ACT 3 8 people---5 boys-- 3girls
ACT 3 Introduction. 1 girl
Francis was sent to Australia to make his own way in life. Luckily he sailed on the same ship as the New Governor to be, Philip Gidley King and his wife Anna Josephina. In Australia not much is known about his early struggles to survive, but he did design a ‘Women’s and Girl’s Orphanage” for Anna Josephina King. He was then sent by Governor King to accompany Lt. John Grant of the ship Lady Nelson, ( the first ship to sail between Van Diemans Land and Australia) to fill in the missing gaps on the atlas of Australia between Van Diemans Land and Westernport, that had previously been discovered by Bass and Flinders.
Because of s shortage of NSW Corps Officers Barrallier was made an Ensign in the Officer Corps, and became eligible for a small free land holding, and of course engaged in Rum Selling as all the Officers did. He also tried to find a way though the Blue Mountains before Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson were sucessful.
All of the women committed crimes in England, transported to Botany Bay, then eventually released.
SCENE: Barrallier, is talking with Jane Dundas, recognizing the coming difficulties he is having between the Governor and his wife and his fellow Officers who resent Governor King ‘controlling “them. Also two influential men in the Colony as well as Millius from the French Expedition.
PLAYERS: Francis Barrallier. George Howe, Government Printer. Mr. Robert Campbell, Ship owner-Trader with India-Wharf Owner.
Lt. Pierre Millius, from the French Expedition. Surgeon D’Arcy Wentworth.
Jane Dundas- Anna Josephina King’s servant. Margaret Catchpole, released convict..Mrs. Mary Reibey-released convict and business woman. Mrs. Ruse, released convict and wife of James Ruse, released convict.
The Play ACT 3
JANE DUNDAS: Francis, I have been cautioning you about telling your brother Officers about what happens in Government House.
ENSIGN FRANCIS BARRALLIER: Jane, I am aware of your warnings. However I fear that things are not good between Governor King and the Officer Corps. They pick on anything that will discredit Governor King.
JANE DUNDAS: Look , see that Officer over there, I think he is making his way over to us. Probably to find out more things about the Governor and Mrs. King. Although he probably won’t talk to me because I stole some linen in England, and was transported here.
ENSIGN FRANCIS BARRALLIER: ‘groaning” I will be glad when the Governor allows me to leave Sydney Cove and try to find the “King of the Mountains” by crossing that range of Blue Mountains to our North west. Dr. George Bass, and also George Caley tried a few years ago but failed.
GEORGE HOWE: Hello young Francis and Jane. Isn’t this a splendid farewell party. I will have a lot to write about in the Newspaper. Don’t be despondent young Barrallier. Governor King has had harsh words to say about a lot of people, including Mr. Robert Campbell here.
ROBERT CAMPBELL: Yes, that’s the truth. I import cattle and other things for the colony, and yet Governor King stops me selling spirits to the NSW Corps and colonialists. Even the French Expedition has been in trouble using spirits to barter with.
GEORGE HOWE: Well the Governor sees it all rather differently Robert. By the way when do you expect my order of printing paper to arrive from India. I have only about 6 months stock left. And also that mechanical part for my printing press from Scotland.
ROBERT CAMPBELL: One of my ships should arrive in the next 3 months, with all your supplies. By the way Lt. Millius, I know Commodore Baudin is looking to purchase another ship so that a French ship can take Scientific records and artifacts back to France. You could put in a good word for me, maybe he could hire a ship from me. That would give me the opportunity to Trade in French Ports!
LT. PIERRE MILLIUS: Mr. Campbell, we have on board young Hyacyinth De Bougainville he is only a junior Officer. People think that he has the same aura as his famous father, who nearly discovered this eastern place of Australia before Captain Cook. Young Freycenet will Captain the vessel, you should talk to both of them..
MARGARET CATCHPOLE: You still look sick Lt. Millius. Perhaps Surgeon D’Arcy Wentworth here could prescribe different help.
D’ARCY WENTWORTH: As you know Margaret, I have not been allowed to look after the Lt. Millius, but he is still rather ill and not responding to treatment by the looks of it.
