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Sydney Gazette, 18th of February 1815:
“Much apprehension has for some weeks been entertained for the safety of George Wood, of Clarence-street [Sydney], and two men who accompanied him to Shoal Haven, for the purpose of procuring cedar. They went from Sydney nearly a fortnight before Christmas; and a boat went from hence on Thursday the 9th inst. in quest of them, but without any very flattering prospect of restoring them to the society of their friends and families. The boat which went in search of them was formerly the launch of the Three Bees, fitted for the purpose of assisting in procuring cedar. The persons who went in her were G. Philips, tinman and son; and Thos. Brady, a fisherman, accompanied, as is supposed, by a native who joined them after leaving the harbour; and who has since returned to Sydney with a confused account, intimating as some who have conversed with him suppose, the loss of the launch also, at the same time making out that the people who navigated her were saved. Too impicit a belief of this report has passed it off as a matter of fact; whereas it should rather be presumed upon the contrary, that if this native did accompany the launch down, and she had been wrecked, he would have been prevailed upon to stand by the people as a guide, and not have abandoned them, particularly to come to Sydney; from which very circumstance it might even almost yet be hoped, that he had been dispatched hither by Phillips [sic] with intelligence of Wood and his party losing their boats, with a possibility of their yet living though the messenger might be incapable of rendering himself sufficiently intelligible after he arrived. That there was a heavy squall from the southward 12 hours after the launch’s sailing is perfectly recollected; but had she then been wrecked it must have been somewhere about Port Aitken [Port Hacking], from whence the people would in a few days have walked in. All respecting them is therefore doubt and uncertainty at present - from which it is ardently to be hoped we may shortly be agreeably relieved.”
Sydney Gazette, 25th of February 1815:
“The fate that has unhappily attended the late George Wood and his associates, Jones and Dawson, who had proceeded towards Shoal Haven to procure cedar, is now placed beyond all doubt, by the return of Messrs. Batty and Howell, who went in quest of them over-land. Wood and his companions had proceeded from hence a fortnight before Christmas, in the employ of MR. BLAXCELL, with a fine launch, well found in necessaries best suited to their purpose. As soon as the length of time they were provided for expired, their return was of course looked for, as there was no probability of their augmenting their resources, by fishing, fowling, or foresting; as they had gone provisioned for a certain time to be employed in labour only, and could therefore only depend upon their prudential calculation for their supplies lasting them back to Sydney, whither their return was to be expected the latter end of January. February arrived, however, and no intelligence concerning them: a few days passed over without any very alarming conjectures; but when an entire week had elapsed, their families and friends became hourly the more anxious; and their employer, sparing no time in ascertaining the cause of their delay, dispatched a party by water, comprising Messrs. Philips, son, and Brady, as mentioned in the Gazette of last week; and another party by land, consisting of Messrs. Batty & Howell, who returned last Tuesday with reliques sufficient to demonstrate that Wood and his companions are no more - while the most ardent enquiries failed in ascertaining the precise causes of their death. On Thursday the 9th ult. both parties set out; and the launch, the loss of which was also reported, returned last Sunday, without information, but without experiencing any accident. Batty and Howell, however, loading themselves with sufficient provisions and other necessaries which travellers accustomed to the woods know to be the best adapted, persevered in one of the most toilsome pursuits that could possibly have been embarked in, until they arrived at the spot where they found the launch that had conveyed Wood and his associates thither, out of the reach of the tide and surf. Here also they discovered the mutilated remains of a human body, which some friendly natives who had joined them as conductors, pronounced to be poor Wood’s, whom they had well known during his life time. This was indeed a dismal spectacle - the face was gone, but the hinder parts of the head were yet a good deal undecayed, as were also the legs, thighs, and arms, from which the hands were absent. They took a lock of hair from the head, and the bone of the lower jaw, which was loose, from the decay of the tendons that had united it; and these melancholy evidences of the performance of their engagement they have brought in with them, together with a powder horn, sewing palm, handkerchief, and part of a jacket, recognized to have been taken hence by one or other of the three ill-fated men. The bodies of Jones and Dawson were not found, nor were any of their muskets; but there remained on the beach a cask with a quantity of salt pork in it, the hoops of which had been taken off, and a box that had contained their apparel and other necessaries was stripped of its hinges. Their guides, who were now eight in number, advised them not to delay at the fatal place, which was from 25 to 30 miles from the Five Islands [Illawarra], and estimated at upwards of 100 miles from Sydney, as they were in momentary apprehension of being assailed by numbers that were then possibly in concealment round about them, by whom they were as likely to be killed and eaten themselves; and to strengthen their persuasions, they attributed the total absence of Jones and Dawson, as well as the loss of the hands from the body under view, to a cannibal propensity in the natives of that part of the Coast: but as this suggestion is utterly inconsonant to the observations hitherto made on the manners and inclinations of any of the native tribes we have occasionally met with, we are inclined to treat it as a fiction resorted to with a view of magnifying the terrors of their situation, and thereby the more readily prevailing on the two persons under their guidance to abandon a spot that exhibited a picture of horror, and was then equally unsafe to all.
