History of New South Wales From the Records
VOLUME 1 - GOVERNOR PHILLIP 1783-1789

G. B. Barton - 1889

PART II

The Foundation of the Colony

 

PHILLIP'S first despatch from Sydney Cove; is dated 15th May, 1788. From the day of his arrival in the Supply, on the 25th January, to the date of his despatch, his time had been fully employed in getting the settlement into some degree of order, and in exploring the country round about it. It was his practice at that time to keep a journal, in which he set down "the little incidents " of his life from day to day, and from which he subsequently wrote his letters to the Secretary of State. The first was necessarily a, lengthy one, but its contents are of peculiar interest in the present day. There is no similar record in which the story of the foundation of a great colony is told with so much personal interest. The events connected with the settlement of the American colonies were not chronicled until long after the principal actors had disappeared from the scene, and consequently their early history is buried in obscurity. But the despatches written by Phillip contain a narrative so clear and graphic in its way that the reader can find no difficulty in realising the scenes he describes, or in following the course of events to which he refers.

It will be observed that he does not make any mention of the public ceremony which took place on the 26th January - the day after his arrival - when the British flag was unfurled at the head of Sydney Cove. On the evening of that day, Phillip and the party that had arrived with him in the Supply from Botany Bay the day before, assembled at the point where they had first landed in the morning, and on which a flagstaff had been erected. There, with the Union Jack flying over their heads, he proposed several toasts - King George the Third, the Royal Family, and Success to the New Colony - which were duly honored by the officers who stood round him; the ceremony concluding with several volleys from the marines. The day had been uncommonly fine, as Collins tells us; and it concluded with the safe arrival of the Sirius and the other ships from Botany Bay - the voyage thus terminating with the same good fortune that had attended it so conspicuously from the beginning.

The formal proclamation of the colony did not take place until the 7th of February, by which time all the people on board the ships had been landed and placed undercover on shore. That was " the memorable day which established a regular form of government on the coast of New South Wales (1)." On the slope of Point Maskelyne - afterwards known as Dawes' Point - the marines were drawn up under arms, the convicts stationed apart, and the Governor, surrounded by his officers, called upon Captain Collins, the Judge-Advocate, to read aloud the various documents which contained within them the essential powers of government. The first was the Commission appointing Phillip Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief in and over the territory of New South Wales and its dependencies (2). Then came the Act of Parliament, passed the year before, to enable his Majesty to establish a colony and a civil government, and for that purpose to erect a Court of Criminal Judicature for the trial of outrages and misbehaviours. After the Act, the Judge-Advocate proceeded to read out the Letters Patent constituting the Courts of Civil and Criminal Judicature, and also the Vice-Admiralty Court for the trial of piracies and other offences on the seas (3).

When these documents had been disposed of, Phillip proceeded to address the assembly; his remarks being directed in the first instance to the soldiers, and in the second to the convicts. Among those who were present on the occasion, there were three members of his staff who attentively noted what he said, and afterwards recorded their recollections of it - Captain Collins, Captain Tench, and Surgeon White. Captain Hunter was also present, no doubt, but he made no reference to the speech or the proceedings in his book. The fullest report of the speech appeared in Phiillip's Voyage; but it is not easy to say on what authority it was written, seeing that Phillip himself made no allusion to it in his despatches. The only reference made; by him to the matter appears in his letter to Evan Nepean of the 9th July, in which he said that " his Majesty's Commission, with that for establishing the Courts of Civil and Criminal Judicature, were read soon after landing." The speech, as it appears in Phillip's Voyage, was probably Written by the editor of that work from some private account of it sent to the Government with the despatches :—

Governor Phillip advanced, and addressing first the private soldiers, thanked them for their steady good conduct on every occasion, an honour which was repeated to them in the next general orders. He then turned to the convicts, and distinctly explained to them the nature of their present situation. The greater part, he bade them recollect, had already forfeited their lives to the justice of their country; yet, by the lenity of its laws, they were now so placed that, by industry and good behaviour, they might in time regain the advantages and estimation in society of which they had deprived themselves. They not only had every encouragement to make that effort, but were removed almost entirely from every temptation to guilt. There was little in this infant community which one man could plunder from another, and any dishonest attempts in so small a society would almost infallibly be discovered. To persons detected in such crimes, he could not promise any mercy; nor indeed to any who, under these circumstances, should presume to offend against the peace and good order of the settlement. What mercy could do for them they had already experienced; nor could any good be now expected from those whom neither past warnings, nor the peculiarities of their present situation, could preserve from guilt. Against offenders, therefore, the rigour of the law would certainly be put in force, while they whose behaviour should in any degree promise reformation might always depend upon encouragement fully proportioned to their deserts.

He particularly noticed the illegal intercourse between the sexes as an offence which encouraged a general profligacy of manners, and was in several ways injurious to society. To prevent this, he strongly recommended marriage, and promised every kind of countenance and assistance to those who, by entering into that state, should manifest their willingness to conform to the laws of morality and religion. Governor Phillip concluded his address by declaring his earnest desire to promote the happiness of all who were under his government, and to render the settlement in New South Wales advantageous and honourable to his country (4).

The account written by Collins omits all reference to the remarks addressed to the marines, and also the advice given to the convicts on the subject of marriage :—

The ceremony of reading these public instruments having been performed by the Judge-Advocate, the Governor, addressing himself to the convicts, assured them, among other things, that " he should ever be ready to show approbation and encouragement to those who proved themselves worthy of them by good conduct and attention to orders; while, on the other hand, such as were determined to act in opposition to propriety, and observe a contrary conduct, would inevitably meet with the punishment which they deserved." He remarked how much it was to their interest to forget the habits of vice and indolence in which too many of them had hitherto lived; and exhorted them to be honest among themselves, obedient to their overseers, and attentive to the several works in which they were about to be employed (5).

While the wording of these reports presents some points of difference, they nevertheless agree in substance. The words of encouragement offered to industry and good conduct, and the emphatic warning with respect to the consequences of any further criminality - which naturally formed the essence of Phillip's remarks - appear in each account of them. The advice to marry is not mentioned by Collins or Tench; but the former relates that, before the end of the month, "several, couples were announced for marriage" - a virtuous resolution which was found to originate in a belief that " married people would meet with various little comforts and privileges denied to those in a single state." Phillip had foreseen the dilemma which was sure to arise whenever the question of intercourse between the sexes should become a subject for serious consideration, and had even contemplated the expediency of expressly permitting prostitution, within certain limits (6). But the difficulty of dealing with such a subject officially made itself felt as soon as he turned his attention to it, and the result was that he made no regulation of the kind, contenting himself with a strong exhortation in favour of marriage. By refraining from making any order at all, he left matters to take their own course. But on two points he felt compelled to legislate. One of his first public orders was directed to the prevention of disease. Another was subsequently framed for the purpose of correcting a curious notion which had got abroad on the subject of marriage. It was commonly believed that the ceremony performed in the colony was not valid, and that husbands could throw off the conjugal tie at their pleasure when leaving the country. Phillip therefore ordered that " none should be permitted to quit the colony who had wives or children incapable of maintaining themselves, and likely to become burdensome to the settlement, until they had found sufficient security for the maintenance of such wives or children as long as they might remain after them." (7) It was in this matter that the first fruits of the Government policy began to show themselves. The exclusion of free settlers was, in fact, the exclusion of morality itself. Apart from that, the necessity for equalising the sexes on such an occasion should have been obvious; but not only was that matter disregarded - the proportion between males and females being nearly four to one - but the women sent out were mostly, according to Phillip, "very abandoned wretches." The result was beyond any power to control.

Phillip began his first despatch to Lord Sydney (8) by referring to his departure from the Cape, and his arrangements for arriving early at the scene of operations in Botany Bay :-

I had the honor of informing your lordship by Captain Cox, who was returning to Europe from Madras, that I was ready to sail from the Cape of Good Hope, and which I did, with the ships under my command, the 12th of November.

The 25th, being eighty leagues to the eastward of the Cape, I left the Sirius and went on board the Supply, tender, in hopes, by leaving the convoy, to gain sufficient time to examine the country round Botany Bay, and fix on the most eligible situation for the colony before the transports arrived. At the same time I ordered the agent for the transports in the Alexander to separate from the convoy with that ship, the Scarborough, and Friendship. They sailing better than the others, I had reason to expect their arrival soon after the Supply, and by having the labour of the convicts they had on board, much might be done in preparing for the landing the stores and provisions.

Major Ross now left the Sirius and went on  board the Scarborough, that he might be with that part of the detachment which would probably be the first landed.

Captain Hunter, in the Sirius, was to follow with the store-ships and the remainder of the transports, and he had the necessary instructions for his future proceedings, should the Supply meet with any accident.

The westerly winds we now had continued till the 3rd of January, when we saw the coast of New South Wales, but the winds which had been so favourable having seldom been to the eastward, and then for a few hours only, blowing from the N.W. to the S.W., generally very strong gales, now left us, and we had variable winds with a current that at times set very strong to the southward, so that we did not arrive at Botany Bay before the 18th.

The Alexander, Scarborough, and Friendship, came in the next day, and the Sirius, with the rest of the ships, the day after. Those ships had continued very healthy.

The Supply sailing very badly had not permitted my gaining the advantage hoped for; but I began to examine the bay as soon as we anchored, and found that, tho' extensive, it did not afford shelter to ships from the easterly winds, the greater part of the bay being so shoal that ships of even a moderate draught of water are obliged to anchor with the entrance of the bay open, and are exposed to a heavy sea that rolls in when it blows hard from the eastward.

Several small runs of fresh water were found in different parts of the bay, but I did not see any situation to which there was not some very strong objection (9). The small creek that is in the northern part of the bay runs a considerable way into the country, but it had only water for a boat; the sides of this creek are frequently overflowed, and the low lands are a swamp. The western branch runs up for a considerable distance, but the officers I sent to examine it could not find any water except in very small drains.

The best situation that offered was near Point Sutherland, where there was a small run of good water; but the ground near it, as well as a considerable part of the higher ground, was spongy, and the ships could not approach this part of the bay.

Several good situations offered for a small number of people, but none that appeared calculated for our numbers, and where the stores and provisions could be landed without a great deal of time. When I considered the bay's being so very open, and the probability of the swamps rendering the most eligible situation unhealthy, I judged it advisable to examine Port Jackson; but that no time might be lost if I did not succeed in finding a better harbour and a proper situation for the settlement, the ground near Point Sutherland was in the meantime to be cleared, and preparations made for landing under the direction of the Lieutenant-Governor.

As the time in which I might be absent, if I went in the Supply, must have been very uncertain, I went round with three boats, taking with me Captain Hunter and several officers, that, by examining different parts of the port at the same time, less time might be lost (10).

We got into Port Jackson early in the afternoon, and had the satisfaction of finding the finest harbour in the world, in which a thousand sail of the line may ride in the most perfect security, and of which a rough survey, made by Captain Hunter and the officers of the Sirius after the ships came round, may give your lordship some idea.

The different coves were examined with all possible expedition. I fixed on the one that had the best spring of water, and in which the ships can anchor so close to the shore that, at a very small expense, quays may be made at which the largest ships may unload. This cove, which I honored with the name of Sydney, is about a quarter of a mile across at the entrance, and half a mile in length.

We returnsed to Botany Bay the third day, when I received a very unfavourable account of the ground that was clearing. The ships immediately prepared to go round, and the 25th, seven days after I arrived in the Supply, I sailed in her for Port Jackson, leaving Captain Hunter to follow with the transports, it then blowing too strong for them to work out of the bay. They joined me the next evening, and all the transports were moored in the cove.

The arrival of the French ships under La Pérouse is referred to by Phillip in a paragraph in which he gives the result of Lieutenant King's interview with the French commander. There is no mention of any personal communication between the representatives of the two nations, or of any visit paid by La Pérouse to Phillip; but hospitalities were frequently exchanged between the French and English officers, and great cordiality seems to have been shown on both sides.

Two sail had appeared off Botany Bay the 24th under French colours, and anchored there before the Sirius left - the Boussole and the Astrolabe (11). These ships were commanded by Mons. de la Pérouse, who, having expressed a desire of sending letters to Europe, I sent an officer over, it being only eight miles, to tell him in what time it was probable the ships might sail. Captain Clonard had left the ships in one of their boats the same morning, and Lieutenant Shortland, the agent for the transports, is charged with the letters he brought; they are addressed to the French ambassadors. The officer I sent over was informed that Mons. de la Pérouse sailed from France in June, 1785, that he had been to Santa Catherina, had run along the coast of Chili and California, and had been at Easter Island, Nootka Sound, Cook's River, Kamschatka, Manilla, Isles des Navigateurs, Sandwich and the Friendly Islands. He had likewise anchored off Norfolk Island, but could not land on account of the surf.

After a short account of the massacre at Navigators' Islands, by which the French lost the captain of the Astrolabe with eleven officers and men, Phillip then returns to affairs at the settlement, describing the difficulties encountered in the efforts to clear the ground and put up the necessary buildings. The trees growing at the head of Sydney Cove were so large that the labour of removing them, after they were cut down, proved a serious obstacle to progress; while the land in the neighbourhood was so rocky that cultivation to any considerable extent seemed out of the question. Phillip was consequently driven to " prospect" the country in all directions for any available patch of good soil that would serve the purpose of a farm  - a very different state of affairs from that which he had been led to expect from the descriptions in Cook's Voyage of the rich meadow lands at Botany Bay.

The clearing the ground for the people, and for erecting storehouses, was begun as soon as the ships got round, a labour of which it will be hardly possible to give your lordship a just idea.

The necks of land that form the different coves, and near the water for some distance, are in general so rocky that it is surprising such large trees should find sufficient nourishment; but the soil between the rocks is good, and the summits of the rocks, as well as the whole country round us, with few exceptions, are covered with trees, most of which are so large that the removing them off the ground, after they are cut down, is the greatest part of the labour; and the convicts, naturally indolent, having none to attend them but overseers drawn from amongst themselves, and who fear to exert any authority, makes this work go on very slowly.

Your lordship will permit me to observe that our situation, though so very different from what might be expected, is nevertheless the best that offered. My instructions did not permit me to detain the transports a sufficient length of time to examine the coast to any considerable distance. It was absolutely necessary to be certain of a sufficient quantity of fresh water, in a situation that was healthy, and which the ships might approach within a reasonable distance for the conveniency of landing the stores and provisions; and I am fully persuaded that we should never have succeeded had it been attempted to move them only one mile from where they were landed. There are some parts of this harbour where the trees stand at a considerable distance from each other, and where there are small runs of water, which shall be cultivated when our numbers permit; and when the country can be examined, I make no doubt but some good situations will be found that have water, which I have never yet been able to find either in Botany Bay, or in this harbour, but in very small streams.

Some land that is near, and where the trees stand at a considerable distance from each other, will, as soon as convicts can be spared, be cultivated by the officers for raising a little corn for their stock, and this I have endeavoured to promote as much as possible, for I fear the consequences if a ship should be lost in her passage out with provisions (12).

As there are only twelve convicts who are carpenters, as many as could be procured from the ships have been hired to work on the hospital (13) and store-houses. The people were healthy when landed, but the scurvy has for some time appeared amongst them, and now rages in a most extraordinary manner. Only sixteen carpenters could be hired from the ships, and several of the convict carpenters were sick. It was now the middle of February; the rains began to fall very heavy, and pointed out the necessity of hurting the people; convicts were therefore appointed to assist the detachment in this work.

The immediate occupation of Norfolk Island being one of Phillip's instructions, no time was lost in carrying it out.

February the 14th the Supply sailed for Norfolk Island, with Philip Gidley King, second lieutenant of his Majesty's ship Sirius, for the purpose of settling that island. He only carried with him a petty officer, surgeon's mate, two marines, two men who understood the cultivation of flax, with nine men and six women convicts. Their numbers shall be increased when a small detachment of marines can be spared. I have the honor of transmitting your lordship a copy of the order and instructions (14) given to that officer, and I beg to recommend him as an officer of merit, whose perseverance in that or any other service may be depended on.

Phillip then proceeds to relate his efforts to explore the country in the neighbourhood of the settlement - the first point to which he directed his steps being Broken Bay.

The 2nd of March I went with a long-boat and cutter to examine the broken land mentioned by Captain Cook, about eight miles to the northward of Port Jackson (15). We slept in the boat that night within a rocky point in the northward part of the bay, which is very extensive, as the natives, though very friendly, appeared to be numerous; and the next day, after passing a bar that had only water for small vessels, entered a very extensive branch, from which the ebb tide came out so strong that the boats could not row against it in the stream, and here was deep water. It appeared to end in several small branches, and in a large lagoon that we could not examine for want of time to search for a channel for the boats amongst the banks of sand and mud. Most of the land on the upper part of this branch was low and full of swamps. Pelicans and a variety of birds were here seen in great numbers leaving this branch, which I called the north-west branch. We proceeded across the bay and went into the south-west branch, which is very extensive, and from which a second branch runs to the westward, affording shelter for any number of ships, and as far as we examined, there is water for the largest ships, having seven fathoms at the entrance and deeper water as you go up, but the almost continual rains prevented any kind of survey. Here the land is much higher than at Port Jackson, more rocky, and equally covered with timber, large trees growing on the summits of mountains that appeared to be accessible to birds only.

Immediately round the headland that forms the southern entrance into the bay there is a third branch, which I think the finest piece of water I ever saw, and which I honored with the name of Pittwater; it is, as well as the south-west branch, of sufficient extent to contain all the navy of Great Britain, but has only eighteen feet at low water on a, narrow bar, which runs across the entrance; within the bar there are from seven to fifteen fathoms water. The land here is not so high as in the south-west branch, and there are some good situations where the land might be cultivated. We found small springs of water in most of the coves; and saw three cascades falling from a height which the rains then rendered inaccessible. I returned to Port Jackson, after being absent eight days in the boats. Some of the people feeling the effects of the rain, which had been almost constant, prevented my returning by land, as I intended, in order to examine a part of the country which appeared open and free from timber (16).

Norfolk Island again forms a subject of comment - Lieutenant Ball's return from it having enabled Phillip to give some account of its capabilities, based on Lieutenant King's report. The discovery of Lord Howe Island is also noted.

Lieutenant Ball, who commands the Supply, arrived the 19th of March. He made Norfolk Island on the 29th of February, and was five days before a place could be found at which it was possible to land the provisions, and saw very few places at which it was possible to land a man, so completely do the rocks surround that island. They succeeded, however, having found a small opening in a reef that runs across a bay that is at the south end of the island, and the six months' provisions were all safely landed. Lieutenant King describes this island as one entire wood, without a single acre of clear land that had been found when the Supply left them, and says that the pine trees rise fifty and sixty feet before they shoot out any branches. There are several other kinds of timber on the island, which, as far as he could examine it, was a rich black mould with great quantities of pumice stone. The trees are so bound together by a kind of supple-jack that the penetrating into the interior parts of the island was very difficult. Several good springs of water were found, and I apprehend his Majesty's ships in the East Indies may be supplied from this island with masts and yards, which will render it a very valuable acquisition. The cultivation of the flax plant will be attended to when people can be sent to clear the ground.

A small island being seen in the passage to Norfolk Island, Lieutenant Ball examined it on his return, and says it abounds in turtle, but unfortunately has no good anchoring-ground. He named it after Lord Howe. It is in 31' 36" south latitude, and 159° E. longitude. Part of this island may be seen sixteen leagues, and a rock that is five leagues to the southward and eastward of this island may be seen eighteen leagues.

The Charlotte, Scarborough, and Lady Penrhyn, transports, were cleared of all their stores, and discharged from Government employ the 24th and 25th of March, and left at liberty to proceed to China when they judged proper; the other ships remain till store-houses can be finished.

The first sitting of the Criminal Court took place on the 11th February, and was followed by another before the end of the month, when six men were condemned to death. Phillip's reference to the proceedings on that occasion shows his belief in exile as a better means of punishment than hanging.

Your lordship will not be surprised that I have been under the necessity of assembling a Criminal Court (17). Six men were condemned to death - one, who was the head of the gang, was executed the same day; the others I reprieved. They are to be exiled from the settlement; and when the season permits, I intend they shall be landed near the South Cape, where, by their forming connections with the natives, some benefit may accrue to the public. These men had frequently robbed the stores and the other convicts. The one who suffered and two others were condemned for robbing the stores of provisions the very day they received a week's provision, and at which time their allowance, as settled by the Navy Board, was the same as the soldiers, spirits excepted; the others, for robbing a tent and for stealing provisions from other convicts.

Part of the live stock brought from the Cape, small as it was, has been lost, and our resource in fish is also uncertain; some days great quantities are caught, but never sufficient to save any part of the provisions, and at times fish are scarce.

Your lordship will, I presume, see the necessity of a regular supply of provisions for four or five years; and of cloathing, shoes, and frocks in the greatest proportion. The necessary implements for husbandry, and for clearing the ground, brought out, will with difficulty be made to serve the time that is necessary for sending out a fresh supply.

Phillip had not been long in the country before he began to feel more than doubtful about the prospect of obtaining sufficient supplies from it to keep his people alive. He saw that little or nothing could be expected from the cultivation of the soil for some time, partly because the land in the neighbourhood of the settlement was unfit for the purpose, and partly because there were no men in it who had any practical knowledge of farming. Had it been otherwise, there would still have remained the necessity of storing the crops raised during the first two years for seed, the supply sent out in the first instance having proved worthless. As he explained in a subsequent despatch, " all the seed wheat, and the greatest part of the other grains and seeds brought from England, had been heated in the long passage," and very little of what was sown had vegetated.

