia’s First Bushranger.

Starvation drove him to a life
of more and more crimes.
From around 1790, indig-
Convict rations weren’t ex- greater as well. From the re- enous leader, Pemulwuy, (be-
actly a feast in volume or va- cords he clearly needed more lieved to be from the Bidjigal
riety! Even at the start of the food than most. clan of the Eora people) began
First Fleet’s journey here, they Whether he needed more laugh before he was turned off, a twelve year war against the
would generously fit the de- food or not was beside the by playing some trick upon the British, which continued until
scription of meagre. point. He didn’t get any more executioner. his assassination in 1802.
Crop failure, escape of do- food than anyone else. Hunger Because of John’s obvious In 1795 Pemulwuy led an at-
mestic animals and other caus- made many people desperate in strength, Governor Phillip be- tack on a party of convicts at Bot-
es meant rations were getting Sydney in those days. John tried lieved he would make a good any Bay. John Ceasar was part
desperate low by the time of to do something about that. labourer and he was sent to of that party and in the battle he
the arrival of the notorious Sec- On 29 April 1789 he was Garden Island, where he would injured Pemulwuy by striking him
ond Fleet from 3rd to the 28th tried for theft and sentenced be worked in fetters and be on the head with a shovel. Some
June 1790. to a second term of transporta- provided with vegetables. He believed John killed him but Pe-
Before the resupply, without tion, this time for life. was on his best behavior and mulwuy survived.
exception, weekly rations for He took to the bush a fort- was eventually allowed to work John Caesar escaped for the
seven people were reduced to: night later, reportedly with without iron belts. last time in December 1795. He
2½ lbs Flour some provisions, an iron pot, John soon escaped again. led a gang in the Port Jackson
2 lbs Pork and a musket stolen from a ma- On 22 December he used a ca- area, becoming Australia’s first
2 lbs Rice rine named Abraham Hand. noe to escape the island, taking bushranger. David Collins noted
Pease (their spelling for John began to steal food on a week’s worth of food which that “every theft that was com-
peas) were in stock but des- the outskirts of the settlement. he stole, along with a musket. mitted was ascribed to him.”
tined to run out by mid Septem- On 26th May he helped himself He lived by taking food from Settlers were warned
ber, about two weeks after the to a brickmaking gang’s rations gardens and taking the food of against supplying him with am-
beef and pork. on Brickfield Hill and was nearly Aboriginals after scaring them munition and on 29 January
People starved. An autopsy caught. away with his gun. After he 1796 Governor Hunter offered
of one convict recorded had a On the night of June the lost the gun at Rose Hill, he a reward of five gallons of spir-
completely empty stomach. 6th, he tried to steal food from was speared by the Aborigines its for his capture.
One convict to feel the pinch the house of Zachariah Clark, leaving him wounded in several 15 February 1796, David
more than most was John Cae- the colony’s assistant commis- places. He gave himself up on Collins’ last entry regarding
sar aka Black caesar. John was sary for stores. John was caught the 31 December to an officer John Caesar: “information was
one of the first people of African by a convict named William at Rose Hill. received that black Caesar had
descent to arrive in Australia. Saltmarsh. This time John was sent to that morning been shot by one
John was either born in The Colonial Judge Advo- Norfolk Island. By 1 July 1791 Wimbow and another. Allured
Madagascar or the West Indies. cate, David Collins, described he was supporting himself on a by the reward, they had been
He was a slave on a sugar planta- John as: ”This man has always lot at Queenborough and was for some days in quest of him.
tion in the West Indies when he reputed the hardest working issued with a hog. In January of Finding his haunt, they con-
ran away and went to London. convict in the country. the next year he was given one cealed themselves all day at the
He worked there as a servant. “His frame was muscular acre and ordered to work three edge of the brush which they
On 17 March 1786 he was and well calculated for hard days a week. perceived him to enter at dusk.
tried at Deptford, Kent for steal- labour; but in his intellects he Around this time he formed “In the morning he came
ing 240 shillings. His sentence did not very widely differ from a relationship with Anne Poor a out, when, looking round him
was transportation to the penal a brute. convict who arrived on the Lady and seeing his danger, he pre-
colony of New South Wales for ‘His appetite was ravenous, Juliana on the Second Fleet. sented his musquet; but before
seven years. for he could in any one day de- They had one daughter, Mary he could pull the trigger Wim-
He was sent to the Alexan- vour the full ration for two days. Ann Fisher Power born 1792. bow fired and shot him.
der, a convict ship, in May 1787. “He was such a wretch, and Leaving Ann and Mary Ann “ He was taken to the hut of
He arrived on the First Fleet at so indifferent about meeting behind, John escaped from Nor- Rose, .... where he died in a few
Botany Bay in January 1788. death, that he declared while in folk Island and returned to Port hours.”
John was bigger than most confinement, that if he should Jackson. By July 1794 he was
men and his work output was be hanged, he would create a back in custody.

8 eMuse January 2020