MARY REIBEY: I must say you still look ill Lt. Millius. You looked better the other day when you called on me.
D’ARCY WENTWORTH: Maybe Lt. Millius, you and your men should volunteer to Governor King to get inoculated against the disease of cow pox.
LT. PIERRE MILLIUS: Mrs. Reibey and Mr. Wentworth, unless I recover very very quickly, my fellow Frenchmen will sail away without me.
JANE DUNDAS: How is that so Lt. Millius?
LT. PIERRE MILLIUS: Madame, you will recall that my ship the Le Naturaliste in command of Captain Hamelin, arrived here in Sydney without our expeditions other ship Le Geographe Captained by Commodore Baudin, the expeditions leader. Commodore Baudin met with Lt. Mathew Flinders at a place Flinders called Encounter Bay. My Captain, Captain Hamelin then left me and other sick sailors here in Sydney so that he could sail to China. Commodore Baudin on the Naturaliste then arrived here in Sydney. Then Captain Hamelin arrived back here in Sydney because he encountered bad weather.
JANE DUNDAS: Yes, we all understand that Lt. Millius, but would they sail away without you?
LT. PIERRE MILLIUS: Miss Dundas, you have steady service at Government House. We sailors are bought and sold and discarded at Captain’s whims. I have orders that I am to get well and help the other sailors get well, then purchase a passage to China, from thence to the island of Ille de France, you call it Mauritius, and thence to return to France. Captain Hamelin has given me some money, and that’s why I have asked Mrs. Reibey to help find me some accommodation for myself and sailors so that we can get well then take a ship to China.
MARY REIBEY: I may be able to accommodate you and some sailors at the place called The Rocks. From there you would be able to see all the shipping here and talk to their Masters. Have you talked with Mr. Robert Campbell.
MARGARET CATCHPOLE: All that effort to return to France. Still I know all about planning and effort.
D’ARCY WENTWORTH: I don’t think I can get you and your men well very quickly Lt. Millius. Unfortunately you will have to learn to be patient, the hard way like I did.
ENSIGN FRANCIS BARRALLIER: What do you mean by that Mr. Wentworth? I have waited ages for an English Colonial Office decision. I am disappointed that after all the expeditions and surveys I have carried out I still hope to be appointed Assistant Government Surveyor, under Charles Grimes. Trouble is he is still awaiting official notification to be Government Surveyor instead of Charles Alt who wants to retire.
D’ARCY WENTWORTH: I was taken to the Old Bailey Courts in London, three times and tried for stealing as a Highwayman. Anyway over that time I applied and was accepted for the post of Surgeon at Botany bay. In fact the fourth time I was tried, the Magistrate let me go because I had already been accepted at Botany Bay. So I learnt to be patient.
GEORGE HOWE: I don’t think I should use that information in the Government Paper D’Arcy. It might get us into trouble. Still I might put part of it into my second book publication in this Colony now that my first one is finished
D’ARCY WENTWORTH: So you see Lt. Millius, to recover from your illness, you will need patience, then you can sail away to China.
ROBERT CAMPBELL: George smelling all that printing ink might have made you ill.
GEORGE HOWE: Know I remember something when you were serving on Norfolk Island, D’Arcy. Some Irish convicts wanted to start a rebellion, and were going to use you, an Irishman, to co ordinate it. Luckily you proved you had nothing to do with it.
MRS. JAMES RUSE: Quite a few Irish and Scottish people live in and around Windsor Mr. Howe.
GEORGE HOWE: Of that I am aware Madam. I am also aware that your husband was looked upon very favorably by Governor Phillip.
MRS. JAMES RUSE: Well after the Governor gave James, 1 and a half acres, some chickens and 2 pigs and some grain, and some convicts to help farm and then told him to farm at Parramatta, he did so. After 1 year, he told the Governor he did not require any more help to live from the government.
ROBERT CAMPBELL: Aha, so that’s how Experimental Farm started. Wasn’t he the first convict to have served his time here in Sydney Town, and how the Governor made him the first Landowner in this country? What happened then?