Equal difficulties were experienced with the live stock. Sheep and cattle did not seem to thrive on the native grasses; the sheep were killed by them, and the cattle escaped into the interior in search of better feed as soon as they got loose. The natural resources of the country in the shape of fish and wild game were too uncertain to depend upon. The fish deserted the harbour at the approach of winter, and even in summer the supply was never sufficient to prove a substitute for ordinary rations. As soon as the pressure of hunger began to be felt, fishing and shooting parties were organised and despatched in different directions; but with all their efforts they could not do more than furnish small quantities of fresh food, invaluable no doubt to people who had to live mainly on salt provisions, but altogether insufficient to depend upon. The wild vegetables, fruits, and berries which grew in the neighbourhood were eagerly sought after, and proved useful in the treatment of scurvy and dysentery; the native tea plant was largely used as a substitute for tea-leaves; but notwithstanding all the assistance that could be obtained from these sources, the difficulty of keeping up the supply of food increased steadily from day to day.

Phillip's foresight led him to dwell upon this matter with increasing emphasis in every despatch he wrote. His uneasiness on the subject is manifest in every line. He knew too well, from his painful experience when, preparing for the voyage out, how difficult it was to awaken any interest in the official mind as to the fate of the Expedition; he knew the risk of a store-ship being lost on the passage, and the length of time that must elapse before the loss could become known in England; and he knew that fresh ship loads of convicts, as useless as the first, would probably be sent out to him without any regard to the position in which he might be placed. His repeated references to these matters, however - in his letters to Nepean as well as in his despatches to Sydney - proved of no avail; the dismal events he dreaded and predicted came to pass; and as a last resort he recalled Lieutenant King from Norfolk Island early in 1790 and sent him to England, in order to make the state of affairs known to Ministers in some more moving shape than a despatch. If the wreck of the Sirius in March of that year made every heart in the little colony tremble, the loss of the Guardian in December, 1789, followed by the arrival of the Second Fleet with nearly a thousand sickly convicts, was a still more appalling disaster.

The labour of the convicts shall be, as is directed, for the public stock; but it is necessary to permit a part of the convicts to work for the officers, who, in our present situation, would otherwise find it impossible to clear a sufficient quantity of ground to raise what is absolutely necessary to support the little stock they have; and I am to request that your lordship will be pleased to direct me to what extent that indulgence may be granted the officers of the garrison.

The Sirius shall be sent to the northward to barter for stock, and which shall be employed solely for the purpose of increasing the breed of such cattle as she may procure. The Supply is noways calculated for this service, as in the least sea her decks are full of water.

The very small proportion of females makes the sending out an additional number absolutely necessary; for I am certain your lordship will think that to send for women from the islands, in our present situation, would answer no other purpose than that of bringing them to pine away in misery.

One of the many mistakes made by the Government in organising the Expedition is seen in Phillip's reference to the want of proportion between the sexes. Out of a total number of seven hundred and fifty-six convicts put on board the transports, there were only one hundred and ninety-two women, or one in four; many of whom were old and enfeebled by disease. The character of these women, and the difficulty of holding them under restraint, may be judged from Surgeon White's account of their gambols during the passage out (18). With such an excess of males to females, it was a desperate effort of the imagination to suppose that the morals of the community could be sensibly improved by means of marriage; since if every woman had found a, husband, there would still have been three hundred and seventy-two men left without any chance of obtaining wives. This defect in the organisation of the colony was not unknown to the Government before the First Fleet sailed; but they seem to have thought that an easy remedy might be found by procuring women from the islands in the Pacific. This idea appears to have been prevalent in England at the time; probably originating in the highly-coloured descriptions of female beauty in the tropical islands which became popular after the publication of Cook's Voyages. Instead of equalising the sexes in the first instance, the Government instructed Phillip to get women from the islands at every opportunity (19). No objection to such a heartless proceeding presented itself to Sydney or his colleagues, so long as neither " compulsive measures" nor "fallacious pretences" were made use of for the purpose; nor were they deterred by the prospect of creating such a race as would have resulted from the intermixture of convicts and savages.

Although Phillip, while in England (20), entertained the common idea that island women might be added to the population as easily as live stock, a very short experience in the colony seems to have satisfied him that it would " answer no other purpose than that of bringing them to pine away in misery." The only course he could adopt under the circumstances was to represent the futility of the proposal, and the consequent necessity for sending out more women as soon as possible. The result was that two hundred and twenty-two females, "many of them," says Collins, "loaded with the infirmities incident to old age," were sent out in the next transport - the Lady Juliana - which arrived in June, 1790, two years after Phillip's despatch was written. In recording her arrival, Collins, apparently unmindful of the social problem which Phillip had to solve, expressed his surprise that " a cargo so unnecessary and unprofitable as two hundred and twenty-two females " should have been sent out, instead of a supply of provisions. But circumstances had altered during the interval between the date of Phillip's request for more women and the arrival of the Lady Juliana.

The lapse of time had brought a much more pressing difficulty to the surface - that of providing the population with food.

I have had the honor of informing your lordship that this harbour is, in extent and security, very superior to any other that I have ever seen, containing a considerable number of coves formed by narrow necks of land, mostly rocks, covered with timber; and the face of the country, when viewed from the harbour, is the same, with few exceptions. The neck of land between the harbour and the coast is mostly sand. Between that part of the harbour in which the settlement is made and Botany Bay, after you pass the wood which surrounds us, and which in some parts is one and a half, in others three miles across, the country is a poor sandy heath full of swamps. The country towards the head of the bay (21) is covered with timber, and here the land appears less rocky, and the, trees stand in some parts at a greater distance; but the head of the bay being left dry in several parts at low water, and the winds being obstructed by the woods and the different windings of the channel, must, I conceive, render this part of the harbour unhealthy till the country can be cleared. As far as the eye can reach to the westward, the country appears to be one continued wood.

Phillip was not at all disposed to be enthusiastic in his views of things, but there were at least two exceptions to the rule. When he first mentioned the harbour of Port Jackson, he pronounced it " the finest harbour in the world"; and, when referring to it again, he declared it to be, " in extent and security, very superior to any other that I have ever seen." Familiar as he was with the principal harbours in the world, he evidently ranked Port Jackson far beyond the best of them. He spoke with equal confidence on another point - the future of the colony he had founded. His opinion of it was expressed repeatedly in the strongest terms, and that too at a time when others were proclaiming it a failure, and writing pitiful lamentations over it to their friends in England. Notwithstanding the difficulties by which they were surrounded, it seemed to him " the most valuable acquisition Great Britain ever made"; an opinion which was not based on first impressions only, but on a careful examination of the country day by day.

The timber is well described in Captain Cook's Voyage, but unfortunately it has one very bad quality, which puts us to great inconvenience; I mean the large gum-tree, which splits and warps in such a manner when used green, and to which necessity obliged us, that a store-house boarded up with this wood is rendered useless. The timber which in its growth resembles the fir-tree warps less, but we are already obliged to fetch it from some distance, and it will not float. Here are a variety of palm-trees, and the heaths that are free from timber are covered with a variety of the most beautiful flowering shrubs. Wild celery, spinage, samphire, a small wild fig, and several cherries, which have proved very wholesome, particularly the leaves of a small shrub which is found in such plenty that it has not yet failed us, as most of the others have done. What seeds could be collected are sent to Sir Joseph Banks, as likewise the red gum taken from the large gum-tree by tapping, and the yellow gum which is found on the dwarf palm-tree.

The small quantity of flax that has been procured is sufficient to show the quality, but the flax described by Captain Cook I have never met with, nor had the botanists that accompanied Monsieur de la Pérouse found it when I saw them, and which was some time after they arrived. And here, my lord, I must beg leave to observe with regret that, being myself without the smallest knowledge of botany, I am without one botanist, or even an intelligent gardener, in the colony; it is not therefore in my power to give more than a very superficial account of the produce of this country, which has as such a variety of plants that I cannot, with all my ignorance, help being convinced that it merits the attention of the naturalist and the botanist.

The stone of this country is of three sorts; freestone, which appears equal to Portland stone; a bad firestone; and a stone that appears to contain a large proportion of iron. We have good clay for bricks, but no chalk or limestone has yet been found.

The relations between the new arrivals and the native inhabitants of the country being a matter of the highest importance, it is not surprising to find the greater part of Phillip's despatch occupied with extracts from his journal on the subject. The interest he took in it is evident from the tone of his remarks. He seems not to have lost any opportunity of going among the natives whenever and wherever they were to be met with, making particular inquiries into their habits and customs, and endeavouring by every means in his power to conciliate them. Notwithstanding the disturbances which took place occasionally between them and the people under his command, his efforts to establish good relations with the savages were tolerably successful. Writing in 1796, Collins related (p. 543) that " after many untoward occurrences and a considerable lapse of time, that friendly intercourse with the natives which had been so earnestly desired was at length established; and having never been materially interrupted, these remote islanders have been shown living in considerable numbers among us without fear or restraint; acquiring our language; readily falling in with our manners and customs; enjoying the comforts of our clothing, and relishing the variety of our food. We saw them die in our houses, and the places of the deceased instantly filled by others, who observed nothing in the fate of their predecessors to deter them from living with us, and placing that entire confidence in us which it was our interest and our pleasure to cultivate."

With respect to the natives, it was my determination from my first landing that nothing less than the most absolute necessity should ever make me fire upon them, and though preserving this resolution has at times been rather difficult, I have hitherto been so fortunate that it never has been necessary. Mons. La Pérouse while at Botany Bay was not so fortunate; he was obliged to fire on them, in consequence of which, with the bad behaviour of some of the transports' boats and some convicts, the natives have lately avoided us, but proper measures are taken to regain their confidence.

The few hours I have to collect and put into method the observations I have made of these people will, I hope, excuse me to your lordship for sending only extracts from my journal, as they have been set down when the little incidents occurred, and from which a more just opinion of these people may be drawn than I should perhaps be able to give.

When I first landed in Botany Bay the natives appeared on the beach, and were easily persuaded to receive what was offered to them; and though they came armed, very readily returned the confidence I placed in them by going to them alone and unarmed, most of them laying down their spears when desired; and while the ships remained in Botany Bay no dispute happened between our people and the natives (22). They were all naked, but seemed fond of ornaments, putting the beads or red baize that were given them round their heads or necks. Their arms and canoes being described in Captain Cook's Voyage, I do not trouble your lordship with any description of them.

When I first went in the boats to Port Jackson the natives appeared armed near the place at which we landed, and were very vociferous, but, like the others, easily persuaded to accept whatever was offered them; and I persuaded one man, who appeared to be the chief or master of the family, to go with me to that part of the beach where the people were boiling their meat. When he came near the marines, who were drawn up near the place, and saw that by proceeding he should be separated from his companions, who remained with several officers at some distance, he stopped, and with great firmness seemed, by words and actions, to threaten them if they offered to take any advantage of his situation. He then went on with me to examine what was boiling in the pot, and expressed his admiration to me in a manner that made me believe he intended to profit from what he saw, and which I made him understand he might very easily, by the help of some oyster-shells. I believe they know no way of dressing their food but by broiling, and they are seldom seen without a fire, or a piece of wood on fire, which they carry with them from place to place and in their canoes, so that I apprehend they find some difficulty in procuring fire by any other means with which they are acquainted. The boats, in passing near a point of land in their harbour, were seen by a number of men, and twenty of them waded into the water unarmed, received what was offered them, and examined the boats with a curiosity that gave me a much higher opinion of them than I had formed from the behaviour of those seen in Captain Cook's voyage, and their confidence and manly behaviour made me give the name of Manly Cove to this place.

The same people afterwards joined us where we dined; they were all armed with lances, two with shields and swords, the latter made of wood, the gripe small, and I thought less formidable than a good stick. As their curiosity made them very troublesome when we were preparing our dinner, I made a circle round us; there was little difficulty in making them understand they were not to come within it, and they then sat down very quiet. The white clay rubbed on the upper part of the face of one of these men had the appearance of a mask; and a woman that appeared on some rocks near which the boats passed was marked with white on the face, neck, and breasts in such a manner as to render her the most horrid figure I ever saw. They are not often seen marked in this manner, and it is done only on some particular occasions. Several Native women landed from their canoes the morning the boats stopped in a small bay near the entrance of the harbour, when I was going to examine the coast to the northward, and three of them were very big with child. Ribbons, baize, &c., they tied round their necks when they were given to them. Several of them had children with them in the canoes. They appeared to be less cheerful than the men, and under great subjection. Two canoes with three women in each, and one canoe with a man and woman, came off to us when we were a mile from the land, and came alongside the boat to receive some fish-hooks and lines which were offered them.

In Broken Bay several women came down to the beach with the men where we landed, one of whom, a young woman, was very talkative and remarkably cheerful. They all readily assisted us in making a fire, and behaved in the most friendly manner. In a bay in which we landed to haul the seine, many of the natives joined us, and I now observed that the women had lost two joints cutting off of the little finger of the left hand. As they appeared to be all married women, I supposed it to be a part of the marriage ceremony ; but in going into a hut where there were several women and children, who did not seem inclined to show themselves, I found one woman who appeared to have had children, and a very old woman, on neither of whom this operation had been performed. There was likewise a child of five or six years of age that had lost the two joints. It is the women only that suffer this operation, which - as it must be performed with the shell that serves them, when fixed at the end of a short stick, as a chisel for pointing their spears and for separating the oysters from the rocks - must be a painful one. It is only on the little finger of the left hand that it is performed. It cannot be any part of the marriage ceremony, for I have seen several women with child whose fingers were perfect, and, as I before observed, a female child of five or six years of age that had suffered the operation. I likewise saw some very young female children whose fingers were perfect (23).

The loins of many of the women appeared as if they had something of a scrofulous disorder, but which I thought might be the marks still remaining of a chastisement. They certainly are not treated with any very great tenderness, and I believe are mostly employed in the canoes, where I have seen them with very young infants at the breasts. They appear very obedient to the men, and as they are the weakest, so in this state of nature they appear to be treated as the inferior. The women, as well as the men, seem fond of little ornaments, but which they soon lay aside; and the talkative lady, when she joined us in her canoe the day after we first landed, stood up and gave us a song that was not unpleasing.

As most of the women have lost the two first joints of the little finger on the left hand, so most of the men want the right front tooth in the upper jaw, and have the gristle that separates the nostrils perforated, frequently having a piece of stick or a bone thrust through, and which does not add to their beauty. This is general, but I saw some very old men that had not lost the tooth, and whose noses were not perforated for this ornament (24), On my showing them that I wanted a front tooth it occasioned a general clamour, and I thought gave me some little merit in their opinion. Their bodies, chiefly about the breasts and arms, are scarified, and sometimes the skin is raised for several inches from the flesh, appearing as if it was filled with wind, forming a round surface of more than a quarter of an inch diameter. They have scars likewise in different parts of the body, and frequently one on the instep; nor does the head always escape, for one of them, putting aside the hair on the fore part of the head, showed a scar, and then, pointing to one on the foot and those on different parts of the body, gave us to understand that he was honored by these marks from head to foot (25). The scars the men are fond of showing, but I did not think the women seemed to be fond of showing the mutilated finger, and sometimes found it rather difficult to know whether they had lost the joint or not; for though they had not the smallest idea that one part of the body required concealment more than the other (26), they appeared timid, would not approach so readily as the men did, and sometimes they would not land from their canoes, but made signs for us to give what we offered them to the men.

When the south branch of Broken Bay was first visited, we had some difficulty in getting round the headland that separates the two branches, having very heavy squalls of wind and rain, and when we attempted to land there was not sufficient water for the boat to approach the rocks, on which were standing an old man and a youth. They had seen us labour hard to get under the land, and after pointing out the deepest water for the boats, brought us fire, and going with two of the officers to a cave at some distance, the old man made use of every means in his power to make them go in with him, but which they declined, and this was rather unfortunate, for it rained hard, and the cave was the next day found to be sufficiently large to have contained us all, and which he took great pains to make them understand. When this old man saw us prepare for sleeping on the ground, and clearing away the bushes, he assisted, and was the next morning rewarded for his friendly behaviour. Here we saw a woman big with child that had not lost the joints of the little finger.

When we returned two days afterwards to the spot where the old man had been so friendly, he met us with a dance and a song of joy. His son was with him. A hatchet and several presents were made to them; and as I intended to return to Port Jackson the next day, every possible means were taken to secure his friendship; but when it was dark he stole a spade, and was caught in the act. I thought it necessary to show that I was displeased with him, and therefore when he came to me, pushed him away and gave him two or three slaps on the shoulder with the open hand, at the same time pointing to the spade. This destroyed our friendship in a moment, and seizing a spear, he came close up to me, poised it, and appeared determined to strike; but whether from seeing that his threats were not regarded, for I chose rather to risk the spear than fire on him, or from anything the other natives said who surrounded him, after a few moments he dropped his spear and left us. This circumstance is mentioned to show that they do not want personal courage, for several officers and men were then near me. He returned the next morning with several others, and seemed desirous of being taken notice of, but he was neglected, whilst hatchets and several other articles were given to the others.

The men hang in their hair the teeth of dogs and other animals, lobsters' claws, and several small bones which they secure by gum, but I never saw the women do this. Their food is chiefly fish - the shark, I believe, they never eat - the fern root, wild fig, and the kernels of a large fruit, that is not unlike a pine-apple, but which when eaten by the French seamen occasioned violent retchings. Their hooks are made from shells, and their lines and nets I believe, from the flax plant; but I have some that were made from the fur of some animal, and others that appeared to be made of cotton. The cray-fish and lobsters they catch in small hoop-nets, the making of which shows some art, yet they have no kind of cloathing; at the same time they appear to be sensible of the cold, and to dislike the rain very much, putting on their heads when it rains a piece of bark, under which I have seen them shiver. Their huts are generally surrounded by oyster and mussel shells, and their bodies smell of oil. They cannot be called a very cleanly people, yet I have seen one of them, after having in his hand a piece of pork, hold out his fingers for others to smell to, with objections strong marks of disgust, and though they seldom refused bread or meat, if offered them, I have never been able to make them eat with us, and when they left us they generally threw away the bread and meat; but fish they always accepted, and would broil and eat it.

The ground having been seen raised in several places, as is common in England where poor people are buried, I had one of these graves opened, and from the ashes had no doubt but that they burn their dead. From the appearance of the ashes, the body must be laid at length only a few inches below the surface, and is, with the wood ashes made by burning the body, covered slightly over with mould, fern, and a few stones. A grave was opened by Captain Hunter in which part of a jawbone was found not consumed by the fire, but we have seen very few of these graves, and none near their huts (27).

It is not possible to determine with any accuracy the number of natives, but I think that in Botany Bay, Port Jackson, Broken Bay, and the intermediate coast, they cannot be less than fifteen hundred (28).

Having related the results of his experience among the natives at length, Phillip returns to the subject of exploration - which naturally attracted his attention quite as much as the other. These were the primary objects of his administration. It was necessary to conciliate the natives in order to secure a peaceful occupation of the territory; and it was equally essential to discover its capabilities and resources. His references to the Blue Mountains and the Hawkesbury are peculiarly interesting from the fact that, at the time he wrote, both mountains and river were mere subjects for conjecture, nothing being known about either.

In going to examine a cove near the entrance of the harbour (Shell Cove), I found a passage with deep water into a branch of the harbour that runs to the north-west, and finding, on examining, that there was a run of fresh water that came from the westward, I went a few days after to examine the source. I landed with four days' provisions, several officers, and a small party of marines, and found to the northward of this part of the harbour a large lake, which we examined, though not without great labour, for it is surrounded with a bog and a large marsh, in which we were frequently up to our middle. Here we saw a black swan; it was larger than the common swan, and when it rose, after being fired at, the wings appeared to be edged with white; there is some red on the bill, and it is a noble bird. With great labour, in three days we got round the swamps and marshes from which all the freshwater drains that this harbour is supplied with.

The country we passed through when we left the low grounds was the most rocky and barren I ever saw, the ascending and descending of the mountains being practicable only in particular places, but covered with flowering shrubs. And when about fifteen miles from the sea-coast we had a very fine view of the mountains inland, the northernmost of which I named Carmarthen Hills and the southernmost Landsdown Hills; a mountain between I called Richmond Hill (29); and, from the rising of these mountains, I did not doubt but that a large river would be found, in search of which I set off the 22nd of April, with six days' provisions. We were eleven officers and men, and landed near the head of the harbour; here the country was good, but we soon came to a close cover that we endeavoured for some time to get through, but were obliged to return, and the next day passed this cover by keeping along the banks of a small creek for about four miles. The three following days we proceeded to the westward, finding the country in general as fine as any I ever saw, the trees growing from twenty to forty feet from each other, and, except in particular places where the soil was stony and very poor, no underwood. The country through which we passed was mostly level, or only rising in small hills, which gave it a pleasing and picturesque appearance. The fifth day we got to a rising ground, and for the first time since we landed saw Carmarthen Hills, as likewise the hills to the southward. The country round this hill was so beautiful that I called the hill Belle Vue, but the hills we wished to reach still appeared to be at least thirty miles from us.

We had been five days out, and the want of provisions obliged us to return to the spot we left by the track we went, otherwise our journey might be lengthened several days longer than we expected by meeting with deep ravines, which we might be obliged to go round; and I believe no country can be more difficult to penetrate into than this is. Though we always found pools of water that had remained after the rainy season, yet, as that could not be depended on, the water necessary for the day was always carried, which, with the provisions, arms, and a couple of tents, obliged every officer and man to carry a very heavy load, but which at present was so much lightened, and having the trees marked, in one day and a half we got back to the head of the harbour. We had been thirty miles to the westward, and had seen a country that might be cultivated with ease, and I intended returning in a few days, in hopes of reaching the bottom of Landsdown or Carmarthen Hills; and the traces of the natives inland, added to the hopes of finding a large river, which the appearance of the country promised, made every one, notwithstanding the fatigue, desirous of being of the party. But my having, when I went to Broken Bay, before I was perfectly recovered from the complaint which had been so general, slept several nights on the wet ground, brought on a pain in the side, which the journey increased so much that I found a few weeks' rest necessary after I returned.