“The natives of the cultivated districts, to whom our knowledge is almost totally confined, frequently represent the mountain tribes as particularly barbarous and ferocious, extending the challenge even to the imputation of a cannibal propensity. But of this we have never had an evidence: from a long experience, on the contrary, we are justified in a very opposite belief. That two of the bodies should be undiscovered is not in itself unsurprising, when the accompanying circumstances are laterally considered. By the appearance of the places where they had made their fires, and the small quantity of ashes produced, it was concluded they had been killed a day or two after their landing; and this supposition was altogether justified by the very decayed state of the body that had been found; the others might have been surprised at some trifling distance, and remained concealed by intervening thickets, which it would have been as dangerous as unprofitable to explore. - It was summer; the natives were on the coast, and could procure abundance of fish, which from habit they prefer to any other eatable whatever, and could be in no necessity to resort to so horrible a means: - Nor does the severing of the hands from the more evident victim, to their barbarity warrant the abominable idea which the guides had artfully and no doubt sagaciously endeavoured to inspire; for we have had a similar instance among the nearer and less estranged tribes, in the case of the unfortunate Isaac Eustace, who was killed the 7th of May last in the district of Appin (for the account of which, together with the connected particulars, which were extremely tragical, we beg to refer the Reader to the Gazette of that month). That the natives of all parts which have hitherto been explored of this country have an inimical feeling towards strangers, experience has sufficiently manifested; but it has also been found, that after a short correspondence they were capable of exchanging civilities, and by their unassuming manner appear to evince a capacity of judging between themselves and a civilized society with a sensibility that may have operated against their own emendation, by at once confounding them with the idea that their obstacles would be insuperable, while it was also to be considered, that they had no assistance, no encouragement, or method pointed out whereby they might hope eventually to enjoy the comforts of a civilized society. It is not impossible, however, that the measures recently adopted for their benefit, though necessarily limited in the origin, may in a short time reward the exertion by giving security to the ship wrecked mariner upon our coasts; while the progeny of the untaught savage shall lift their eyes to Heaven with a zealous fervour, and bless the day that a true Christian came among them.”
Sydney Gazette, 11th of March 1815:
“In the late excursion made by Messrs. Batty and Howell towards Shoal Haven, in search of the late G. Wood and his unfortunate companions, they proceeded (within 14 miles of that place) to the spot where they found the launch beached, and the dead body said by the natives to be Wood’s. This was a distance exceeding 100 miles; which they performed with extreme difficulty and occasional danger, in the space of five days and a half. They reached the Five Islands [Illawarra] on the 4th day of their travel, and there finding several friendly natives, remained with them a night, and next morning set out, accompanied by two men, as guides, who readily undertook to conduct them to the launch, which was on a beach about 39 miles off. On their way thither, they were met by six others, who also faithfully attended them, and considerably alleviated the fatigue of travel by conducting them through less intricate and difficult paths. At a place called Watermoolly, which the travellers could not have passed without making a considerable circuit round the head of a capacious inlet from the sea, the guides conducted them to a spot which was fordable to the tallest of the two travellers, who could not swim, and passable to the other, who could swim, and was frequently out of his depth in crossing it. On their return they accidentally fell in with a party of above 89 in number; from whose alarming menaces and gesticulations they had little room to congratulate themselves on their safety. The guides were themselves intimidated, not upon their own account, but appeared hopeless of appeasing a wrath which threatened their protegees with certain death. They remonstrated, exhorted, supplicated; till at length those who were the objects of the contest, throwing aside all fear, went in among the groupe [sic], and partly by persuasion, partly by menacing with the vengeance which would fall upon them from the white people, should their return be long delayed, they became less violent, and at length, were tranquillized [sic]. Several of the friendly natives accompanied the travellers into Sydney; and experienced from His Excellency the GOVERNOR marks of favor and liberality with which they were highly gratified, and separated with a promise to repeat their good offices on all occasions that should demand their aid.”
Sydney Gazette, 22nd of April 1815:
“An account has been given by William Howell, one of the persons who found the body supposed to be the late George Wood’s near Shoal Haven, that about three weeks since he was at a place called _olye [Illegible], about 35 miles south of Port Jackson; and saw there the remains od a boat that had been wrecked, of 18 feet keel, with a pair of oars, a common ship bed marked No. 143, a keg, a blanket, and an English sack marked ‘Isleworth, Wm. Cooper.’ The sail, for which a blanket had been substituted, was rent to pieces, and her cordage gone. The natives, imagining it to be Howell’s and hid companion’s own boat, as they had been there shortly before, left a quantity of fish for them, supposing they might have gone in search of provisions, but returned in two days after, and found that no one had been there; nor had they ever discerned the impression of a foot near the boat; from which it is concluded no person was in her when she went on shore. Howell brought with him the rudder and catch of the mast. That she had belonged to the colony there could be no doubt from general appearances, and the more particularly from the mending of the sack with spun wool, which is here not unfrequent [sic]. The only conjecture therefore that we can esteem probable respecting her is, that she had been stolen by rash and unthinking persons, for the purpose of attempting an escape from the colony, and who doubtless perished in the effort.”
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