MRS. JAMES RUSE: The Governor then gave him an additional 30 acres. Which he later sold to Surgeon Harris. The Governor then asked him to settle at Windsor.
ROBERT CAMPBELL: My Sophia and I help support the settlement at Ebenezer, just North of Windsor Town, close to Portland Head.
MARGARET CATCHPOLE: So that’s how they got the land at Portland Head, your wife is the sister of my employer Mr. John Palmer the Commissary.You strike me as a very confident man Lt. Millius. Similar to some of the things I have done. Even going into Westernport with Midshipman Brevedent’s maps was brave, because Captain Hamelin and the Geographe could have been lost at sea. Then you would have been stuck there.
LT. PIERRE MILLIUS: I think your escape from Prison climbing up a clothes line, and then all your horse riding exploits were more dangerous than mine Madame. And here in Sydney Cove, you still persist in riding horses to wherever you have to go.
MARGARET CATCHPOLE: Yes but don’t forget I was sentenced to hang, after escaping from Goal twice. My sentence was changed to transportation to Sydney Cove. Luckily on the ship the Nile I helped Mrs. Rouse deliver a baby. Two days after arriving in Port Jackson I went to work for Mr. John Palmer at Woolloomolloo Farm, and then helped Mrs. Palmer deliver a baby.
ENSIGN FRANCIS BARRALLIER: All this talk about braveness. To a Frenchman it is a natural thing to be brave. During the Revolution my Father escaped to Italy, with our family, then went to England to design ships for the English Navy at Portsmouth. He taught me to measure, calculate and draw. That’s how I was able to draw plans for Mrs. King’s orphanage.
MARY REIBEY : My husband says that you Francis, had two severe accidents, and nearly drowned when you went to Westernport, with Lt. John Grant on the Lady Nelson. You were sent by Gov. King to fill in the gaps on his chart of the area, that were left by George and Matthew and Lt. Grant..
ENSIGN FRANCIS BARRALLIER: Actually Mrs. Reibey the voyage to Westernport and back again to Sydney Cove, that took 2 months, was very exciting and satisfying for me as a Surveyor Draughtsman. Lt. Murray, standing in that other group over there, and I nearly drowned when rowing on the shore at Westernport. Also when I was with Lt. Grant whilst surveying the eastern side of the Bay, Lt. Grant and I got caught in a whirlpool. The boat capsized and we fell out of the boat. That was a narrow escape.
MARGARET CATCHPOLE: Anyway I want to know from you Mr. Campbell when that order of bed linen, and bandages I placed with your wife Sophia to be purchased and to be shipped from India will arrive?.
ROBERT CAMPBELL: That’s all you women worry about. My wife Sophia shouldn’t be so obliging, expecting my brother in India to purchase and send these articles to you.
MARY REIBEY: Margaret, this is the first time we have met. Although I have heard about you. Please call on me. My husband will obtain those items and other goods you might like from India, or wherever. He still has connections in the British East Indies Company offices in India..
MARGARET CATCHPOLE: I believe you were also sentenced to Transportation Mrs. Reibey for stealing and trying to sell a horse?
MARY REIBEY : Yes that’s true Margaret. I have learnt a lot since then. I was given a very good education but it still wasn’t enough excitement for me. I was sentenced to Transportation. My name was Mary Heydock then. I was only fifteen and dressed like a boy. Mother gave me 2 guineas, before I left England. A Man stole the money from me in Sydney Cove. He said he needed it to convince the authorities that I was innocent and they would let me go free. However he ran away with the money. So I am rather tough in business these days..
ROBERT CAMPBELL: Margaret I didn’t say that we would not supply you, its just difficult sometimes when we are trying to obtain lots of cattle and lots of grains to feed the Colony
MARGARET CATCHPOLE: Thank you Robert.
MRS. JAMES RUSE: I heard Mrs. Reibey, that when you arrived at Sydney Cove, you became a Nursemaid in Lt. Governor Francis Grosse’s household , and you Margaret have been given a “Settlers Muster number 611” that allows you to be employed by any one and you are free to wander around the countryside. I wish I had something like that when I lived on the next property to Mrs. Macarthur at Elizabeth Farm, Parramatta, for a few months.