I have had the honor of informing your lordship that we now know there is a good country near us, and it shall be settled and cultivated early in the spring. In this journey I was surprised to find temporary huts made by the natives far inland, where they must depend solely on animals for food, and to procure which we have never yet seen any other weapon than the spear, which is certainly very inferior to our guns, which in this journey, though we were in want of provisions for the last two days, procured us barely sufficient for two meals. These huts consist of only a single piece of bark, about eleven feet in length, and from four to six feet in breadth, being, when stripped from the tree, bent in the middle, and set up as children put up a card, affording shelter against a shower of rain, if you sit under it. The hut may perhaps only be intended to hide them from the animals they lay in wait for.

Near one of those huts we found some of the bones of a kangaroo, and saw several trees that were on fire; the natives, I suppose, had left them on our approach. I also found the root of fern, or something like the fern root, that had been chewed by one of the natives; he could only have left the spot a few minutes, but we never saw any of them, and I believe their numbers in these woods are very small. Whether they live in the woods by choice or are driven from the society of those who inhabit the sea-coast, or whether they travel to a distant part of the country, I can form no judgment at present. The bark of many of the trees was cut in notches, and at the foot of one tree we found the fur of a flying squirrel. Many trees were seen with holes that had been enlarged by the natives to get at the animal - either the squirrel, kangaroo rat, or opossum - for the going in of which they wait under their temporary huts; and as the enlarging of these holes could only be done with the shell they use to separate the oysters from the rocks, it must require great patience. Against several trees, where the hole was near the ground but too high to reach, boughs of trees were laid for to climb up by. We saw many places where the natives had made fires, but at one place only were any oyster or mussel shells seen, and there not more than half a dozen, and no fish-bones; so that when they go inland they certainly do not carry any fish to support them.

The curious displays of aboriginal art to be seen on the rocks near the sea-coast did not escape Phillip's attention. In his time it is probable that nearly every flat rock about Port Jackson, Botany Bay, and Broken Bay was ornamented with a representation of animal life, or of native weapons, either carved or painted; but very few specimens of the kind are to be met with in the present day (30).

In Botany Bay, Port Jackson, and Broken Bay we frequently saw the figures of men, shields, and fish roughly cut on the rocks, and on the top of a mountain I saw the figure of a man in the attitude they put themselves in when they are going to dance, which was much bettor done than I had seen before; and the figure of a large lizard was sufficiently well executed to satisfy everyone what animal was meant.

In all the country through which I have passed I have seldom gone a mile without seeing trees which appear to have been destroyed by fire. We have seen very heavy thunderstorms, and I believe the gum-trees strongly attract the lightning; but the natives always make their fire, if not before their own huts, at the foot of a gum-tree, which burns very freely, and they never put a fire out when they leave the place.

Near some water we saw the dung of some animal that fed on grass, and which I thought could not be less than a horse. Kangaroos were frequently seen, but very shy; and it is a little extraordinary that more of these animals are seen near the camp than in any other part of the country, notwithstanding they are fired at almost daily. Black swans are found on most of the lakes, and a bird as large as the ostrich was killed while I was at Broken Bay. It differs both from the ostrich and the emu. Several have been seen, but they are very shy, and much swifter than the greyhounds. There are wild ducks, teal, and quails, with great variety of small birds.

On my return from this excursion I had the mortification to find that five ewes and a lamb had been killed in the middle of the day, and very near the camp; I apprehend by some native dogs.

The beginning of May, the rainy season was once more supposed to be set in, but after a week we had fine weather.

The three transports for China sailed the 5th, 6th, and 8th of May, and the Supply having been caulked, sailed the 6th to Lord Howe Island, to endeavour to procure turtle in hopes of checking the scurvy, with which most of the people are affected, and near two hundred rendered incapable of doing any work. It is not possible to send the Sirius to the northward, for she must then have her carpenters, and only three of those hired from the transports now remain; and tho' the detachment began to build barracks for the use of the men and huts for the officers the 14th of February, and near a hundred convicts were given to assist in this work, they are not yet finished, nor is the hospital or the store-house that is to receive the provisions still remaining on board three transports, and on these works the carpenters of the Sirius are employed. I have before pointed out the great labour in clearing the ground as one cause of our slow progress.

Your lordship will, I hope, excuse the confused manner in which I have in this letter given an account of what has passed since I left the Cape of Good Hope. It has been written at different times, and my situation at present does not permit me to begin so long a letter again, the canvas house I am under being neither wind nor water proof.

The second and third despatches were written on the16th May, and related chiefly to military matters. Their contents show that unpleasant differences of opinion had already occurred between Phillip and the officers of the marines, arising from their determination to confine their services within the strict limits of military duty. They declined to support the Government by exercising a moral control over the convicts; they complained of having to sit as members of the Criminal Court; and at the same time they complained because they could not get their grants of land immediately.

I have in my first letter had the honor of observing to your lordship the great want of proper persons for to superintend the convicts. The officers who compose the detachment are not only few in number, but most of them have declined any interference with tho convicts, except when they are employed for their own particular service. I requested soon after we landed that officers would occasionally encourage such as they observed diligent, and point out for punishment such as they saw idle or straggling in the woods; this was all I desired, but the officers did not understand that any interference with the convicts was expected, and that they were not sent out to do more than the duty of soldiers. The consequence must be obvious to your lordship: here are only convicts to attend the convicts, and who in general fear, to exert any authority, and very little labour is drawn from them in a country which requires the greatest exertions. In this declaration I do not mean to include the Lieutenant-Governor, who has shown every attention that could be expected from him, and the Judge-Advocate, acting as a Justice of the Peace with a diligence that does him the greatest credit. The convicts are under as good order as our present situation permits.

The sitting as members of the Criminal Court is thought a hardship by the officers, and of which they say they were not informed before they left England,. It is necessary to mention this circumstance to your lordship, that officers coming out may know that a young colony requires something more from officers than garrison duty.

The not having the power of immediately granting lands the officers likewise feel as a hardship. They say that they shall be obliged to make their minds up as to the staying in the country or returning, before they can know what the bounty of Government intends them.

The third despatch referred to some eccentric proceedings on the part of Major Ross :-

I have the honor of transmitting your lordship copies of the proceedings of a Battalion Court-martial, and the letters which passed on that occasion, by which your lordship will see the reasons officers assigned by the Commandant of the detachment for putting the officers under arrest, as likewise the reasons given by the Court for not altering the sentence.

Battalion Court-martial being ordered by Major Ross, as Commandant of the detachment, when he judged necessary, I was not informed of the officers being under arrest till the next morning, when he came to inform me, and I used every means in my power to prevent a General Court-martial, the inconveniences of which were obvious. Any accommodation being declined, I did not judge it prudent to put the guards in the charge of sergeants, which must have been done to assemble the Court, the number of officers capable of doing duty being but thirteen. I therefore ordered the officers to return to their duty till a General Court-martial could be assembled.

From an order signed by Lient. George Johnston, Adjutant of Orders, dated 22nd March, 1788, it appears that, on the previous day, Major Ross had placed Captain Tench and four other officers of the corps under arrest because they, while acting as President and members of a Court-martial for the trial of a private soldier, had passed a sentence which, in the Major's opinion, tended to the subversion of all military discipline. He had also requested that a General Court-martial might be ordered for the trial of the officers, "for refusing to make any alteration in the sentence," after they had been called upon to do so.

As an alternative to this proceeding the Major proposed that, in order to restore harmony and support military discipline, the matter should be submitted by the Judge-Advocate to the determination of any number of officers. The gentlemen concerned, however, declined to adopt that suggestion on the ground that, having been put under arrest, nothing less than a legal decision by a General Court-martial, "or a public reparation from their Commandant" would clear their characters.

At this point a dilemma presented itself. The total number of officers being only nineteen, of whom five were under arrest and one was confined to his bed, thirteen only were left to sit as members of the Court-martial and at the same time to do duty in the Camp. The Court, therefore, could not be held without depriving the settlement of the usual guards, inasmuch as not one officer would have been left for duty while it was sitting. The conclusion arrived at was, that the documents relating to the matter should be delivered to the Judge-Advocate, in order that a General Court-martial might be assembled whenever the service might permit; the officers under arrest to return to their duty.

This disturbance having occurred in March, when the settlement was barely two months old, it would seem that Major Ross's eccentricities began to show themselves at a very early period of his career. It was unfortunate that while the Judge-Advocate was revolving the matter in his mind, it did not occur to him to point out that nothing could be more subversive of military discipline than the course proposed by the Commandant - that of subjecting the members of a Court-martial to trial because they had passed a sentence which did not meet with his approval, and had subsequently refused to alter it at his request. There were many obvious objections to such a course. In the first place, there was no precedent for it; in the second, it was contrary to the established course of proceedings in military as well as other tribunals; in the third, it was calculated to degrade the officers; and in the fourth, it sought to establish a thoroughly vicious principle - that the deliberate sentence of a Court-martial might be altered at the dictation of the commanding officer.

In addition to these objections, there was the further one that the settled course to pursue in such cases was, to appeal to a General Court-martial in order that the sentence complained of might be judicially reviewed. But the practice of military tribunals not being very well known in the settlement at that time, Major Ross's proposal was allowed to pass without challenge, and was ultimately shelved in the manner stated. The position to which military discipline was brought when it had become possible that subalterns, placed under arrest by their commanding officer, could demand a public apology from him, was another matter which might, under different circumstances, have become a matter for consideration.

A letter to Nepean, the Under Secretary, dated 5th July, was sent with the despatches to Sydney. After some details with respect to the allowance of spirits for the soldiers' wives and the rations for the men, it said :-

Every possible attention will be given to the cultivation of the flax plant when circumstances permit, and on our first arrival in this port it was frequently met with; but when I judged the seed to be ripe and ordered it to be collected, very little was found, and none in those places where it had been seen in any quantity, which I impute to the natives pulling up the plant when in flower to make their fishing-lines. A few plants have been collected, and which are sent home under the care of the agent of the transports.

Sheep do not thrive in this country at present, but as many cows, with one or two young bulls, as the ships intended for this settlement that touch at the Cape can receive on board, will, I hope, be ordered, as likewise seeds, and a few quarters of wheat, barley, and Indian corn.

Cloathing for the natives, if sent out, will, I dare say, be very acceptable to them when they come amongst us. I should recommend long frocks and jackets only, which will equally serve both' men and women.

A great part of the cloathing I have, sir, already observed was very bad, and a great part of it was likewise too small for people of common size. If some coarse blankets were to be sent out they would greatly contribute to preserve the health of the convicts.

In addition to the frocks and jackets for the natives, good house-carpenters' axes, hats, hooks, and lines will be most beneficial, as well as acceptable to the natives.

A second series of despatches, bearing date 9th, 10th, and 12th July, was written by Phillip in continuation of those dated 15th and 16th May. Tho latter had apparently been written in anticipation of the early departure of the transports bound for England; but as they did not sail until the 14th July, another opportunity was afforded for addressing the Home Secretary. The two sets of despatches were received in London at the same time - March, 1789. The first of those written in July gives an interesting review of his proceedings since the month of May :-

I have had the honor of informing your lordship of the situation of this colony prior to the 15th of May, since which two stores have been finished, and the ships are now landing the remainder of the stores and provisions.

The hutting the battalion is still going on, and though from seventy to one hundred convicts have been almost constantly employed assisting in this business, it will not, I apprehend, be finished before the end of July; and every day proves the necessity of proper persons being sent out to superintend the convicts. If a small number of carpenters and bricklayers are sent out with mechanics proper people who are capable of superintending the convicts, they will soon be rendered serviceable to the State, and without which they will remain for years a burden to Government. Numbers of them have been brought up from their infancy in such indolence that they would starve if left to themselves, and many (their numbers now exceed fifty), from old age and disorders which are incurable, and with which they were sent from England, are incapable of every kind of work.

The necessity for keeping up a regular supply of provisions for four or five years at least is again referred to :-

Thus situated, your lordship will excuse my observing a second time that a regular supply of provisions from England will be absolutely necessary for four or five years, as the crops for two years to come cannot be depended on for more than what will be necessary for seed, and what the Sirius may procure can only be to breed from. Should necessity oblige us to make, use of what that ship may be able to procure, I do not apprehend that the live stock she will bring in twelve months will be more than a month's provision for the colony, and the Supply is totally unfit for a service of this kind.

Lieutenant Ball returned the 25th from Lord Howe Island, where I had sent him in hopes he would have been able to procure some turtle for the sick; but the weather was bad, and that island not having any good water will not be of any service to us, for Lieutenant Ball did not see any turtle, nor does he suppose they were bred there. The transports that sailed for China had my directions not to go to that island, but they all appeared there before the Supply left it, and one was near being lost (31).

The store-ships and transports, as cleared, are ordered to prepare to return to England immediately, but some of their sheathing being much destroyed by the worms, it is necessary to permit several of those ships to heave down.

One of the convicts who, in searching for vegetables, had gone a considerable distance from the camp, returned very dangerously wounded in the back by a spear. He denies having given the natives any provocation, and says that he saw them carrying away a man that had gone out for the same purpose, and whom they had wounded on the head. A shirt and hat, both pierced with spears, have been since found in one of the native huts, but no intelligence can be got of the man; and I have not any doubt but that the natives have killed him, nor have I the least doubt of the convicts being the aggressors. Eleven male and one female convicts have been missing since we landed, A bull-calf has likewise been wounded by a spear, and two goats have been killed by some of our own people, the skin of one being found where the natives never appear, so that the little stock we now have is likely to decrease; and though robberies are punished with severity, there is not a week passes but there are people who lose their provisions and clothes, which in our present situation it is impossible to prevent.

I should hope that few convicts will be sent out this year or the next, unless they are artificers, and after what I have had the honor of observing to your lordship, I make no doubt but proper people will be sent to superintend them. The ships that bring out convicts should have at least the two years' provisions on board to land with them; for the putting the convicts on board some ships, and the provisions that were to support them in others, as was done, I beg leave to observe, much against my inclination, must have been fatal if the ship carrying the provisions had been lost.

In the natural course of events, the growth of the social organism with which Pliillip was charged had now so far advanced that the formation of a town had begun to occupy his attention. With the assistance of his Surveyor-General, Mr. Alt, an ex-Baron of Hesse Cassel, he designed a plan for the purpose, a copy of which he enclosed in his despatch. His description of the infant city shows how deeply he was impressed with the conviction that it was destined to become prosperous as well as permanent; that the huts and thatch-roofed buildings of his day would soon give way to structures of a more durable kind; and that in place of a few wretched stragglers from, the army of civilised life, the shores of Sydney Cove would in time be peopled with an energetic population of freemen, attracted by the prospect of independence in a new and beautiful country. That belief sustained him in all his trials. Among the many proofs of political sagacity to be found in the course of his administration, there was none more remarkable than his suggestion for the prevention of narrow streets, "and the many inconveniences which the increase of inhabitants would otherwise occasion hereafter." Had his views on this subject been carried out, narrow streets and irregular buildings would never have disfigured one of the finest sites for a city which the world can show. In this instance, however, it was unfortunately destined that the foresight of a statesman should be controlled by the force of ignoble circumstances. Phillip at this time had no doubt dreamed the same dream that Darwin afterwards clothed in resounding verse :-

There shall broad streets their stately walls extend,
The circus widen and the crescent bend;

but to realise the dream proved a more difficult matter than he had supposed. It was easy enough to plan streets two hundred feet wide, and to mark out the sites for public buildings of proportionate dimensions; but no sooner had he set to work than he found himself compelled to abandon his scheme for want of the necessary workmen; all the mechanics in the place being insufficient for his purpose. Then he learned that there was no means of making lime, and consequently that nothing could be done in stone; whereupon he was obliged to fall back on bricks and timber, and to content himself with a suggestion that lime should be sent out as ballast in the transports. It was still more aggravating to find that all the tools brought out from England had proved to be of the very worst kind - "as bad as ever were sent out for barter on the coast of Guinea."

 

ABOVE: Map of Sydney - 1788

I have the honor to enclose your lordship the intended plan for the town. The Lieutenant-Governor has already begun a small house, which forms one corner of the parade; and I am building a small cottage on the east side of the cove, where I shall remain for the present with part of the convicts and an officer's guard. The convicts on both sides are distributed in huts, which are built only for immediate shelter. On the point of land which forms the west side of the cove, an observatory is building under the direction of Lieutenant Dawes, who is charged by the Board of Longitude with observing the expected comet. The temporary buildings are marked in black; those intended to remain, in red. We now make very good bricks, and the stone is good, but do not find either limestone or chalk. As stores and other buildings will be begun in the course of a few months, some regular plan for the town was necessary, and in laying out of which I have endeavoured to place all public buildings in situations that will be eligible hereafter, and to give a sufficient share of ground for the stores, hospital, &c., to be enlarged as may be necessary in the future. The principal streets are placed so as to admit a free circulation of air, and are two hundred feet wide. The ground marked for Government House is intended to include the main guard, Civil and Criminal Courts; and as the ground that runs to the southward is nearly level, and a very good situation for buildings, streets will be laid out in such a manner as to afford a free air; and when the houses are to be built, if it meets with your lordship's approbation, the land will be granted with a clause that will ever prevent more than one house being built on the allotment, which will be sixty feet in front and one hundred and fifty feet in depth; this will preserve uniformity in the buildings, prevent narrow streets, and the many inconveniences which the increase of inhabitants would otherwise occasion hereafter.

The hospital is a building that will stand for some years; it is clear of the town, and the situation is healthy. The barracks and huts now building for the officers and men will stand three or four years. If water could be found by sinking wells on the high ground between the town and the hospital, I proposed building the barracks on that spot, and surrounding with such works as we may be able to make, and which I did intend beginning as soon as the transports were cleared and the men hutted; but I now find that without some additional workmen the progress must be so very slow that the design is laid aside, and the only building I shall attempt will be a store-house that will be secure, those we have already built being not only in danger from fire, from being thatched, but of material that will not stand more than two years. The barracks and all buildings in future will be covered with shingles, which we now make from a tree like the pine-tree in appearance, the wood resembling the English oak.

The monotony of daily life in the Camp was ever and anon disturbed by a sudden alarm of an outrage committed by the natives. At this time they were swarming in the neighbourhood of the settlement, always on the look out for unarmed stragglers whom they could pick off from behind a gum-tree, and whose lives were taken without scruple in revenge for the canoes and fishing-tackle stolen from them on the beaches. According to native law, it was not at all necessary to identify the thief; the tribe to which he belonged was held responsible for his act, and had to pay the penalty. The memory of one of these tragedies is perpetuated in the name given to a bay in the harbour, still known as Rushcutters' Bay. Phillip's account of the matter presents one of the best sides of his character :-

The 30th of May two men employed collecting thatch at some distance from the camp were found dead. One of them had four spears in him, one of which had passed through his body; the other was found at some distance, dead, but without any apparent injury. This was a very unfortunate circumstance, and the more as it will be impossible to discover the people who committed the murder, and I am still persuaded the natives are not the aggressors. These men had been seen with one of their canoes, but I was not informed of that circumstance for some days. Though I did not mean to punish any of the natives for killing these people, which it is more than probable they did in their own defence, or in defending their canoes, I wished to see them; and, as they had carried away the rushcutters' tools, I thought they might be found out and some explanation take place, for which purpose I went out with a small party the next day, and landed where the men were killed; but after traversing the country more than twenty miles, we got to the north shore of Botany Bay without meeting any of the natives; there we saw about twenty canoes fishing.

It was then sunset, and as we made our fires and slept on the beach, I did not doubt but some of them would join us, but not one appeared; and the next morning, though fifty canoes were drawn up on the beach, we could not find a single person, but, on our return, keeping for some time near the sea-coast, we came to a cove where a number of the natives were assembled, I believe more than what belonged to that particular spot. Though we were within ten yards when we first discovered each other, I had barely time to order the party to halt before numbers appeared in arms, and the foremost of them, as he advanced, made signs for us to retire; but upon my going up to him, making signs of friendship, he gave his spear to another, and in less than three minutes we were surrounded by two hundred and twelve men. Numbers of women and children were at a small distance, and, whether by their superiority of numbers, for we were only twelve, or from their not being accustomed to act with treachery, the moment the friendship I offered was accepted on their side they joined us, most of them laying down their spears and stone hatchets with the greatest confidence, and afterwards brought down some of their women to receive the little articles we had to give them. I saw nothing to induce me to believe these people had been concerned in the murder which had been committed. We parted on friendly terms, and I was now more than ever convinced of the necessity of placing confidence in these people as the only means of avoiding a dispute. Had I gone up to them with all the party, though only twelve, or hesitated a moment, a lance, would have been thrown, and it would have been impossible to have avoided a dispute.

Here we saw the first stream of fresh water I have seen in this country, but the cove is open to the sea. When the natives saw we were going on towards the next cove, one of them, an old man, made signs to let him go first, and as soon as we were at the top of the hill he called out, holding up both his hands (a sign of friendship) to the people in the next cove, giving them to understand that we were friends. We did not go to that cove, but saw about forty men, so that unless these people had assembled on some particular occasion, the inhabitants are still more numerous than I had imagined. I have before had the honor of observing to your Lordship that we had traced the natives thirty miles inland, and this morning, in crossing the hills between Botany Bay and Port Jackson, we saw smoke on the top of Landsdown Hill, so that I think there cannot be any doubt of there being inhabitants fifty miles inland.

How little was known of the country at this time may be seen in Phillip's innocent remark about the existence of natives fifty miles inland. It had not even occurred to him as a probability that the interior of New Holland might be peopled with aboriginals, and that those whom he saw around him might be but a handful of the many tribes moving over its immense surface. As a matter of fact, nothing was then known about the country or its inhabitants beyond what had been learned from Cook's Voyage. In the eyes of its first settlers, the land was a wilderness, and the natives were supposed to be confined to the sea-coast.

His Majesty's birthday was observed with every possible mark of attention our situation permitted. The three men that had been reprieved from death in order to be exiled were fully pardoned, and for the twenty-four hours I believe there was not one heavy heart in this part of his Majesty's dominions.

The first celebration of a royal birthday in the colony took place on the 4th of June, when King George the Third attained his fiftieth year. All possible honour was paid to the occasion; and so far as ceremonies are concerned, they differed little from those of the present day. At sunrise, at one o'clock, and at sunset the two men-of-war in the harbour fired a salute of twenty-one guns each; on shore the colours were hoisted at the Flagstaff; at twelve o'clock, the battalion of marines was under arms, and concluded its parade by firing three vollies, followed by three rounds of cheering. Then came a levee at Government House, at which the Lieutenant-Governor, attended by all the officers of his corps, the captains and other officers of the men-of-war, the members of the Civil Service, and others, paid their respects to his Excellency in person. The levee was followed by a dinner at Government House at two o'clock, when Phillip's French cook (32) had an opportunity for displaying his ingenuity. The "band of musick" from the Sirius played God Save the King and several excellent marches during the dinner. "After the cloth was removed" - we are indebted to Surgeon White (33) for these particulars - "his Majesty's health was drank with three cheers." Then came the Prince of Wales, the Queen and Royal Family, the Cumberland Family, his Royal Highness Prince William Henry, and lastly, his Majesty's Ministers, of whom some one was good enough to say that "they might be pitted against any that ever conducted the affairs of Great Britain."

After the toasts had been duly honoured, Phillip informed his guests that he had determined to create a County and to name it the County of Cumberland, after his Royal Highness, giving it such boundaries as would make it the largest county in the world. To the north, it would be bounded by the northernmost point of Broken Bay; to the south, by the southernmost point of Botany Bay; and to the west by the great range of mountains which he had seen for the first time during his expedition of the 15th April. He then went on to say that he had also intended to have named the town they were building, and to have laid the foundation-stone of it, on that day; but the unexpected difficulties he had met with in clearing the ground, added to the want of mechanics, had rendered it impossible to do so. He was therefore obliged to postpone that ceremony until a future day. The name which Phillip thought of giving the town was never officially mentioned by him; but, says White, "we understand it is to be ALBION."

While the gentlemen of the civil, military, and naval establishments were thus enjoying themselves at Government House, the people outside were not forgotten by the Governor. The unhappy creatures lying under sentence at Rock Island wore released; some sailors of the Sirius who had got into trouble were pardoned; while every soldier had a pint of porter in addition to his allowance of grog, and every convict "half a pint of spirits made into grog," that they all might drink his Majesty's health and be happy. Even at this early period of his administration, Phillip had gained a reputation for kindness and generosity in dealing with his unfortunate subjects; for White, in mentioning "this act of lenity and mercy," speaks of "many others which the Governor had shown." Night-time was distinguished by "an immense bonfire," in place of a general illumination, which everybody went forth to see; the celebrations of the day concluding with a supper at Government House, where Phillip and his guests "terminated the day in pleasantry, good humour, and cheerfulness."

During all the festivities of the occasion, however, it was noticed that Phillip was "in great pain from a return of his complaint " - an attack which had seized him in the pump's side and loins, brought on by his having slept several nights on the wet ground at Broken Bay, before he was perfectly recovered from the complaint which had attacked almost everyone after the arrival of the Fleet. His sufferings had been aggravated by "a fall into a hollow place in the ground, concealed by the long grass," while he was out on his last expedition in April. But "though his countenance too plainly indicated the torture which he suffered" while entertaining his guests on the royal birthday, "he took every method in his power to conceal it, lest it should break in upon the festivity and harmony of the day." This attack seems to have troubled him greatly for a long time afterwards. In February, 1790, he told Evan Nepean, in reply to a passage in one of Ross's letters twitting him with his absence from head-quarters on "parties of pleasure," that "a journey I made soon after we landed fixed a complaint in my side which has rendered the fatigues of examining the country round us not parties of pleasure, but parties in which nothing but a sense of duty and necessity would make me engage"; and that his absence on a certain occasion took place "at a time when my state of health was such that I should have been pleased to remain in my bed, rather than have gone to Hose Hill to sleep on the boards in a hut." The complaint seems to have got worse in the following year, since in March, 1791, he wrote to Lord Grenville requesting permission to return to England, stating as a reason that "a complaint in the side, from which, in more than two years, I have been seldom free," had impaired his health so much as to incapacitate him at times for duty.

If we had been unfortunate in our live stock in general, I had the satisfaction of seeing tho cows and horses thrive; but the man who attended the former having left them for a short time, they strayed and were lost. The loss of four cows and two bulls will not easily be replaced. Pardon, my lord, these tedious relations of robberies and losses; it is the only means I have of giving your lordship a faint idea of the situation in which I am placed. Of the live stock purchased at the Cape, part died on the passage, and the greatest part of what remained since landing.

Having reason to believe that one of the natives had been murdered and several wounded, which it is probable occasioned the attack on the rushcutters, I have promised to emancipate any convict that will discover the aggressors; it will, I hope, at least prevent anything of the kind in future.

A convict who had committed a robbery and absconded the 5th of June returned the 24th almost starved; he found it impossible to subsist in the woods. One of the natives gave him a fish, but then made signs for him to go away. He says he afterwards joined a party of the natives, who would have burned him but that he got away from them; and that he saw the remains of a human body on the fire. In the woods he saw four of the natives who were dying, and who made signs for food. This man was tried, pleaded guilty, and suffered with another convict. He persisted in the story respecting the natives intending to burn him, and I now believe they find the procuring a subsistence very difficult, for little fish is caught.

The 22nd of this month (June) we had a slight shock of an earthquake. It did not last more than two or three seconds. I felt the ground shake under me, and heard a noise that came from the southward, which I at first took for the report of guns fired at a distance (34).

Tho' we have had heavy rains at the change of the moon, this cannot be called a rainy season. The climate is a very fine one, and the country will, I make no doubt, when the woods are cleared away, be as healthy as any in the world, but is, I believe, subject to violent storms of thunder and lightning. Soon after we landed several trees were fired by the lightning, and several sheep and hogs killed in the camp.

The climatic changes which, took place during the early years of the colony are frequently referred to by Phillip and his contemporaries. The thunderstorms were sudden and violent; rain fell in torrents; trees were frequently split by lightning, and animals standing under them killed; in winter it was so cold that ice was common at Parramatta, and large hailstones fell when it rained; while the heat in summer, especially when the hot winds blew, was intolerably severe. The cause of the extreme heat was a subject of much discussion, some attributing it to the practice, common among the natives, of setting the bush on fire. Tench made a better guess when he accounted for it "by the wind blowing over immense deserts, which, I doubt not, exist in a north-west direction from Port Jackson (35)."

The sudden variations of the weather were at first attributed to the changes of the moon; but according to Tench, "lunar empire afterwards lost its credit," and the violent outbursts of the elements were regarded as peculiar to the country. Experience proved them to be nothing more than the usual results of dense vegetation in semi-tropical countries, unoccupied by civilised men.

The difference in temperature felt at Sydney and Rose Hill, only twelve miles apart, was a subject of common remark: the extremes of heat and cold being felt at one place in much greater intensity than at the other. But although the changes in the weather were so frequent that "clouds, storms, and sunshine passed in rapid succession," it was agreed that the climate itself could not be healthier. Animals of all kinds seemed to thrive under its influence; and as a conclusive proof of its invigorating effect, Tench mentions that "women, who certainly would never have bred in any other climate, here produced as fine children as ever were born (36)."

Of the convicts, thirty-six men and four women died on the passage, twenty men and eight women since landing, eleven men and one woman absconded, four have been executed, and three killed by the natives. The number of convicts now employed in erecting the necessary buildings and cultivating the lands only amounts to three hundred and twenty-six, and the whole number of people victualled amounts to nine hundred and sixty-six - consequently we have only the labour of a part to provide for the whole.

Your lordship will doubtless see the necessity of employing a considerable force in the country, and I presume an addition of five hundred men will be absolutely requisite to enable me to detach three or four companies to the more open country near the head of the harbour.

I could have wished to have given your lordship a more pleasing account of our present situation, and am persuaded I shall have that satisfaction hereafter; nor do I doubt but that this country will prove the most valuable acquisition Great Britain ever made; at the same time no country offers less assistance to the first settlers than this does; nor do I think any country could be more disadvantageously placed with respect to support from the mother country, on which for a few years we must entirely depend.

However depressed Phillip may have felt while recounting his troubles and difficulties, his confidence in the future of the colony seems to have become more and more a settled conviction within him. Considering that he was not at all given to the use of exaggerated language, and that his views of things were decidedly prosaic, the expression of his opinion on this subject is certainly remarkable.

Evidently relying on his good friend Evan Ncpcan for assistance in his difficulties, Phillip lost no opportunity for keeping him acquainted with the state of affairs in the settlement. His despatches to the Secretary of State were usually accompanied by letters to the Under Secretary, in which the contents of the former were repeated in still plainer and more emphatic language. The point which he was most anxious to impress on the Ministerial mind at this time was, the necessity for keeping up a regular supply of provisions.

Although the First Fleet had sailed with supplies calculated to last for two years (37), it had become manifest to Phillip, before he had been six months in the country, that he would have to depend on regular supplies from England for at least four or five years to come. According to the original estimate, the provisions put on board the ships were not expected to last more than two years, and therefore another store-ship ought to have been at anchor in the harbour in May, 1789. Unfortunately, Lord Sydney was sanguine enough to suppose that the cultivation of the land, added to the natural products of the country, would enable Phillip to procure the necessaries of life for his people with very little difficulty. Any practical farmer might have pointed out the danger of relying on such expectations; but it so happened that the difficulties of farming in a new country were never taken into calculation by the Government, until they forced themselves on their attention through the medium of Phillip's bitter experience.

You will see by my letters to Lord Sydney that this colony must for some years depend on supplies from England.

The Sirius will be sent to the northward for live stock as soon as we can spare her carpenters; and from what Monsieur la Pérouse said to Captain Hunter, one of the Isles des Navigateurs is the most likely to furnish us with what we want; but though these islands supply two or three ships very abundantly, they will afford but very little towards the support of this colony, the situation of which I have particularly pointed out in my letters to Lord Sydney, and which I shall recapitulate in this, as the ship by which I now write may arrive before either of those that have my despatches on board.

Phillip's instructions authorised him to take on board, at any place he might touch at on the voyage out, any number of black cattle, sheep, goats, or hogs which he could procure, and also to send the Sirius and the Supply to the islands in order to barter with the natives for further supplies. For that purpose, he was told, "a quantity of arms and other articles of merchandise" had been put on board the ships; and he was expressly required to confine his trading operations as much as possible "to such parts as are not in the possession or under the jurisdiction of other European Powers (38)." The ordinary construction of this language would lead the reader to suppose that Phillip was left at liberty to make what purchases of live stock he might think fit, at the Cape or any other place; and that the authority to trade with the natives of the islands for further supplies was given for the purpose of enabling him to increase his stock from time to time with greater facility than he could otherwise have done.

It seems tolerably clear, however, from the official correspondence, that he was not left entirely to his own discretion in the matter of purchases; but that he was stringently cautioned against drawing bills on the Treasury, either for live stock or anything else, for any larger amount than he could possibly avoid. He was tied down to the strictest economy in every particular. The apologetic character of his letters, when referring to his drafts on the Exchequer, is sufficient to show the limit of his powers in any matter involving expenditure. Some live stock, of course, would have to be taken on board the Fleet for immediate purposes on its arrival, and for that reason he was authorised to make necessary purchases on his way out; but for any further supplies that might be required he was directed to look to "the islands adjacent" - that is, any islands in the Pacific Ocean at which live stock might be had. The secret of that singular instruction, apparently, was economy; instead of Sydney being evidently under the impression that barter with the natives would be a much cheaper transaction than buying openly in a Dutch market (39). The accounts in Cook's Voyages of the facility with which his ships had been supplied at different islands gave rise to that impression; but his lordship overlooked the material difference, pointed out by Philiip, between taking in. provisions for two or three ships and obtaining regular supplies for a colony. Another and still more important point which did not occur to the Minister was the very dangerous character of the navigation among the islands at that time. The South Pacific Ocean was practically unexplored, and Phillip was naturally reluctant to send either of his ships on such a perilous cruise.

The Lieutenant-Governor has about four acres of land in cultivation; I have from eight to ten in wheat and barley. The officers will be able to raise sufficient to support the little live stock they have, and which is all that can be expected from them. All the corn raised this year and the next will be saved for seed, and, if necessity should oblige us to use it, would be only a few days support for the colony, and from the rats and other vermin the crops are very uncertain.

All the provisions we have to depend on until supplies arrive from England are in two wooden buildings, which are thatched. I am sensible of the risk, but have no remedy.

The greatest part of the stock brought from the Cape is dead, and from the inattention of the men who had the care of the cattle, those belonging to Government and two cows belonging to myself, are lost. As they have been missing three weeks, it is probable they are killed by the natives. All my sheep are dead, and a few only remain of those purchased for Government.

Phillip does not mention in his despatches that he had caused a return to be prepared by the Commissary, showing the exact number of live stock in the settlement on the 1st May (40). Including under that head horses, cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs, the number brought from the Cape on public account was ninety-one; but no record was kept of the stock brought by private individuals. On the 1st May, the population of the Cove could only muster one hundred and thirty-six out of the total number of animals landed in January. As the difference between the two totals amounts to forty-five only, it follows that either the importations on private account were very small, or the mortality was very great. Phillip mentions in his despatch of 28th September that he had brought over seventy sheep with him on his own and on Government account, but that one only remained alive when he wrote. The natural grass was considered to be fatal to them; for those which were fed by their owners outside their tents managed to survive their companions.

The loss of the cattle referred to by Phillip - two bulls and five cows - became in later years one of the romantic incidents of the time. After many ineffectual attempts to recover the runaways, all hope of seeing them again was at last abandoned; the general theory being that they had been killed and eaten by the natives (41). It was not until November, 1795, that the cattle were heard of again, when reports were brought in to Governor Hunter to the effect that they had multiplied into a herd, and were to be seen grazing on the banks of the Nepean, in pastures as rich as those of a typical English landscape. The narrative of their recovery in Collins furnishes almost the only instance in which that severe writer allows himself to speak approvingly of Australian scenery (42). Not the least remarkable fact connected with this event is the peculiar display of instinct which led cattle, bred at the Cape of Good Hope, to such distant pasturage.

To show still more conclusively how dependent the colony was on supplies from England, Phillip proceeds to point out that the nearest places to which he could send for assistance in an emergency - the Cape of Good Hope and Batavia - were too remote to be of much service. He would not feel justified in sending a ship to either of those ports "unless in case of the greatest necessity "; and if it should come to that, he was afraid that it would in all probability be too late. Neither the Sirius nor the Supply was noted for its sailing capacity; the latter, according to King, sailed "very ill," while the former, a store-ship converted into a man-of-war for the Expedition, had become leaky; and as one took sixty-six days and the other sixty-eight to make the run from the Cape to Botany Bay, it was clear that a voyage to the Cape and back would be attended with great delay in any case. But the necessity for adopting this course came upon Phillip sooner than he had expected when writing to Nepean. He found himself compelled to send the Sirius to the Cape for a six months' supply of flour and other necessaries in less than three months afterwards; the voyage there and back occupied seven months, and the ship narrowly escaped being wrecked on Tasman's Head (43). Even if these ships had been better fitted for such a service than they were, the navigation of the adjacent seas was so little known at the time, and consequently so dangerous, that even the route by which they should sail was a matter of grave uncertainty among seamen (44).

With respect to any resources that the Cape of Good Hope might afford, I have only to observe that during the strong westerly winds that prevail all the year between that Cape and the southern extremity of this country would render a passage to the Cape very tedious, if attempted to the southward, and little less so if ships go to the northward. Batavia and our own settlements are at a great distance, and when the transports are sailed I shall have only the Sirius to employ on a service of this kind; and as I should not think myself at liberty to send either to the Cape or to the East Indies, unless in a case of the greatest necessity, it would in all probability then be too late. I mention these circumstances just to show the real situation of the colony, and I make no doubt but that supplies will arrive in time, and on which alone I depend.

The provisions sent to support this colony for two years being put on board three ships was running a very great risk, for had they separated and afterwards been lost, the consequence is obvious, for this country at present does not furnish the smallest resource except in fish, and which has lately been so scarce that the natives find great difficulty in supporting themselves.

Any accident of this kind will be guarded against, of course, and soldiers or convicts when sent out will be put on board the ships with provisions to serve them for two years after they land; and in our present situation I hope few convicts will be sent out, for one year at least, except carpenters, masons, and bricklayers, or farmers, who can support themselves and assist in supporting others. Numbers of those now here are a burthen and incapable of any hard labour, and unfortunately we have not proper people to keep those to their labour who are capable of being made useful.

Officers decline the least interference with the convicts, unless when they are immediately employed for their (the officers') own conveniency, or when they are called out at the head of their men. The saying of a few words to encourage the diligent when they saw them at work, and the pointing out the idle, when they could do it without going out of their way, was all that was desired. The convicts were then employed clearing the ground on which the officers were encamped, and this they refused. They did not suppose that they were sent out to do more than garrison duty; and these gentlemen, (that is, the majority of the officers) think the being obliged to sit as members of the Criminal Court a hardship, and for which they are not paid, and likely think themselves hardly dealt by in that Government had not determined what lands were to be given them. But I presume an additional force will be sent out when the necessity of making detachments in order to cultivate lands in the more open country is known, and from four to six hundred men will, I think, be absolutely necessary.

In explaining to Nepean the position taken up by the officers of marines, in reply to the suggestions made to them for the management of the convicts, Phillip referred to the matter without any display of irritation. Situated as he was at that time, nothing could have been more disheartening than the studied selfishness and want of consideration shown by those gentlemen. Without any overseers or superintendents, and consequently without any means of exercising moral control over the convicts, the Governor had a right to expect the cordial co-operation of the officers in preserving order and promoting good conduct among the degraded creatures by whom they were surrounded. It would not have cost the marines anything to comply with his wishes, while the results he hoped for would probably have followed from the line of policy which he sought to establish. The only alternative was to leave the course of events to shape its own channel.

If fifty farmers were sent out with their families, they would do more in one year in rendering this colony independent of the mother country, as to provisions, than a thousand convicts. There is some clear land which is intended to be cultivated at some distance from the camp, and I intended to send out convicts for that purpose under the direction of a person that was going to India in the Charlotte transport, but who remained to settle in this country, and has been brought up a farmer, but several of the convicts (three) having been lately killed by the natives, I am obliged to defer it until a detachment can be made.

His Majesty's injunction that "you do, immediately upon your landing, proceed to the cultivation of the land," was painfully present to Phillip's mind from the day he landed at Sutherland Point and looked anxiously about him for the meadows he expected to find there. But in his efforts to carry out his instructions, day by day served to reveal some now difficulty. In the first place, he could not find any land that was fit to cultivate, for some months after his arrival; in the second, he had no persons at his disposal who understood the work of cultivation; in the third, the farming implements with which he was supplied were of the least serviceable kind; and in the fourth, nearly all the seed he had brought with him had gone bad. Under such circumstances, his agricultural prospects could not have been a subject for rejoicing.

The most discouraging of all his difficulties was the worthless character of the men whom he had to depend upon in his farming operations. They neither understood the work itself, nor would they make the least effort to learn it; in his own words, "the dread of work was greater in their eyes than the fear of punishment." They would not have been so difficult to deal with had there been a sufficient number of properly qualified overseers to look after them; but when those officials had to be chosen from among themselves, it soon became clear that men so selected either had not any influence over the others, or they had no wish to exercise the authority entrusted to them. It was not less clear that they had very little interest in making their former companions work against their will. After much painful experience, the conclusion was at last forced upon Phillip that, in the hands of such men, the cultivation of the soil was a systematic deception; and that the only means by which the colony could be made self-supporting was by settling farmers on the land, supplying them with a certain amount of convict labour, as well as provisions for two years, under proper regulations. In deference to his urgent and repeated representations on this head, the Government ultimately consented to adopt his suggestions; and from that point the prosperity of the colony may be said to have begun. But no free settlers were sent out until 1793.

The natives are far more numerous than they were supposed to be. I think they cannot be less than one thousand five hundred in Botany Bay, Port Jackson, and Broken Bay, including the intermediate coast. I have traced them thirty miles inland, and, having lately seen smoke on Landsdown Hills, which are fifty miles inland, I think leaves no doubt but that there are inhabitants in the interior parts of the country.

Lists of what articles are most wanted will be sent by the Commissary; and I am very sorry to say that not only a great part of the cloathing, particularly the women's, is very bad, but most of the axes, spades, and shovels the worst that ever were seen. The provision is as good. Of the seeds and corn sent from England, 1 part has been destroyed by the weevil; the rest is in good order.

The person I have appointed Provost-Marshall is likewise very useful in superintending the carpenters. The person sent out by the contractor, who assists the Commissary in the delivery of provisions, one that was clerk of the Sirius, a master smith, and two farmers, are very useful people, and I beg leave to recommend them to Government. The granting them lands would draw their attention from their present occupations.

The person appointed Provost-Marshal was Henry Brewer, a midshipman of the Sirius, who was appointed on the voyage out, as mentioned by Phillip in one of his letters from Rio. The title was a military one, and in the army the duties of the office were analogous to those of the head of a police department (45). The Provost-Marshal appointed by Phillip was not attached to the garrison but to the settlement, and consequently he was a civil and not a military officer. The appointment, however, serves to illustrate the distinctly military character of the organisation under which the colony was founded. It was essentially a Camp in the first instance, and was governed according to military ideas. Phillip made the appointment in question under section II of the Act of 1787, which directed the Provost-Marshal to execute the judgments pronounced by the Criminal Court (46). Every sentence passed by that Court was carried out under his supervision, and he was responsible for its due execution.

The Fishburn storeship is detained until a proper place can be provided for the spirits; and the rains have for some days prevented the landing the remainder of the provisions from the Golden Grove, therefore those two ships will sail together, I hope by the end of August; the other ships have all cleared, and preparing to sail.

The Fishburn and the Golden Grove sailed for England on the 19th November, carrying the despatches written between that date and the 2nd October. By "the other ships," Phillip meant the Alexander, Prince of Wales, Friendship, and Borrowdale, which sailed on the 14th July, carrying the despatches written previously. There were thus only two opportunities for sending letters direct to England during the year. The three ships which sailed for China in the first week of May did not carry any mail for England. They wore under charter to the East India Company, to carry cargoes of "tea and other merchandize" from Canton to London. They had been unloaded in Sydney Cove much more quickly than the other ships, on account of the express instructions given on that point, "a very considerable saving" being thereby effected in freight.

The masters of the transports having left with the agents the bonds and whatever papers they received that related to the convicts, I have no account of the time for which the convicts are sentenced, or the dates of their convictions. Some of them, by their own account, have little more than a year to remain, and I am told will apply for permission to return to England or to go to India in such ships as may be willing to receive them. If lands are granted them, Government will be obliged to support them for two years; and it is more than probable that one half of them, after that time is expired, will still want support. Until I receive instructions on this head, of course, none will be permitted to leave the settlement; but if, when the time for which they are sentenced expires, the most abandoned and useless were permitted to go to China in any ships that may stop here, it would be a great advantage to the settlement.

The dilemma in which Phillip was placed when it was discovered that through the negligence of the Government officials and the masters of the transports, there was no means of ascertaining the terms for which the convicts had been sentenced, or even the dates of their convictions, proved an awkward one when the men concerned came forward to claim their discharge. According to the law then in force, the servitude of the prisoners had been transferred from the Crown to the masters of the transports, who had entered into bonds for the performance of their contracts to transport them; and Phillip was instructed to take care, before the transports were discharged, to obtain an assignment of the servitude from the masters to himself (47). The discovery that all the official papers relating to the convictions had been left behind was no doubt made when he called upon the masters to execute these assignments. Had the officials in charge of the business done their duty, he would not have been left without the necessary information. A list of the convicts sent out in the First Fleet, specifying their names, where convicted, date of conviction, and the terms of their sentences, was published as an appendix to Phillip's Voyage; and if such a list had been placed in his hands before he sailed, no difficulty could have arisen in the matter.

According to the list of names published in that work, out of a total of seven hundred and seventy-five persons transported, there were only twenty sentenced to fourteen years and thirty-six to life. The rest were sentenced to seven years, or less. The number of persons convicted of serious offences did not, therefore, exceed fifty-six; a very small proportion to the whole number. Under the penal legislation of the time, a sentence of five or seven years' transportation was passed only in cases of minor offences; so that the great majority of the persons sent out in the First Fleet did not by any means represent the worst sections of the criminal class.

As a matter of fact, there was no difference, so far as the sentence was concerned, between one for five years and one for life; seeing that there was no chance of escape from the settlement in either case. Jeremy Bentham argued that the convict whose sentence had expired was entitled to a return passage to England, and that detention in the colony after expiration of the term was false imprisonment : - '' Was it [the intention] that they should be left fixed for life on the spot to which they were consigned with such nicety of discrimination for fourteen, seven, and five years ? If so, what is the sentence, or the pretended execution of it, but a mockery of justice (48)?"

A convict who fled to the woods after committing a robbery returned after being absent eighteen days, forced in by hunger. He had got some small support from the people and the few fish left by accident on the beach, after hauling the seine, and had endeavoured to live amongst the natives, but they could give him but little assistance. He says that they are now greatly distressed for food, and that he saw several dying with hunger. It is possible that some of the natives at this time of the year might find it easier to support themselves on birds and such animals as shelter themselves in the hollow trees, than on fish; but then, I think, they would not go to the top of the mountains, where at present it must be very cold. I intend going to Landsdown or Carmarthen Hills as soon as the weather permits, if it is possible, and which will explain, what is at present a mystery to me, how people who have not the least idea of cultivation can maintain themselves in the interior parts of this country. When I went to the westward in hopes of being able to reach the mountains, we carried six days' provisions, and proceeded five days to the westward. Returning we were very short of provisions, and our guns only procured us two scanty meals.

The mystery which puzzled Phillip and his contemporaries so much - how the natives contrived to keep themselves alive in the bush - remained a mystery for many years after his time. It was not until the explorers of comparatively recent days made their way into the interior, that the means of subsistence available to the natives inland became known. The idea that the native population was confined to the sea-coast was almost universally entertained, in the first instance; and the interior of the country was looked upon as an uninhabited wilderness, in which it would be impossible to find sufficient food to maintain life for a week. Hence the stories about natives seen "dying with hunger" in the bush, and human bodies roasting on their fires - as if they had been driven to cannibal practices in order to save themselves from starvation. The fact was that, except in times of drought, the inland natives were well supplied by nature (49).

I shall now conclude with saying that I have no doubt but that the country will hereafter prove a most valuable acquisition to Great Britain, though at present no country can afford less support to the first settlers, or be more disadvantageously placed for receiving support from the mother country, on which it must for a time depend. It will require patience and perseverance, neither of which will, I hope, be wanting on my part.

Here Phillip closed his letter;  but the two following paragraphs were afterwards added:-

His Majesty's Commission, with that for establishing the Courts of Civil and Criminal Judicature, were read soon after landing; and as it is necessary in public acts to name the county, I named it Cumberland, and fixed its boundaries by Carmarthen and Landsdown Hills to the westward, by the northern parts of Broken Bay to the northward, and by the southernmost part of Botany Bay to the southward.

I have enclosed copies of a letter I have received from the surgeon, reporting the state of the hospital and the great necessity of blankets and sheets, as well as sugar, and those articles coming under the denomination of necessaries, and the want of which is equally felt by the marines and convicts.

The necessity of providing for the wants of the sick was frequently referred to in Phillip's letters before the First Fleet sailed. Although there was every reason to anticipate attacks of scurvy and other complaints, not only during the passage but after the arrival of the ships in port, the most ordinary precautions seem to have been neglected. With all his efforts to procure the requisite supplies, Phillip was unable to provide the medical staff with the common necessaries of which they were in daily need. From the Surgeon's letter to which he referred, it appears that blankets and sheets had not been sent out, and the patients were consequently left to lie on their beds without them - one of the results being that " attention to cleanliness was utterly impossible." The ordinary articles of hospital diet were also wanting; there was no sugar, sago, barley, rice, oatmeal, or vinegar; and the patients were consequently dieted on salt provisions, " without any possibility of a change." At the time Phillip wrote on this subject, there were over one hundred persons on the sick list; and the hospital tents had been fully occupied from the arrival of the Fleet. According to White, no sooner had the tents been put up than they were "filled with patients afflicted with the true camp dysentery and the scurvy. More pitiable object's were perhaps never seen. Not a comfort or convenience could be got for them, besides the very few we had with us (50)."

In another last note to Nepean, Phillip mentioned some other necessaries which were very much needed at the same time. The italics in this letter, as well as the spelling, are his own.

To the articles which I have mentioned as more immediately wanted, the following, tho' so very necessary, have escaped my memory till this moment:- Leather for soals for the men's shooes and the materials for mending them.    Shooes here last hut a very short time, and the want of these materials, and thread to mend the cloathing, will render it impossible to make them serve more than half the time for which they were intended. This country requires warm cloathing in the winter. The rains are frequent, and the nights very cold.

Vinegar will be very acceptable; it is much wanted.

The next despatch to Lord Sydney was written in compliance with the Royal instruction that full reports should be transmitted with respect to the natives, and also concerning "the actual state and quality of the soil at and near the settlement, the probable and most effectual means of improving and cultivating the same, and of the mode, and upon what terms and conditions, the lands should be granted (51)." Phillip was not at this time in a position to report specially upon either of these topics. All the information he had been able to gather about them he had already conveyed to the Home Secretary; but conceiving that something in the shape of a formal report was expected from him, he proceeded to summarise the results of his reflections in the following manner:-

In obedience to the instructions I received under the Royal Sign Manual respecting the natives, and transmitting an account of the nature and quality of the soil in and near the settlement, and the mode, and upon what terms and conditions, according to the best of my judgement, lands may be granted, -

I have the honor of informing your lordship that the natives have ever been treated with the greatest humanity and attention, and every precaution that was possible has been taken to prevent their receiving any insults; and when I shall have time to mix more with them, every means shall be used to reconcile them to live amongst us, and to teach them the advantages they will reap from cultivating the land, which will enable them to support themselves at this season of the year, when fish are so scarce that many of them perish with hunger - at least I have strong reason, to suppose that to be the case. Their number in the neighbourhood of this settlement, that is, within ten miles to the northward and ten miles to the southward, I reckon at one thousand five hundred.

With respect to the soil, I have had the honor of informing your lordship that near the head of the harbour there is a tract of country running to the westward for many miles, which appears to be in general rich good land. The breadth of this tract of country I have not yet been able to examine, but I believe it to be considerable. These lands and several particular spots may be settled, and the ground cleared of timber, without the great labour we experience in the situation in which I have been obliged to fix the colony.

Farmers and people used to the cultivation of lands, if sent out (and without which agriculture will make but a very slow progress), must be supported by Government for two or three years, and have the labour of a certain number of convicts to assist them for that time, after which they may be able to support themselves, and to take the convicts sent out at the expense which Government is put to for their transportation; but then, I presume, none should be sent whose sentence is for a less term than fourteen years. A yearly fine to be paid for the lands granted, after the fifth year, the fine to be in grain, and in proportion to the crop; and this, I should hope, would be the only tax laid on the crops, giving the Church lands in the room of tythes.

The sending out settlers who will be interested in the labour of the convicts, and in the cultivation of the country, appears to me to be absolutely necessary.

Lands granted to officers or settlers will, I presume, be on condition of a certain proportion of the land so granted being cultivated or cleared within a  certain  time, and which  time and quantity can only be determined by the nature of the ground and situation of the lands. And, in that case, when lands are granted to officers the garrison must be sufficient for the service of the place, and to permit such officers occasionally to be absent at the lands they are to cultivate, and for a certain time. They likewise must be allowed convicts, who must be maintained at the expense of the Crown.

Your lordship will be pleased to consider this opinion as given in obedience to orders, on a subject which requires more consideration than I can give it at present, and at a time when I have only a very superficial knowledge of the country for a few miles around.

Although Phillip's knowledge of the country was necessarily superficial, his remarks on the subject contain the germ of the policy which was subsequently adopted by the Government, and which ultimately led to the successful results obtained under later administrations. The only practicable means by which the labour of the convicts could be utilised was by assigning them to settlers, whose sense of self-interest would induce them to supervise their labourers efficiently, and by that means extract from them a reasonable amount of work. This system differed essentially from the American, which amounted to nothing more than a sale of the convict from the master of the transport to the planter, for the unexpired term of the sentence, - the Government having nothing to do with the transaction. Under Phillip's proposals, the Government did not part with their control over the convicts after the assignment, while the terms of the bargain gave the employer every reason to treat his servants properly. That this system ultimately gave rise to many lamentable abuses does not prove that Phillip's policy was unsound; because the abuses did not show themselves until it had been carried to a point he had never contemplated when drafting his ideas on the subject.

The ships were now nearly ready for sea, and Phillip wrote final letters to Sydney and Nepean a few days before they sailed. In one to the Under Secretary, he mentions that he had sent three copies of his despatches by different ships - the object being to ensure not only the safety, but the earliest possible delivery, of his correspondence. When he wrote by different ships, he was always under a doubt as to whether "the letter last written might not be the first received." There was no means in those days of calculating, with any degree of accuracy, the probable time of a ship's arrival in England.

As these ships were the first to undertake a voyage from Port Jackson to England, the route by which they were to go became a question of great importance, as well as interest, to all concerned; and Phillip accordingly took the opinions of the masters on the subject. Of the different routes before them, the southern one by Van Diemen's Land was condemned because the season was too far advanced, while the passage by Cape Horn was objected to by the Governor. It was therefore agreed that they should go to the northward, either through Endeavour Straits - as they were then called - or round New Guinea; although such a course would involve "exploring a passage through an unknown sea perplexed with islands, by men destitute of charts or observations of former navigators (52)."

By the Alexander, under the care of Lieutenant Shortland, agent for the transports, I have sent despatches for the Right Honourable the Lord Sydney and for yourself, with a rough survey of Port Jackson. Duplicates of these despatches go by the Friendship under the care of Lieutenant Collins, of the marines, triplicates of most by the master of the Borrowdale, and a quad-triplicate of my publick letter to you by the Prince of Wales. With your despatches I have sent duplicates and triplicates of my publick letters to the Admiralty and Navy Board, and I have taken the liberty of troubling you with some private letters.

Lieutenant Shortland is likewise charged with a box of letters from Monsieur la Pérouse for the French Ambassador.

The box of letters for the French Ambassador in London contained La Pérouse's account of his voyage from Kamschatka to Botany Bay, and of his stay there from the 26th January to the 10th March. He had no doubt a good deal to say about the English ships he had met coming out of the bay while he was beating in, and of the subsequent proceedings of their commodore. In the last lines written by him in the published narrative of his Voyage, he wrote that the lieutenant sent on board his ship "appeared to make a great mystery of Commodore Phillip's plan, and we did not take the liberty of putting any questions to him on the subject. The crew of the English boat, less discreet than their officer, soon informed our people that they were going to Port Jackson, sixteen miles north of Point Banks, where Commodore Phillip had himself reconnoitred a very good harbour, which ran ten miles into the land to the southwest, and in which the ships might anchor within pistol-shot of the shore, in water as smooth as that of a basin (53)." The reason why the French ships stayed so long was not known to Phillip; nor did he express any curiosity on the subject. The box of letters reached the French Ambassador in March of the following year; and that was the last tidings received from poor Jean Francois Galaup de la Pérouse.

Yesterday twenty of the natives came down to the beach, each armed with a number of spears, and seized on a good part of the fish caught in the seine. The coxswain had been ordered, however small the quantity he caught, always to give them a part whenever any of them came where he was fishing, and this was the first time they ever attempted to take any by force. While the greatest number were seizing the fish, several stood at a small distance with their spears poised, ready to throw them if any resistance had been made, but the coxswain very prudently permitted them to take what they chose, and parted good friends. They at present find it very difficult to support themselves.

In consequence of what happened yesterday, no boat will in future go down the harbour without an officer.

Two short notes were written to Sydney, "just before the mail closed," - as we should say - in which Phillip addressed him as a personal friend. In the first he referred, with unconscious pathos, to the painful position in which he found himself placed, cut off from all society and surrounded by the most infamous of mankind; showing at the same time what support he derived, in the midst of his trials and privations, from the consciousness that he was doing good work in the world. Two other points are not less noticeable in this letter, - his confidence in the future of the colony, and the warmth of his friendship for King.

The public letters to your lordship will show the situation of this settlement and the little difficultys we have met with, which time, an additional force, and proper people for cultivating the land will remove; and your lordship may be assured that, anxious to render a very essential service to my country by the establishment of a colony, which from its situation must hereafter be a valuable acquisition to Great Britain, no perseverance will be wanting on my part, and which consideration alone could make amends for the being surrounded by the most infamous of mankind.

It is to your lordship and to Nepean only that I make a declaration of this kind. Time will remove all difficulties, and with a few families who have been used to the cultivation of lands this country will wear a more pleasing aspect, and those who are to come out, knowing what the country really is, will be less disappointed. As to myself, I am satisfied to remain as long as my services are wanted. I am serving my country, and serving the cause of humanity.

I flatter myself that by the return of the ships that brought [? brings] us out provisions, and on which is placed our sole dependence, I shall be able to give your lordship a more satisfactory account of this country.

Lieutenant Philip Gidley King, the second lieutenant of the Sirius, who is at Norfolk Island, is a very steady, good officer. He, too, is cut off from all society, and is in a situation that will require patience and perseverance, both of which he possesses, with great merit in the service as an officer. As such I beg leave to recommend him to your lordship. The rank of master and commander he well earned in the late war, and I should be very happy if he now attained it thro' your lordship (54).

The last note sent to Sydney informed him of certain presents shipped on board the Alexander for friends in England, including some birds from Lord Howe Island for Lady Chatham.

The kangurroo (55) for your lordship is the largest I have yet seen. As it stands, it measures five feet nine inches. This extraordinary animal makes the same use of its fore feet as a monkey does. Major Ross has one alive. It is young, very tame, and comes to you and embraces your hands with the fore feet. The female was killed, and the young one remained by the body.

The Sirius being under orders to sail for the Cape of Good Hope as soon as she could be got ready for sea, Phillip prepared a despatch for the Home Secretary on the 28th September, to be forwarded by Captain Hunter from the Cape. His original intention was to send the ship northward - to Savu or the Navigators' Islands - for live stock; but finding that there "was no means at that time of keeping them alive in the colony - "many being under the necessity of frequently killing a part of what they have for want of food to support them" - he determined to send to the Cape for seed grain, flour, and other necessaries. The Sirius accordingly sailed on the 2nd October.

The most important intelligence which Phillip had to communicate on this occasion was the cheering prospects of the little settlement at Norfolk Island. The good news received from Lieutenant King, the energetic Commandant, had evidently put him in good spirits; and in that pleasant frame of mind he proceeded to describe the position of affairs on the island. Knowing that great hopes were entertained in England with respect to the probable supply of timber, canvas, and cordage for the use of the navy, he felt some satisfaction in stating that the pine-trees and the flax-plant were likely to answer all the expectations that had been formed of them. The celebrity which he fondly hoped would be acquired for those productions was never obtained; nor had he any conception at that time of the very different reputation which the island was destined to acquire.

Extracts from my letters by the ships which sailed in July accompany this letter; and I have now the honor of informing your lordship that the Supply sailed for Norfolk Island the 17th of July, and returning the 26th of August, brought me the following particulars from the Commandant of that island. He says that, immediately after being landed, they proceeded to clear ground sufficient for building huts for themselves and a store-house, the whole island not affording a single acre free from timber. They were landed on the south-west end of the island, a rough sketch of which I received from that officer, and have the honor of enclosing your lordship. The bay in which they landed is sheltered by a reef of coral rock, through which there is a passage for a boat, but which, with the tide of flood when the wind is westerly, makes the landing dangerous; and a midshipman who was ordered to lay Boat's crew within the reef in order to attend the boats coming on shore, imprudently letting the boat drive into the surf, was lost with four men. This was the second time the "boat had been overset with that midshipman in her, and the first time one man was lost.

The want of a good landing-place and security for vessels in the winter is the only thing to be wished for, the island being in every other respect one of the finest in the world. The earth is very rich - mould to the depth of five and six feet wherever they have dug so deep - and all the grain and garden seeds which have been put into the ground growing in the most luxuriant manner. This island, from the great quantity of pumice-stone found there, must formerly have been a volcano, the mouth of which, it is probable, will be found on the top of a small mountain near the middle of the island, which he [Lieutenant King] has named Mount Pitt. The island is exceedingly well watered, a strong stream, which rises at or near Mount Pitt, running through a very fine valley, sufficiently strong to turn a mill, though divided into several branches; and very fine springs of water are found in different parts of the island.

There are several small bays, and there are some hopes of finding a better landing-place; but the necessity of employing everyone in sheltering themselves and the provisions from the weather, the small number of people - only seventeen men and six women - and the whole island being covered with wood, which a sort of supple-jack interwoven with the trees renders almost impassable, have hitherto prevented its being examined. With this small number Mr. King has cleared sufficient ground to have vegetables of every kind in the greatest abundance, three acres in barley, part of which had been first sown with wheat, but none of which came up, the grain being injured by the weevil; and ground was ready to receive rice and Indian corn when the Supply was there. All his people were in good houses, and he says that he has no doubt but that within three years they shall be in such a situation as to support themselves, with the assistance of a small proportion of salt provisions; and that they will not stand in need of that after the fourth year. They have fish in great abundance,  some turtle in the season, great number of pigeons, and have found the plantain growing wild.

The flax-plant (some roots of which I shall send by the Srrius to the Cape to be forwarded to England) is found very luxuriant all over the island, growing to the height of eight feet. Unfortunately, the person I sent who called himself a flax-dresser, cannot prepare it, as this plant requires a different treatment in the dressing to what the European flax-plant does. Your lordship, I presume, will order proper persons to be sent out, by which means that island will, in a very short time, be able to furnish a considerable quantity of flax. The pine-trees, in the opinion of the carpenter of the Supply, who is a good judge, are superior to any he has ever seen; and the island affords excellent timber for ship-building, as well as for masts and yards, with which I make no doubt but his Majesty's ships in the East Indies may be supplied, as likewise with pitch and tar, the only difficulty being the want of a good landing-place; and I have not the least doubt but that one will be found in the small bays; or if not, Mr. King proposes blowing up two or three small rocks which make the reef dangerous; but if disappointed in both, there will be no danger in the summer-time; and I am assured by the master of the Supply it will be safer for a ship to load with masts and spars at Norfolk Island than it is in Riga Bay, where so many ships load yearly.
The Supply has been twice to the island, but in this season we have blowing weather, and that has prevented our receiving any spars. The Golden Grove will sail the beginning of October, with one petty officer, a sergeant, corporal, and six marines, twenty men and ten women convicts, and eighteen months' provisions, for the island; and by that ship I expect spars, some of which shall be sent to the Commissioners of his Majesty's Navy that they may be properly examined, as I believe the wood is nearly as light as the best Norway masts, and grows to a most extraordinary size, some of the trees measuring from one hundred and sixty to one hundred and eighty feet, and rise eighty feet without a branch. The turpentine from them is very white, and in the opinion of those who have seen it, is of the purest kind. The fern-tree is likewise found of a good height, measuring from seventy to eighty feet, and affords good food for the hogs, sheep, and goats, all of which thrive ; and I shall send them what live stock we now have remaining of what was purchased on account of Government. No quadrupeds have been seen, except rats, which at present overrun the island, but which the cats and terrier dogs intended to be sent will, I hope, soon destroy. Until that is done, their crops must suffer very considerably. There are likewise great plenty of cabbage-trees, but not a single blade of grass has been seen on the island, the pigeons, sheep, and goats eating the leaves of the shrubs and of particular trees, with which they grow very fat. Two canoes were found on the rocks, probably driven from "New Zealand.

They had not such heavy storms of thunder as we have experienced, and the people have been very healthy.

I think this island will answer the most sanguine expectations, and am satisfied that the officer who commands there will, in a very few years, not only put that island in a situation to support itself, but to assist this colony.

All that was known about Norfolk Island in England having been derived from the  account  of  it  in Cook's Voyage towards the South Pole, it was no doubt pleasing news for the Home Secretary to learn that any sanguine expectations could be formed of it, seeing that Cook's description of its resources was not by any means enthusiastic. He stayed there only during the day on which he discovered it - the 10th October, 1774; and his remarks about the flax-plant and the pine-trees contain no suggestions as to their probable value for naval purposes.  That idea seems to have owed its origin to his description of the plant and the trees in New Zealand. At Norfolk Island, he said -

We observed many trees and plants common at New Zealand; and in particular the flax-plant, which is rather more luxuriant here than in any part of that country; but the chief produce is a sort of spruce pine, which grows in great abundance and to a large size, many of the trees being as thick, breast high, as two men could fathom, and exceedingly straight and tall. This pine is of a sort between that which grows in New Zealand, and that in New Caledonia; the foliage differing something from both; and the wood not so heavy as the former, nor so light and close grained as the latter (56).

It will be seen, on reference to Matra's and Sir George Young's proposals for the colonisation of New South Wales, that English manufacturers had expressed their opinions strongly in favour of the New Zealand flax as material for navy cordage, canvas, and other purposes; and one of the arguments urged in support of the proposals was that the plant might be cultivated, and that the New Zealand timber might be obtained for masts and ship-building. These points were also dwelt upon in the Heads of a Plan. But nothing was said in those documents about the native flax and timber of Norfolk Island. From Sir George Young's petition for a grant of that island, it might be inferred that the idea of occupying it with a view to those particular industries originated with him - in other words, that he had suggested the matter to the Government. It deserves to be noted that, notwithstanding the importance attached to the products in question, no proposal was made for the colonisation of New Zealand, although Captain Cook had pointed out its advantages for the purpose (57).

As soon as the rains permitted the getting the provisions on shore from the two remaining store-ships they were cleared, except of the spirits, which are on board of one of them, and which will be landed the end of this month. It was my intention to send the two store-ships away together, and expected they would be ready to sail the first week in October; and the Sirius was ordered to be ready to sail about the same time to the northward, in order to procure live stock; but it was now found that very little of the English wheat had vegetated, and a very considerable quantity of barley and many seeds had rotted in the ground, having been heated in the passage, and some much injured by the weevil; all the barley and wheat, likewise, which had been put on board the Supply at the Cape, were destroyed by the weevil. The ground was therefore necessarily sown a second time with the seed which I had saved for the next year, in case the crops in the ground met with any accident. The wheat  sent to Norfolk Island had likewise failed, and there did not remain seed to sow one acre. I could not be certain that the ships which are expected would bring any quantity of grain, or if put on board them, that they would preserve it good by a proper attention to the stowage, to the want of which I impute our present loss.

The colony not being in a state to support any considerable quantity of live stock, many being under the necessity at present of frequently killing a part of what they have for want of food to support them, I should be obliged to kill what the Sirius might procure, and which could not be expected to exceed ten or fourteen days' provision for the settlement. And we now have not more than a year's bread in store, having been obliged to furnish the Sirius and the Supply with provisions. On these considerations, but more immediately from the fear of not having grain to put into the ground next year, when we shall have a more considerable quantity of ground to sow, I have thought it necessary to order the Sirius to go to the Cape of Good Hope in order to procure grain, and at the same time what quantity of flour and provisions she can receive.

Captain Hunter is likewise ordered to purchase what necessaries the surgeon of the hospital demands for six months, no necessaries of any kind, according to his letter which is enclosed, having been sent out. Fifteen pipes of wine were purchased at Rio de Janeiro, which were all that could be procured, and I presume, as thirty pipes were ordered, the remainder will be sent out by any ship that may stop at Teneriffe. I have only ordered a sufficient quantity of necessaries to be purchased for that time, as a demand has been made in my first letter to your lordship. The cellar for receiving the spirits will be finished, and the Fishburn store-ship cellar-cleared and ready to sail, by the time the Golden Grove returns from   Norfolk   Island, when both ships shall be immediately ordered to England.

Your lordship will see by the returns the state of the garrison and the provisions remaining in store. What the Sirius will bring will be mostly flour, and that she may take on board as large a quantity as possible, I have ordered some of her guns to be landed. I presume that your lordship will see the necessity of this colony having always a certain quantity of provisions in store.

As soon as the Sirius sails, I intend going up the harbour to the ground pointed out in my former letters as more easily cultivated than the lands round us, with a small detachment, consisting of two lieutenants, one captain, and twenty-five non-commissioned officers and privates, and forty or fifty convicts, who will be employed in cultivating the ground. I purpose remaining with this party until they are settled, and have no doubt, when settlers come out and proper people to superintend the convicts that will be employed for the Crown, but that two or three years will give this country a very different aspect, and in the meantime the clearing the ground near the settlement shall not be neglected.

The hutting the detachment has been going on under the direction of the Major-Commandant. The officers have all separate houses, and, except one or two, are now under cover. The barracks are still in hand. There being some carpenters and sawyers in the different companies, I ordered them to be employed as such; and it being customary to pay the soldiers when so employed, and Major Ross thinking they could not otherwise be set to work as artificers, I have enclosed this report of such as have been employed for your lordship's approbation.

I have likewise the honor of enclosing your lordship his returns of such officers as wish to be relieved at the expiration of the three years for which they were sent out, and of those who are desirous of remaining; as likewise copies of his letter and my answer, respecting the encouragement offered by Government to settlers.

The list of officers and men who wished to be relieved at the expiration of their term of three years shows that out of the total number of one hundred and sixty privates there was only one man who desired to remain as a settler; and only two officers - Tench and Dawes - with one private, who would remain as soldiers for another term of three years (58). Three officers, of whom one was Lieutenant George Johnston, were unable to make up their minds on the matter; one serjeant and one private were willing to stay as soldiers. Altogether, there were only nine men in the detachment who had any thought of remaining in the Colony even for a few years. The rest, with Major Ross at their head, were unanimous in their desire to leave. Evidently, therefore, they had seen very little in the country to attract them, or to create any desire to make their homes in it. But at this time nothing had been officially settled with respect to "the encouragement offered by Government to settlers";  nor was the matter settled until the special Instructions on   the subject, signed at Whitehall on the 24th August, 1789, reached the colony. In the absence of this information, there was no inducement to the soldiers to offer themselves as settlers; a fact which may possibly account for the state of the return sent in by Major Ross (59).

The barracks, officers' houses, hospital, store-houses for the use of the detachment and for the public stores, are buildings that will stand for some years, as they will hereafter be walled up with brick or stone, if limestone can be found in the country, or if sent out as ballast in the transports.

The detachment is now enclosing ground for their gardens, and we have about six acres of wheat, eight of barley, and six acres of other grain, all which, as well as such garden seeds as were not spoiled, promised well; and though the soil is in general a light sandy soil, it is, I believe, as good as what is commonly found near the sea-coast in other parts of the world. The great inconvenience we find is from the rocks and the labour of clearing away the woods which surround us, and which are mostly gum-trees of a very large size, and which are only useful as firewood, though I think that when we can cut them down in the winter and give them time to season, they may be made useful in building (60).

The fish begin to return with the warm weather, but I fear we shall never be able to save any part of the provisions by the quantity that will be taken.

The rainy season is, I hope, nearly over, and though we have had very heavy rains they have not been more frequent than was expected, and were chiefly confined to a few days near the full and change of the moon.

The climate is equal to the finest in Europe, and we very seldom have any fogs. All the plants and fruit-trees brought from the Brazil and the Cape that did not die on the passage thrive exceedingly well; and we do not want vegetables, good in their kind, which are natural to the country (61).

With respect to the sending to the islands for women, your lordship will, I believe, think that in the present situation of this colony it would be only bringing them to pine away a few years in misery; and I am very sorry to say that those we have are most of them very abandoned wretches; still, more women will be necessary when more convicts are sent out.

Stone houses that will not be in danger from fire will, if possible, be erected in the course of the summer, as likewise a place of worship;  and if ships coming out bring limestone as ballast these very necessary works will go on fast. At present we are obliged to lay the bricks and stones in clay, and of course to make the walls of an extraordinary thickness; and even then they are not to be depended on.

The building of a place of worship during the summer months was one of the many improvements which Phillip had designed in connection with the foundation of a town; but it was never carried out, owing - as Collins says - to "the pressure of other works (62)." It was not until July 1793, that the building of a place of worship was begun, and then it was at the expense of the chaplain, the Rev. Richard Johnson. Although his Majesty had instructed Phillip, by all proper methods, to enforce a due observance of religion and good order among the inhabitants of the new settlement, and to take such steps for the due celebration of public worship as circumstances would permit (63), nothing was done for the purpose of enabling him to carry out this instruction beyond the appointment of a chaplain. It was quite consistent with the character of the age that the interests of religion were considered to be duly provided for, when a chaplain had been appointed at ten shillings a day and his rations. No provision was made for the necessary expenses connected with religious services; still less for the erection of a proper building.

This country is supposed to have mines of iron and tin, or silver, by those who have been used to work in mines; but I give no encouragement to search after what, if found in our present situation, would be the greatest evil that could befall the settlement.

A convict used to work in the Staffordshire lead mines says the ground we are now clearing contains a large quantity of that metal; and copper is supposed to lie under some rocks which have been blown in sinking a cellar for the spirits. I have no doubt but that the earth contains iron and other metals, and that mines may hereafter be worked to great advantage. The red used by the painters, and which they call Spanish brown, is found in great abundance; and the white clay with which the natives paint themselves is still in greater plenty, and which the Abbe that came out with Monsieur la Pérouse as a naturalist told me, if cleared of the sand (which may be done with little trouble), would make good china. Specimens were sent to Sir Joseph Banks, and a stone taken out of  a slate quarry that I thought contained some metal (64).

Tench mentions that "previous to leaving England, I remember to have frequently heard it asserted that "the discovery of mines was one of the secondary objects of the anticipated. Expedition (65)." There was no  foundation for that assertion; and it probably owed its origin to nothing more than the vague association of ideas which for centuries past had connected colonising enterprises with mining experiments. The existence of metals and minerals in New South Wales was assumed simply because the territory was known to be extensive and fertile; but no indications of any such deposits had ever been found on its coasts. "The great probability of finding, in such an immense country, metals of every kind," was urged by Sir George Young as a reason for its colonisation. But as neither a geologist nor  a mineralogist was appointed when the Expedition was organised, it may be inferred that Lord Sydney did not attach any value to the probability of such discoveries being made. That the idea of finding valuable ores of some kind was prevalent in the settlement may be seen in Phillip's reference to the subject. Rumors were circulated from time to time about mysterious mines which were said to exist in its neighborhood; but he wisely set his face against any attempt to divert the people from their proper occupations - public works and the cultivation of the soil. At the same time he did not neglect any opportunity for ascertaining the riches of the earth. The attention paid to the subject is shown in Tench's statement with reference to the exploring expeditions to Broken Bay and elsewhere, "On all  these  excursions we brought away, in small bags, as many specimens or the soil of the country we had passed through as could be conveniently carried; in order that, by analysis, its qualities might be ascertained (66)." No signs of gold were found on those occasions.

Your lordship will, I hope, judge it expedient to send out settlers to whom a certain number of convicts may be given. They, my lord, will be interested in cultivating the lands, and when a few carpenters and bricklayers are sent out who will act as overseers, and have some little interest in the labour of the convicts who are under their care, a great deal of labour will be done by those who are employed in the public works.

I have in a former letter mentioned that a couple of decked vessels of thirty or forty tons burthen, if sent out in frames, and two or three good shipwrights, would be of great service (67).

The natives, though very friendly whenever they are met by two or three people who are armed, still continue to attack any of the convicts when they meet them in the woods, and two or three have been lately wounded  by them. I have been with a small party to examine the land between the harbour and Broken Bay. We went as far as Pittwater, and saw several of the natives, but none came near us. There are several hundred acres of land free from timber, and very proper for cultivation when a small settlement can be made on the coast. On our return to the boats, near the mouth of the harbour, we found about sixty of the natives, men, women, and children, with whom we stayed some hours. They were friendly, but, as I have ever found them, since they find we intend to remain they appeared best pleased when we were leaving them, though I gave them many useful articles; and it is not possible to say whether it was from fear or contempt that they do not come amongst us. I have already had the honor of informing your lordship of the little we know of these people. Most of the women and all the females I saw had lost two joints from the little finger of the left hand,  and two women were scarred on the shoulders like the men - the first I had seen. The women, when we first came on the beach, were in their canoes fishing, which is their constant employment, the men chiefly employing themselves in making canoes, spears, fizgigs, &c.

The day before we returned, the boat that was waiting for us near the harbour's mouth saw about two hundred men, who were assembled in two parties, and who after some time drew up opposite to each other, and from each party men advanced singly and threw their spears, guarding themselves at the same time with their shields. I suppose this to have been no more than an exercise, for the women belonging to both parties remained together on the beach, though towards the end of the combat they are said to have run up and down, uttering violent shrieks.

As it had been supposed that many of the natives had left this part of the coast on account of the great scarcity of fish, the different parts of the harbour were examined in one day, and the canoes counted; not more than sixty-seven canoes and one hundred and thirty-three people were seen, but it was the season in which they make their new canoes, and large parties were known to be in the woods for that purpose (68). I went a few days after to examine the coast between this harbour and Botany Bay, in which journey few of the natives were seen; but a young whale being driven on the coast, all we met had large pieces, which appeared to have been a whale lain on the fire until the outside was scorched, in which state they eat it. These people last summer would neither eat shark nor stingaray; but the scarcity of fish in the winter, I believe, obliges them to eat anything that affords the smallest nourishment. They have two kinds of root which they chew after roasting; one is the fern root. They eat together, that is, in families, and seldom broil their fish (the only way they ever dress it) for more than a few minutes.

I am sorry to have been so long without knowing more of these people, but I am unwilling to use any force, and hope this summer to persuade a family to live with us, unless they attempt to burn our crops, of which I am apprehensive, for they certainly are not pleased with our remaining amongst them, as they see we deprive them of fish, which is almost their only support; but if they set fire to the corn, necessity will oblige me to drive them to greater distance, though I can assure your lordship that I shall never do it but with the greatest reluctance and from absolute necessity.

As there are paths which are much frequented between this harbour and Broken Bay, I apprehend they frequently change their situation, but have no reason to suppose they go to the northward in the winter and return in the summer.

The kangaroo is the only animal of any size that we have yet seen, and they are frequently killed. They are of two sorts, one seldom weighing more than sixty pounds; these live chiefly on the high grounds. The hair is of a reddish cast, and the head shorter than the large sort, some of which have been killed that weighed one hundred and fifty pounds. Both are of the opossum kind, and the young ones, several of which have been taken, grow very tame in a few days, but none have ever lived more than two or three weeks.

I have now given up all hopes of recovering the two bulls and four cows that were lost; and one sheep only remains of upwards of seventy which I had purchased at the Cape on my own account and  on  Government's account. It is the rank grass under the trees which has destroyed them, for those who have only had one or two sheep, which have fed about their tents, have preserved them.

Hogs and poultry thrive and increase fast. Black cattle will thrive full as well: and as we shall be able in future to guard against their straying, your lordship will please to determine whether it would not be necessary to order any ship that was coming to the settlement with provisions, to purchase at the Cape as many cows as could be conveniently received on board, with a couple of young bulls. But the ship for that purpose should be able to stow them between decks; and I beg leave to observe that a forty or fifty gun ship that brought out provisions and stores, leaving her guns out, would answer the purpose better than any transport, and at once stock this settlement. Savu is at too great a distance for the Sirius to be employed on that service to any extent (69).

Your lordship will, I hope, excuse so long a detail of matters trifling in themselves, and which I should not have dwelt on but that I wished the situation of the colony to be known as fully as possible.

A letter to Nepean, of the same date, was written to accompany this despatch, for the purpose of reminding him of the pressing wants of the settlement. The people at this time had neither needles nor thread, and consequently could not mend their clothes; no leather, nails, or cobblers'-wax to keep their shoes together; no bedding to lie upon, for sheets and blankets had not been thought of. Phillip ventured to suggest, probably because they were still suffering from scurvy and other kinds of sickness, that "some kind of bedding" was necessary for them, as well as "some kind of covering" for the children. They, it seems, had been kept on very short commons from the first, since the good-hearted Governor had been obliged, "in several instances," to order them half the man's allowance, or even two-thirds - that being the woman's share. The ordinary ration for a child was one-third of a man's; and as at this time they were all fed on salt provisions - there being no such luxuries as barley, sago, oatmeal, or any other children's food in the stores, except rice - the little folks had uncommonly hard times of it. The stock of cows having been lost early in June, there was no milk and no fresh butter in the settlement; the salt butter had disappeared, and was replaced by "the like quantity of sugar," as Colling says (p. 81) - that is, six ounces per week. Although the people were on full rations at this time, there was nothing to eat but salt beef, salt pork, flour, rice, and pease - with such vegetables as could be grown about the huts, or gathered wild in the bush. Fish was occasionally procured in the summer, and sometimes a bird or even a kangaroo might be shot by those who had guns. For bread, there was flour made into cakes, without milk or eggs. At a later period, when vegetables were easily got, it was usual to boil the flour with greens, instead of baking it into cakes (70). The daily meals did not include tea; there was nothing to drink but water and the bad Portuguese rum taken on board at Rio for the soldiers and their wives. How niggardly the allowance was may be seen by comparing it with the scale on which convicts were fed in later years, when they had bread, suet, raisins, oatmeal, sugar, and vinegar (71), in addition to the salt provisions.

I have ordered the Sirius to the Cape for the reasons assigned in my letter to Lord Sydney; all the seed wheat and most of the other seeds brought from England having been spoiled, as well as what wheat was put on board the Supply at the Cape. Several acres sown with this wheat have been sown a second time with the seed I procured for next year, in case of any accident happening to what we have in the ground, and which has left us without a bushel of seed in the settlement. Having only a year's flour in store, Captain Hunter has orders to purchase as much as the ship can stow, and I apprehend he will be able to bring six months' supply for the settlement, as likewise what seed wheat, &c., we may want. The Sirius and Supply being victualled from the stores lessens our provisions; and you will, I believe, see the necessity of having always two years' provisions beforehand; a store-ship may be lost a long time before it is known here or in England.

No kind of necessaries for the sick after landing was sent out. I enclose the surgeon's letter, and what he has demanded for six months. I have ordered to be purchased, and apprehend necessaries for the hospital will be sent out by the first ships. The cloathes for the convicts are in general bad, and there is no possibility of mending them for want of thread; it is the same with the shoes, which do not last a month; these necessary articles, to the amount of a few pounds, I have likewise ordered to be purchased.

A strong launch to remove provisions will soon be necessary, as some convicts are going to cultivate land near the head of the harbour, and to bring timber, for what we now use is brought already from a considerable distance, and our roads after heavy rains are bad.

The tools and articles in the enclosed list will be much wanted by the time they can be sent out, and I cannot help repeating that most of the tools were as bad as ever were sent out for barter on the coast of Guinea.

The women have two-thirds of what is allowed the men, and the children one-third. The children's allowance is, I think, too little, and I have been obliged in several instances to order children half the man's allowance, or two-thirds, as the women are allowed.

The woodenware sent out were too small; they are called bowls and platters, but are not larger than pint basins; there was not one that would hold a quart.

As the candles sent out will not last more than two years, I wish to know if it is the intention of Government to furnish the settlement with that article for any longer term.

The requisites for mending the men and women's cloathes and shoes, as well as some kind of bedding for them, are very necessary; and some kind of covering will be wanted for the children. This is not an expense that will be necessary to continue after a number of settlers are in the colony, for then the convicts will have some resources; at present they have none.

Amongst our many wants a few proper people to superintend the convicts has been mentioned, and we are at present at a great loss for the necessary people to attend the stores and see the provisions issued.. The convicts who are proper for this are those who have had some little education, and they are the greatest villains we have. In fact, here is no choice of persons of any class, and I am obliged to continue such as we have in places for which they prove themselves very unfit subjects.

The knowing when the time expires for which the convicts have been transported is very necessary, many of whom will desire to return; and there are many that will be a burthen to Government, and who I should be glad to send away. This I mentioned more particularly in a former letter.

The good behaviour and industry of two convicts have induced me to request that their families be sent to them. The men are rewarded at Norfolk Island, and which they do not wish to leave after the time for which they have been transported expires. The names and places of abode of these two families are enclosed.

The Golden Grove is now ready to sail, with one midshipman, one sergeant, one corporal, and five privates, twenty men and ten women convicts; these will make the number on Norfolk Island sixty, and I send eighteen months' provisions. The Fishburn will be ready to sail by the time the Golden Grove returns, and both ships shall sail immediately for England.

Major Ross and his officers do not appear to have formed a happy family by any means. He had placed five of them under arrest in March, and in October he applied for a General Court-martial to try another. On the first occasion, it was found that there was not a sufficient number of officers to form a Court; and on the second a still more unexpected difficulty presented itself. The Judge-Advocate raised an objection that officers of marines, while on shore, could not form a Court-martial under a warrant issued by the Governor, the force being then subject to the provisions of an Act of Parliament passed expressly for their regulation; and that they could only sit under a warrant from the Lords of the Admiralty. As this amounted to saying that no Court for the trial of commissioned officers could be held in the colony, the matter was serious. Phillip directed a Court of Enquiry to take evidence, but its members held that they were precluded from doing so by the issue of his warrant. The only expedient left was to direct the Judge-Advocate to take evidence, and to send the depositions, with the officer, to England; but at the last moment the knot was cut by a letter from Major Ross, stating that the officer in question had "fully satisfied" him, and therefore he did not desire to press his application for a Court-martial. This matter formed the subject of a despatch in which the position of affairs was described with great moderation.

I am very sorry to be under the very disagreeable necessity of troubling your lordship with the following particulars, but the very unpleasant situation of the detachment doing duty in this country, from the discontents between the Commandant and the officers, will, I presume, satisfy your lordship of that necessity, as I am sorry to say it is not in my power to restore that harmony which is so very requisite in our situation.

Having received a letter from Major Ross requesting a General Court-martial on an officer for neglect of duty, contempt and disrespect to him, I issued a warrant for assembling a General Court-martial, but the thirteen senior officers when assembled declared that they could not sit as members of a General Court-martial under that warrant, being, as part of his Majesty's forces, amenable only to the authority of the Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral of Great Britain. The warrant was issued under the authority of his Majesty's Commission for assembling General Courts-martial, but they declined sitting under the Act of Parliament made for the army.

Having assigned their reasons in writing to Major Ross (to whom the warrant was directed), I have the honor to enclose your lordship a copy. Though the letter from the Commanding Officer of the detachment was very sufficient ground for ordering the Court-martial if the officer could have been tried on the spot, as it was now determined that there was no legal authority in this country for ordering a General Court-martial on any part of the Marine Corps, and the officer accused declared himself innocent of every part of the charge, I ordered a Court of Enquiry to be assembled to enquire into the particulars of the charge, and to report whether there was or was not sufficient ground for a General Court-martial, intending, if the Court of Enquiry reported that they found sufficient ground, to order a Court of Enquiry to examine fully into the charge and to report their opinion, which was the only means I had left of doing justice to both parties, as no Court-martial could be held: for though I knew that Courts of Enquiry always preceded Courts-martial, yet in the present instance I was fully satisfied that the warrant I had issued for holding the Court-martial was totally done away by the officers having denied the legality of it as far as it respected themselves, and consequently a Court of Enquiry perfectly regular; and I had reason to suppose that both parties would have consented to such a determination, no other being possible under our present circumstances.

The Court of Enquiry met, and I received the following answer, signed by the President: - That had the business been referred to them before the application for a Court-martial they might then have proceeded with the consent of both parties, but that at present they thought themselves precluded from making any enquiry, and only reported that an application from a commanding officer was always deemed a sufficient ground for a General Court-martial, not deeming the warrant legal with respect to themselves as being marine officers, and they now refused to make any enquiry because that warrant had been issued.

To order an officer to return to his duty under the same commanding officer whom he was accused of treating with contempt or disrespect, or to let him remain, under arrest until he could be tried in this country, might be attended with very disagreeable circumstances; for of seventeen officers comprising the detachment five have been put under arrest by their commandant, and are only returned to duty by my order until a sufficient number of officers to form a General Court-martial can be assembled, as I have in a former letter had the honor of informing your lordship.

I therefore ordered the evidence on both sides to be taken by the Judge- Advocate, and intended to send them home with the officer, but before that could be done I received a letter from Major Ross informing me that the officer had fully satisfied him respecting the charge, and desiring that he might be permitted to withdraw his request for a Court-martial. I therefore ordered the officer to return to his duty (72).

When the warrant was granted for assembling a General Court-martial, I did not know that an Act of Parliament had been passed for a limited time by which the marines serving in America had been tried; nor did any officer in the detachment entertain a doubt of the propriety of sitting under a warrant issued by the authority of his Majesty's Commission until the evening before the Court was to assemble, when the doubt arose on the Judge-Advocate's reading over the oath.

The present situation of  the detachment will be obvious to your lordship.

The Judge-Advocate seems to have gone a little out of his way on this occasion, in anticipating a technical objection which might nave been left to the parties concerned - especially as the point was doubtful, to say the least, and the result threatened to be serious. If no General Court-martial could be held under the Governor's warrant, then there was no power to deal with serious offences against military discipline; officers and men might have run riot as much as they pleased, and the Governor would have found himself powerless to deal with the situation. It was the Judge-Advocate's duty, no doubt, to advise the Court on all matters of law arising before it; but a question of jurisdiction, such as was raised by him in this instance, does not appear to have been properly within his province, or that of the Court itself, to determine. The simplest course to have pursued would have been to proceed with the trial, and then refer the question to the  proper authorities in England. By that means military discipline would have been saved, without any sacrifice of the rights of parties. But the subalterns who mainly composed the Court may possibly have rejoiced in the opportunity of extinguishing, by a summary decision, the only tribunal in the colony to which they were amenable; as by that means they effectually put it out of the Major's power to put them under arrest, or even to hold a  Court-martial in terrorem over them (73).

Another despatch to Sydney, written on the 30th October, was occupied principally with a recapitulation of matters so dealt with on former occasions. The only event of any importance which he had to communicate was the departure of the Sirius on her voyage to the Cape.

By his Majesty's ship Sirius I had the honor of informing your lordship of my reasons for sending that ship to the Cape of Good Hope: The loss of all the seed-wheat and the greatest part of the other grains and seeds brought from England, which had been heated in the long passage, and very little of which, when sown, ever vegetated. All the seed-wheat put on board the Supply at the Cape of Good Hope had likewise been destroyed by the weevil; and after sowing the ground a second time with what seed had been brought from Rio de Janeiro and the Cape of Good Hope, there did not remain sufficient to sow a single acre; and the crops in the ground are exposed to various accidents in our present situation.

The Sirius sailed the 2nd instant to go round the South Cape, and Captain Hunter has directions to purchase for the use of the garrison what flour the ship can receive, after having compleated his own provisions. The quantity will not be very considerable - at present we have eighteen months' bread in store. Necessaries for the hospital were likewise ordered to be purchased, none of any kind being sent out either for the detachment or convicts.

Your lordship will see by my former letters the little progress we have been able to make in cultivating the lands, and, I presume, the necessity of a few proper persons being sent out to superintend the convicts, as well as settlers who have been used to cultivation, for at present this settlement only affords one'person (74) that I can employ in cultivating the lands on the public account. Most of the officers have cultivated a little ground, but it is merely for their  own  conveniency, and none more than a single acre except the Lieutenant-Governor, who has about three acres. I have sixteen, at a small farm on the public account.

It must, My lord, be settlers, with the assistance of the convicts, that will put this country in a situation for supporting its inhabitants. Nothing but the uncertainty of the time in which my letters may reach England, and the possibility of those last written being the first received, would make me trouble your lordship in this letter with a repetition of what I have fully explained in my former letters: That people who are not convicts are necessary for the stores, from which provisions or stores are delivering almost hourly; and that we want for superintending the convicts such as have been brought up in the line in which they are to be employed.

If the ships that bring out provisions were such as could receive on board black cattle at the Cape of Good Hope, I think we shall in future be able to preserve them; and a ship to remain here as a store-ship would be attended with many advantages. It is still a doubt whether the cattle we lost have been killed by the natives, or if they have strayed into the country; I fear the former, and am sorry to say that the. natives now attack any straggler they meet unarmed; and though the strictest orders have been given to keep the convicts within bounds, neither the fear of death or punishment prevents their going out in the night, and one has been killed since the Sirius sailed. The natives, who appear strictly honest amongst themselves, leave their fizgigs, spears, &c., on the beach or in their huts when they go a-fishing. These articles have been taken from them by the convicts, and the people belonging to the transports buy them at the risk of being prosecuted as receivers of stolen goods, if discovered. The natives, as I have observed, revenge themselves on any they meet unarmed. It is not possible to punish them without punishing the innocent with the guilty, and our own people have been the aggressors.

The natives still refuse to come amongst us, and those who are supposed to have murdered several of the convicts have removed from Botany Bay, where they have always been more troublesome than in any other part. I now doubt whether it will be possible to get any of these people to remain with us, in order to get their language, without using force. They see no advantage that can arise from us that may make amends for the loss of that part of the harbour in which  we occasionally employ the boats in fishing.

If my former letters have reached your lordship the situation of this settlement is known; and as most of the officers have declined any kind of interference with the convicts, except when immediately employed by themselves, the little progress made in clearing land that requires so much labour will be accounted for. A letter sent from the Admiralty to the Commanding Officers of Marines at Portsmouth and Plymouth is what the officers say they govern themselves by, and in which they say no extra duty is pointed out. What I asked of officers were so very little, and so far from being what would degrade either the officer or the gentleman in our situation, that I beg leave to repeat once more to your lordship the request I made soon after we landed, and which was made in the following words:- "That officers would, when they saw the convicts diligent, say a few words of encouragement to them; and that when they saw them idle, or met them straggling in the woods, they would threaten them with punishment." This I only desired when officers could do  it without going out of their way; it was all I asked, and was pointedly refused. They declared against what they called an interference with convicts, and I found myself obliged to give up the little plan I had formed in the passage for the government of these people, and which, had even that been proposed to the officers, required no more from them than the hearing any appeal the overseer might find it necessary to make, and a report from the officer to me, or to the Judge-Advocate, if he thought it necessary, but which never has been asked of the officers, as they declined any kind of interference.

The Golden Grove store-ship sailed for Norfolk Island the 2nd of October with provisions and some stores, and carried a midshipman, two seamen, a sergeant, corporal, and five privates, with twenty-one men and eleven women convicts. Their numbers will be increased in the course of the summer. The Fishburn is now fitting for sea, that she may sail with the Golden Grove, as soon as that ship returns from Norfolk Island.

The same reason which makes me trouble your lordship with tedious extracts from my former letters makes it necessary to point out in this letter that we at present depend entirely for provisions being sent from England; and I beg leave to observe that if a ship should be lost in the passage it might be a very considerable time before it could be known in England. The Sirius, from the length of the voyage, would not be able to supply this settlement from the Cape; and though the islands may furnish refreshments in great abundance to one or two ships, if the Sirius was employed between the islands and this settlement the quantity procured would be but small for so great a number of people. But, my lord, I hope a very few years will put this country in a situation to support itself, for I have the pleasure of seeing what land has been cleared in a very flourishing 'state.

I am now preparing to go up the harbour with a small detachment of one captain, four lieutenants, and twenty privates, who are to protect some convicts intended to clear land near the head of the harbour, where it is a fine open country, having very little timber, and being perfectly free from underwood.

It was on the 2nd of November that Phillip went up the Parramatta River - "the head of the harbour," as he called it - for the purpose of forming an agricultural settlement on its banks. He selected a piece of rising ground, which, from its shape, suggested the idea of a Crescent, and was so named by him, as a site for his residence; and there he built a cottage which, in after years, gave way to a substantial country house, intended as a residence for the Governor (75). The settlement was named Rose Hill, and soon began to realise the expectations which its founder had formed of it; so much so indeed that it gradually came to be regarded as the most important place in the colony. Three years after its formation, it had reduced Sydney to the position of a mere official centre. Writing in December, 1791, Tench said that Sydney "had long been considered as only a depot for stores; it exhibited nothing but a few old scattered huts and some sterile gardens; cultivation of the ground was abandoned, and all our strength transferred to Rose Hill (76)."

The Fishburn and the Golden Grove - the last remaining vessels of the Fleet - were now ready for sea; and as they furnished the only opportunity for sending letters to England which would be available for many months, Phillip gathered together the few remaining items of intelligence which he had to communicate to Sydney. The only news he had to send related to the return of the Golden Grove from Norfolk Island with letters from the Commandant, and the formation of the settlement at Rose Hill.

Since I closed my letter of the 30th of October to your lordship the Golden Grove has arrived from Norfolk Island, where the people and provisions "were landed, and from whence I have received the most favourable accounts.    They have vegetables in great abundance, as well as fish. The grain that had been sowed after the first had failed (from having been heated in the passage or injured by the weevil) promises a great increase. The soil is extremely rich, and to the depth of many feet wherever they have dug; the people very healthy and perfectly satisfied under an officer who will in less than two years render that island independent of this colony for the necessaries of life, if we can procure black cattle to send him. He will have an additional number of people in the course of the summer. A few honest industrious families would there find themselves happy, in a good climate as healthy as this settlement (and no place can be healthier), with a rich land easy of cultivation, and where the storms of thunder and heavy rains have not been felt. The flax plant will supply the settlers on that island with rope and canvas, as well as a considerable part of their cloathing, when they can dress it properly; but a person experienced in dressing flax is much wanted, as well as a few good husbandmen, for those we have been able to send there are not only in general idle and abandoned, but ignorant.

A cocoanut that was as good as if just taken from the tree, and a small piece of wood, said to resemble the handle of a fly-flap as made in the Friendly Islands, and which did not appear to have been long in the water, have suggested an idea that some island which is inhabited lays at no great distance, but which my present situation does not permit me to determine. The remains of two or three canoes have been found on the rocks.

The Golden Grove in her passage from Norfolk Island saw a very dangerous reef, the south end of which lay in the latitude of 29° 25' south, longitude 159° 59' east. It appeared from the N. E. by N. to N. when they were four leagues from it, but no judgement can be formed how far it extends to the northward (77).

I had the honor of informing your lordship of my intentions of fixing a settlement near the head of the harbour; and I have lately passed several days in examining the country. The land is good, though there is none we can take possession of at present which can be cultivated without clearing the ground of the timber, for if the trees are at the distance of thirty or even fifty feet the roots spread; the labour there, nevertheless, will not exceed the
fourth part of what is required in our present situation. The land appears to be the best I have seen in this country, and as far as I could examine, which was for a couple of miles round the spot on which I have fixed, I think the country as fine as any I have seen in England. I had an officer and ten men with me, which I left to finish a small redoubt;  and in a few days the remainder of the detachment will be sent up with some convicts.

A soldier has been lately missing, who I suppose lost his way in the woods, and has either been killed by the natives or died by a fit, to which he was subject.

Except the old and those who brought incurable complaints with them, the people are very healthy; the weather is now settled, and the two store-ships are ready to sail, and intend going round the South Cape.

A small quantity of flax, as I received it from Norfolk Island, is enclosed with the despatches. A plant that produces pepper (supposed to be the same as the East India pepper) is found in great plenty in Norfolk Island. Several roots of this plant and some of the pepper are sent to Sir Joseph Banks, who I have requested to inform your lordship or Mr. Nepean if it proves to be, as supposed, the black pepper used in England.

In sinking a well the sand was supposed to contain a very large proportion of metal, a small quantity of which is sent by the two ships. It has been twenty-four hours in a strong fire, but we could not get it to melt. I suppose it to be blacklead (78).

This letter closed Phillip's official correspondence for the year. When the ships that carried his despatches had cleared the Heads, there was nothing left in the harbour to remind him of the Fleet he had brought out, except the little brig Supply; nor did any ship from the old country enter the port until the Lady Juliana arrived in June, 1790. The interval was a weary one for men whose associations were wholly with the country they had left behind them, and who had not yet learned to look upon a home in the new world as a compensation for their loss. But, nevertheless, as the year drew to its close, there was more than one event on which Phillip could look back with satisfaction. He had brought out the Fleet in safety and with more success than could have been expected; he had founded his colony on the shores of the finest harbour in the world; he had established peaceful relations with the native inhabitants of the country, even if he had not reconciled them to the prospect of being dispossessed of their hunting-grounds. The most serious difficulty he had to contend with was the want of good land for farming purposes; but that difficulty had at last been disposed of by the settlements at Rose Hill and Norfolk Island.

The scarcity of such land in the immediate neighbourhood of the Camp seemed at first a heavy drawback, if not a great calamity; but probably time and experience led him to see the great moral advantages which indirectly resulted from it. When the settlements at those places had been formed, they enabled him to draft off: large numbers of the people who otherwise would have been massed together at head-quarters; by that means preventing the evils which would inevitably have resulted from an overcrowded Camp, in which sickness was always prevalent so long as the population was fed almost exclusively on salt provisions. The establishment at Norfolk Island was doubly useful; for not only did the land yield a rich return for the labour bestowed upon it, and thus support a comparatively large number of people, but it afforded Phillip a means of carrying out his favorite theory of punishment in serious cases - exile from the colony.

Looking at the rich and beautiful country on the western shores of Botany Bay, as it appears in the present day, it is not easy at first sight to understand the difficulty experienced by Phillip in finding a sufficient area of land, fit for cultivation, in the neighbourhood of the settlement. The country round about it had been carefully explored in all directions for that purpose, but it was condemned as useless, except in small patches here and there; the soil being everywhere described as either covered with rocks and trees, or else as a poor sandy heath, full of swamps. Until the land at the head of the Parramatta River was discovered, the prospect of obtaining any substantial assistance from the soil appeared to be uncertain in the extreme. The opinion thus formed with respect to the country can only be understood when we recollect the difficulty experienced in penetrating it where it happened to be covered with timber. The land at Rose Hill was discovered easily because there happened to be a ready means of communication by water, and the country in that direction was tolerably open. But there was even better land to be found at a much shorter distance from Sydney Cove, which, could it have been turned to account, would have removed all difficulty on the subject at once. Between Cook's River and the Cove - a distance of less than five miles in a straight line - there was land enough to supply the settlement with vegetables and fruit, if not grain, in abundance; while beyond the river, in the midst of a charming landscape, lay a fine agricultural district, in which many hundreds of settlers might have made their homes.

How then was it that, while so many efforts were made for the purpose of finding such land, the natural wealth of the soil in the immediate neighbourhood of the Cove remained unknown? Phillip went up Cook's River in December, and he could not but have noticed the level country on its banks, covered as it was with very different timber from the gum-trees at the Cove, and richly suggestive, even then, of the meadows he had read of in Cook's Voyage. The scene which presented itself to him as he followed the windings of the stream, might be compared with that which met the eyes of the Saxons when they first rowed their galleys up the Thames. The traveller who now-a-days crosses the river in a railway train looks out upon a country to which he might be excused for applying Darwin's lines -

Embellish'd villas crown the landscape scene,
Farms wave with gold and orchards blush between.

If the poet's description is not literally true in the present day, it is at least sufficiently so to justify the glowing language in which he sought to represent the future of Sydney Cove. When he wrote, the land lay there in its native state, waiting only to be cleared, drained, and cultivated in order to realise the golden farms and blushing orchards of his imagination. But there lay the difficulty. The labour of clearing the ground round the Camp had formed the subject of constant complaint during the first year of Phillip's administration; and while it formed so serious a stumbling block in his path, it is not surprising that no attempt was made to penetrate further inland for the purpose of clearing and cultivating the backwoods. The natural difficulties surrounding the cultivation of the soil in a new country were never, perhaps, encountered in such force as they were in his time, peculiarly aggravated as they were by the fact that his farm labourers were men who had never handled a spade or followed a plough's tail (79).

To realise his position in this matter, it is only necessary to look for a moment at the people placed under his charge. If an expedition were fitted out in the present day for the occupation of unknown country, no man would be permitted to join it who was not in some way fitted for the work to be done. The men sent out in the First Fleet could hardly have been less adapted for the purpose than they were. Many were old and suffering from disease; and even among the able-bodied, there were none who had ever seen a pick-axe or a shovel, except in a shop window. They had been hurried out of their gaols without any other object in view than that of getting rid of the most useless occupants of the cells. Had Phillip taken the precaution to inquire into their capabilities for work before he sailed, he would at least have been prepared for the painful experience that awaited him when his struggle began. But it never occurred to him to make any inquiry on that point. He relied on the Government to provide him with the proper men for the service;  and he remained in happy ignorance of the facts until they slowly made themselves known to him. It would not be easy to find a parallel in the history of colonisation for such a scene as that which presented itself when the marines and convicts were drawn up on their first parade. Not a man among  them was in the least degree qualified to act the part of a colonist. The soldiers would do nothing but  their military duty; the convicts would do nothing that they were not compelled to do. By what  miracle, one is inclined to ask, did they escape starvation?

 

NOTES:

1. Phillip's Voyage, p. 64 ; Collins, p. 7.

2. Post, p. 474. The original Commission is missing.

3. Ib., pp. 531, 537. The original Letters Patent, engrossed on parchment rolls, are in the Record Office, Sydney.

4. Phillip's Voyage, p. 65.

5. Surgeon White also reported the speech briefly :- " After this was done, the troops under arms fired three volleys; when his Excellency thanked the soldiers for their steady and good conduct; which Major Ross caused to be inserted in the general order-book. The Governor then addressed the convicts in a short speech, extremely well adapted to the people he had to govern, and who were then before him. Among many circumstances that would tend to their future happiness and comfort, he recommended marriage; assuring them that an indiscriminate and illegal intercourse would be punished with the greatest severity and rigour. Honesty, obedience, and industry, he told them, would make their situation comfortable; whereas a contrary line of conduct would subject them to ignominy, severity, and punishment." - Journal, p. 124.

Tench condensed his account of it into a few lines :- " When the Judge-Advocate had finished reading, his Excellency addressed himself to the convicts in a pointed and judicious speech, informing them of his future intentions, which were, invariably to cherish and render happy those who showed a disposition to amendment; and to let the rigour of the law take its course against such as might dare to transgress the bounds prescribed." - Narrative, p. 66.

The " Speech of Phillip " in Flanagan's History of New South Wales, pp. 30-34, is clearly fictitious. We have only to compare it with the reports written by the witnesses in whose hearing it was delivered, and who afterwards wrote their independent accounts of it in their journals, to see that the speech attributed to Phillip by Flanagan is an effort of the imagination. A similar production, attributed to Captain Cook, which appears in pp. 18-19 of the same work, is equally fictitious. Apart from other evidence on the point, the use of the word Australia in the Phillip speech is enough to show that it was not written in 1788. Some passages from it were quoted in the House of Assembly by Sir Patrick Jennings, then Premier, when moving certain resolutions for the celebration of the Centennial year of the colony. - Hansard, 23 September, 1886.

6. Ante, p. 39.

7. Collins, pp. 26, 159.

8. Phillip's despatches were addressed to the Secretary of State for the Home Department, the colonies not being at that time specially represented in the Government, Post, p. 549.

9. Phillip's Voyage, p. 45; Collins, p. 2; Hunter, p. 42; Tench, p. 48.

10. Phillip's Voyage, p. 47 ; Collins, p. 3 ; Hunter, p. 42 ; Tench, p. 48. According to Hunter, it was Phillip's intention to steer for Broken Bay in the first instance. "In this examination, a large opening, or bay, about three leagues and a half to the northward of Cape Banks, was the first place we looked into: it had an unpromising appearance on entering between the outer heads or capes that form its entrance, which are high, rugged, and perpendicular cliffs; but we had not gone far in before we discovered a large branch extending to the southward; into this we went, and soon found ourselves perfectly land-locked, with a good depth of water. We proceeded up for two days, examining every cove or other place which we found capable of receiving ships; the country was also particularly noticed, and found greatly superior in every respect to that round Botany Bay. The Governor, being satisfied with the eligibility of this situation, determined to fix his residence here, and returned immediately to the ships."

11. Phillip's Voyage, p. 53 ; Collins, p. 4; Hunter, p. 43; White, p. 119; Tench, p. 49.

12. This fear was realised when H.M.S. Guardian, under the command of Captain Riou, with stores and provisions for the colony, was lost on the voyage out in December, 1789. Collins, p. 115.

13. According to Péron, the building used as the hospital was brought out in pieces from England : - Plus loin se présentent les grands bâtimens de l'hôpital, susceptibles de recevoir deux ou trois cents malades: il faut distinguer parmi ces bâtimens celui dont toutes les piecés, préparées en Europe, furent apportées dans les vaisseaux du commodore Phillip, et qui, peu de jours après l'arrivée de la flotte, se trouva en état de recevoir les malades qu'elle avoit àbord - Voyage, vol. i, p. 369. According to Phillip, the hospital was not completed in May ; post, p. 292.

14. Post, p. 527.

15. " Some broken land that seemed to form a bay." - Hawkesworth, vol. iii, p. 507.

16. Phillip's Voyage, p. 76 ; Collins, p. 19.

17. Collins, p. 9; White, p. 127 ; Tench, p. 73.

18. Journal, pp. 30, 31.

19. Post, p. 486. The official estimate of expenditure in connection with the Expedition contains the following item: - "Women intended to be brought from the Friendly Islands, two hundred at half allowance, £100." In the semi-official sketch of the Expedition, referred to in Lord Sydney's letters to the Treasury and Admiralty, it was proposed that the tender should be " employed in conveying to the new settlement a further number of women from the Friendly Islands, New Caledonia, &c." ; because, " without a sufficient proportion of that sex, it would be impossible to preserve the settlement from gross irregularities and disorders " ; post, p. 434.

20. Ante, pp. 40, 46.

21. Port Jackson, not Botany Bay. By " the head of the bay," Phillip meant the Parramatta River.

22. Phillip's.Voyage, p. 44 ; Tench, p. 53.

23. "The women are, besides, early subjected to an uncommon mutilation of the two first joints of the little finger of the left hand. The opertion is performed when they are very young, and is done with a hair or some other slight ligature. This being tied around at the joint the flesh soon swells and in a few days - the circulation being destroyed - the finger mortifies and drops off. I never saw but one instance where the finger was taken off from the right hand, and that was occasioned by the mistake of the mother. Before we knew them we took it to be their marriage ceremony, but on seeing their mutilated children we were convinced of our mistake, and at last learned that these joints of the little finger were supposed to be in the way when they wound their fishing lines over the hand." - Colliiis, p. 553.

24. '' Between the ages of eight and sixteen, the males and females undergo the operation of having the septum nasi bored, to receive a bone or reed, which among them is deemed a great ornament, though I have seen many whose articulation was thereby rendered very imperfect. Between the same years also the males receive the qualifications which are given them by losing one of the front teeth." - Ib., p. 563. The practice of striking out the front tooth is minutely described by the same author, pp. 579, 583.

25. "Both sexes are ornamented with scars upon the breast, arms, and back, which are cut with broken pieces of the shell they use at the end of the throwing stick. By keeping open these incisions, the flesh grows up between the sides of the wounds, and after a time, skinning over, forms a large wale or seam. I have seen instances where those scars have been cut to resemble the feet of animals; and such boys as underwent the operation while they lived with us, appeared to be proud of the ornament, and to despise the pain which they must have endured. The operation is performed when they are young, and until they advance in years the scar looks large and full; but on some of their old men I have been scarcely able to discern them." - Ib., p. 552.

26. " In the women, that feminine delicacy which is to be found among the white people was to be traced even upon their sable cheeks; and though entire strangers to the comforts and conveniences of clothing, yet they sought with a native modesty to conceal by attitude what the want of covering would otherwise have revealed. They have often brought to my recollection "the bending statue which enchants the world," though it must be owned that the resemblance consisted solely in the position." - Ib., p. 550.

27. Their young people they consign to the grave; those who have passed the middle age are burnt. - Collins, p. 601.

28. Ante, p. 130.

29. The Marquis of Caermarthen, eldest son of the Duke of Leeds, was one of Pitt's Secretaries of State; the Marquis of Lansdowne is better known in history as the Earl of Shelburne, Prime Minister in 1782-3, and created Marquis in 1784. Richmond Hill was so named either after the Duke of Richmond, then Master-General of the Ordnance, or after Richmond Hill on the Thames; but Phillip usually named places after well-known statesmen of his time.

30. Surgeon White, who was with Phillip on his expedition of the 15th April, 1788, relates that they met with "various figures cut on the smooth surface of some large stones. They consisted chiefly of representations of themselves (the natives) in different attitudes, of their canoes, of several sorts of fish and animals; and considering the rudeness of the instruments with which the figures must have been executed, they seem to exhibit tolerably strong likenesses." - Journal, p. 141. Collins makes no reference to these curiosities in his account of native customs. Some remarkable cave paintings are described in Grey's Journals, vol. i, pp. 201-6.

31. The Scarborough, Charlotte, and Lady Penrhyn sailed for China on the 5th, 6th, and 8th May; ante, p. 291.

32. The French cook, according to Tench, was "constantly made the butt of his ridicule" by Baneelon, the native whom Phillip had captured and tamed, and who mimicked his voice, gait, and other peculiarities with great exactness and drollery. - Complete Account, p. 57.

33. Journal, pp. 169-171.

34. According to Collins, p. 35, the shock was local, and so slight that many people did not feel it. On the 17th January, 1801, a very severe shock was felt in Sydney; Mann, Present Picture of New South Wales, p. 8.

35. Tench relates that, during a hot wind which lasted for three days, "an immense flight of bats, driven before the wind, covered all the trees round the settlement, whence every moment they dropped dead, or in a dying state, unable longer to endure the burning state of the atmosphere. Nor did the perroquettes, though tropical birds, bear it better; the ground was strewed with them in the same condition as the bats." That was at Rose Hill. - Complete Account, p. 168.

36. Complete Account, p. 169.

37. Post, p. 436.

38. Post, pp. 61-63.

39. Phillip's Instructions; post, p. 485.

40. Post, p. 551.

41. Writing in 1791, Tench referred to the matter as follows :- "Not a trace of them has ever since been observed. Their fate is a riddle, so difficult of solution that I shall not attempt it. Surely, had they strayed inland, in some of our numerous excursions marks of them must have been found. It is equally impossible to believe that either the convicts or natives killed and eat them, without some sign of detection." - Complete Account, p. 163. Had Tench, who discovered the Nepean, followed its course as far as the Cowpastures, his riddle would have been solved at a glance.

42. "The country where they were found grazing was remarkably pleasant to the eye; everywhere the foot trod on thick and luxuriant grass; the trees were thinly scattered and free from underwood, except in particular spots; several beautiful flats presented large ponds, covered with ducks and black swan, the margins of which were fringed with shrubs of the most delightful tints, and the ground rose from these levels into hills of easy ascent." - Vol. i, pp. 436, 437; vol. ii, p. 50.

43. The Sirius sailed from Port Jackson on the 2nd October, 1788, and returned on the 6th May following. The Supply was sent to Batavia on the 17th April, 1790, and returned on the 19th September, having sailed round New Holland on the voyage.

44. Hunter's account of the voyage in his Journal, pp. 89-126, shows the difficulties which surrounded the navigation of a ship from Port Jackson in his day. It was a matter of discussion (p. 93) between him and Phillip whether a ship bound for the Cape of Good Hope should sail west or east; Phillip supported the western route and Hunter the eastern.

45. Under the Articles of War existing before the Army Act, Provost-Marshals possessed the power of punishing those whom they detected in the actual commission of crime, the punishment being limited by the necessity of the case and the orders received by them from the Commander of the forces in the field. This power was frequently exercised. The Duke of Wellington wrote of it: - "By the custom of British armies, the Provost has been in the habit of punishing on the spot, even with death, under the orders of the Commander-in-Chief, soldiers found in the act of disobedience of orders, of plunder, or of outrage." And he declared that he did not know "in what manner the army was to be commanded at all, unless the practice was not only continued, but an additional number of Provosts appointed." The power of the Provost-Marshal to punish "on his own authority" is not only not allowed in the present day, but is expressly forbidden by the Army Act. - Tovey, Martial Law, p. 54.

46. Post, p. 455.

47. Post, p. 483.

48. Panopticon, pp. 225-6; post, p. 583.

49. Post, p. 552. Dampier came to the conclusion, in 1688, that the natives could find no food inland: - "They must attend the Wares [for catching fish], or else they must fast: For the Earth affords them no Food at all " - Vol. i, p. 465.

50. Journal, p. 122. He adds:- " The sick have increased since our landing to such a degree that a spot for a general hospital has been marked out, and artificers already employed on it." From which it would appear that M. Péron was misinformed when he stated that a hospital had been brought out in frame from England, capable of receiving all the sick on board the Fleet. A hospital was brought out in frame in the Justinian, which arrived in June, 1790; hence, probably, Péron's mistake. The only building brought out in the First Fleet was a small house for the Governor - "a portable canvas house," Collins calls it, - p. 6.

51. Post, pp. 485-7.

52. Phillip's Voyage, p. 185.    The voyage of the Alexander through "the Straits was considered a matter of so much importance, from a nautical point of view, that a full account of it, with a chart showing the ship's track to Batavia, was published in that work, pp. 186-219.

53. Voyage, vol. ii, p. 180.

54. The rank of master and commander was conferred on King in March, 1791; post, p. 368.

55. The spelling of the word kangaroo appears to have been an open question at this time. Phillip usually spelt it in its present form. Captain Cook, who introduced it to the English language, said: - "This animal is called by the natives kanguroo." - Hawkesworth, vol. iii, p. 578. The word is so spelled in Phillip's Voyage in the text, but in the illustration it appears as "kangooroo," Collins, who paid some attention to the native language, spells the word kangooroo in his list of native names; p. 614, Tench states that the word was unknown to the natives about the settlement: - "Kanguroo was a name unknown to them for any animal, until we introduced it. When I showed Colbee [a native] the cows brought out in the Gorgon, he asked me if they were kanguroos?" - Complete Account, p. 171." This statement seems to be confirmed by the list of native names for animals given by Collins. It does not mention the kangaroo as a name in use among the natives at Port Jackson, but specifies the two kinds known to them - the patagorang, a large grey one, and the baggary, a small red one. He states (p. 609) that "the dialect spoken by the natives at Sydney differs entirely from that left us by Captain Cook of the people with whom he had intercourse to the northward, about Endeavour River."

56. Voyage towards the South Pole, vol. ii, p. 148.

57. "If the settling of this country should ever be thought an object worthy the attention of Great Britain, the best place for establishing a colony would be either on the banks of the Thames or in the country bordering upon the Bay of Islands. In either place there would be the advantage of an excellent harbour; and by means of the river, settlements might be extended and a communication established with the inland parts of the country. Vessels might be built of the fine timber which abounds in these parts, at very little trouble and expence, fit for such a navigation as would answer the purpose." - Hawkesworth, vol. iii, p. 444.

As the cultivation of the New Zealand flax-plant continued to be an object of importance with the Government for some years, and the description of it in Cook's Voyage was the means of directing attention to it in the first instance, it is worth while to quote the passage: - "There is, however, a plant that serves the inhabitants instead of hemp and flax, which excels all that are put to the same purpose in other countries. Of this plant there are two sorts. The leaves of both resemble those of flags, but the flowers are smaller and their clusters more numerous; in one kind they are yellow, and in the other a deep red. Of the leaves of these plants, with very little preparation, they make all their common apparel; and of these they make also their strings, lines and cordage for every purpose, which are so much stronger than anything we can make with hemp, that they will not bear a comparison. From the same plant, by another preparation, they draw long slender fibres which shine like silk, and are as white as snow. Of these, which are also surprisingly strong, the finer clothes are made; and of the leaves, without any other preparation than splitting them into proper breadths and tying the strips together, they make their fishing-nets, some of which, as I have before remarked, are of an enormous size." - Ib., p. 443.

58. The list appears in Phillip's Voyage, p. 174, dated 1st October, 1788.

59. Tench mentions, under date December, 1791, that in consequence of the offers made to the non-commissioned officers and privates of the marine battalion to remain in the country as settlers, or to enter into the New South Wales corps, three corporals, one drummer, and fifty-nine privates, accepted of grants of land, to settle at Norfolk Island and Rose Hill. - Complete Account, p. 139.

60. Some idea of the size of the gum-trees which surrounded the settlement at the time may be gathered from Surgeon White's statement, that he had known twelve men employed for five days in grubbing up one tree. - Journal, p. 138. Another illustration may be found in the first edition of Dr. Lang's Historical Account of New South Wales, 1834, vol. i, p. 30:- " On the summit of the ridge on which the Scots' Church was erected, in the year 1824, a large blue-gum tree of about six feet in diameter had been cut down about thirty-five years before; but the stump, which had been left standing in the ground, was still to all appearances as fresh, and the root as firmly fixed in the soil, as if it had been cut down only a few days previous. It was found necessary to remove the stump, as it interfered with the line of the foundation of the proposed building, and for this purpose a pile of wood and turf was heaped over it and set fire to; but it took about ten days or a fortnight to burn out the old root."

61. Among the wild vegetables referred to, Surgeon White mentions "a plant growing on the sea-shore, greatly resembling sage; samphire, and a kind of wild spinage, besides a small shrub which we distinguish by the name of the vegetable-tree, and the leaves of which prove rather a pleasant substitute for vegetables." The sweet tea plant he describes as "a creeping kind of vine, running along the ground; the taste is sweet, exactly like the liquorice-root of the shops." It was largely used as a substitute for tea, and also for medical purposes. - Journal, pp. 195-6 ; post, p. 345n.

62. Account of the Colony, p. 297.

63. Post, p. 485.

64. In the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society for 1790, vol. xvi, p. 667, there is a learned dissertation by Josiah Wedgwood - "on the analysis of a mineral substance from New South Wales;" and in a footnote it is mentioned that "along with the mineral here analysed, Mr. Wedgwood was presented by Sir Joseph Banks with some clay, which Mr. Wedgwood found to be an excellent material for pottery, adding that it might certainly become the basis of a valuable manufacture for our infant colony there," Mr. Wedgwood's analysis of the mineral substance referred to in Phillip's despatch of 6 November, post, p. 356, showed that it was " a mixture of fine white sand, a soft white earth, some colourless micaceous particles, and a few black ones, resembling black mica or blacklead;" and the result of his experiments was that, in his opinion, "this substance is a pure species of plumbago or blacklead, not taken notice of by any writer." The clay analysed by Mr. Wedgwood was made into a medallion; ante, p. 244.

65. Narrative, p. 121.

66. Complete Account, p. 53.

67. One of Phillip's first requests after his appointment was for a "large cutter built boat," to be framed in England and put together on his arrival in New South Wales. In a letter to the Admiralty, dated 27th October, 1786, he specified the dimensions of the boat he wanted as follows:- " Thirty-two feet keel, breadth in proportion, about eight feet ten inches, to row sixteen oars, double bank'd sliding Gunter masts of a good depth, and with high wash-boards." Such a boat would have proved useful, but it was not provided.

68. Hunter gives an account of this census at p. 82 of his Journal.

69. Savu is a small island lying to the south-west of Timor. It was visited by Captain Cook in September, 1770, and is described in the account of his voyage. - Hawkesworth, vol. iii, p. 681.

70. Tench, Complete Account, p. 41. Among the wild vegetable plants used for food, "Botany Bay greens" were in great favour for some years after the foundation of the colony. In describing its natural products in his Present Picture of New South Wales, published in 1811, Mann says (p. 51):- "Botany Bay greens are procured in abundance; they much resemble sage in appearance, and are esteemed a very good dish by the Europeans, but despised by the natives." He also states that ''native green currants grow wildly, and make an uncommonly fine jelly "; but the wild cherry and the wild fig are described as "equally nauseous."

71. Reid, Two Voyages to New South Wales, 1822, p. 12.

72. Ante, pp. 116-7.

73. Commissioned officers are not amenable to the judgment of a regimental or garrison Court-martial, which is usually composed of a captain and four subalterns (or two, if more cannot be conveniently assembled). The jurisdiction of the Court is confined to small offences; serious violations of military law are dealt with by the General Court-martial, assembled under the authority of the King's commission. - Tytler,  Military Law,   pp. 176-183 - The opinion given by Collins will be found post, p. 555.

74. The person referred to was brought out by Phillip as a servant, and had been employed in superintending the cultivation at Farm Cove, from which he was transferred to Rose Hill; ante, p. 142. There was only one man among the convicts who understood farming; Collins, pp. 93, 158.

75. Ante, pp. 142, 199.

76. Complete Account, p. 159.

77. This reef was discovered by Lieut. Shortland on his voyage to England in the transport Alexander, in July, 1788, and was named by him Middleton Shoals. - Phillip's Voyage, p. 189.

78. Ante, p. 340.

79. The description of the country on the western shore of Botany Bay, given by Péron, who visited it in 1802, will give some idea of its appearance in Phillip's time:- A mesure qu'on se rapproche de Botany Bay, le terrain s'abaisae de plus en plug, et bientdt on arrive a des marfcages dangereux, form6s et entretenus par les eaux saumatres de la riviere de Cook vers le Nord, et de la rivifere George vcrs le Sud. Ces marais sont tellement <5tendus et quelquefois siprofonds, qu'il est impossible, en diffeYens endroits, de les franchir pour arriver jusqu'a la mer. Surleurs bords, et tout le long dea deux rivieres dont je viens de parler, la vegetation est trtss-active ; mille especes d'arbros et d'arbustes, pressees a la surface da sol, donnent a cette partie de la contr^e qui nous occupe un aspect enchanteur, et lui pretent une apparenee de fecondite si grande, que le capitaine Cook et ses illustres compagnons y furent trompe"s eux-memes. II s'en faut pourtant beaucoup que cette baie tant celcbr^e par ces navigateurs, ait justifie1 les' esperances que leur brillantc description en avoit fait concevoir. Obstrue'e par de grands banes do vase, ouverte aux vents de I'Est par le Sud, elle ne pr6sente pas & la navigation toute la surete' dont celle-ci peut avoir besoin dans certains oas, et la nature mar^cageuse du sol des environs le rend a la fois trcs insalubre et peu propre aux cultures ordinaires. Aussi le commodore Phillip, aprea avoir fait reconnoitre le Port Jackson, s'empressa-t-il d'abandonner Botany Bay; et depuis cette e'poque on n'y a fait aucune autre espfece d'i5tablisscment que celui d'un four pour la preparation de la chaux qu'on retire des coquillagcs, qui sont tres-abondans sur ce point de la cOtc.—Voyage, vol. i, pp. 379-80.

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28/04/2004

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