13/08/2005
History of New South Wales From the Records
VOLUME 1 - GOVERNOR PHILLIP 1783-1789G. B. Barton - 1889
PART III
Lord Sydney's Letters
Two letters written by Lord Sydney, Secretary of State for the Home Department, one to the Lords of the Treasury dated 18th August, 1786, and the other to the Lords of the Admiralty dated 31st August in that year, contained instructions for the supply and equipment of the ships required for the expedition to Botany Bay. The letter to the Treasury began with the paragraphs quoted in the text and then continued as follows:-
In order that a proper degree of subordination and regularity may be preserved in this new settlement, his Majesty has been pleased to give orders that an officer and proper assistants shall be appointed to superintend it, and that three companies of the Marine Corps shall be stationed there so long as it may be found necessary. The officers and marines will be embarked on board a ship-of-war and a tender, which the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty have been directed to provide for this service, the commanders of which will be instructed to take under their protection the ships on board of which the convicts may be embarked, and to regulate their sailing to the place of destination.
The crews of the ship-of-war and the tender, as well as the Marine Corps, will be victualled by the Naval Department during their passage; but your lordships will please to take notice that the marines are to be provided for after their landing, and supplies of provisions, as well as implements for agriculture, should also be procured for their use. The number may amount to about one hundred and eighty, to which is to be added the staff establishment, consisting of fifteen, and perhaps two hundred females, which your lordships will see by a sketch of the plan for forming this new settlement, herewith transmitted, are likely to be procured from places in its neighbourhood, as companions for the men.
If the person who may contract for the passage of the convicts should be desirous of obtaining military assistance for their greater security, they may be accommodated with a part of the marines, who would otherwise be conveyed to the new settlement in the ship-of-war and the tender.
According to the best opinions that can be obtained, it is supposed that a quantity of provisions, equal to two years' consumption should be provided, which must be issued from time to time according to the direction of the superintendent, in the expenditure of which he will of course be guided by the proportion of food which the country and the labour of the new settlers may produce.
From the length of the passage to New South Wales, the commanding officer will most likely find it necessary to call at the Cape de Verd Islands, as well as at the Cape of Good Hope, for the purpose of recruiting the water. At the latter of these places he will in all probability be enabled to obtain cattle and hogs, as well as seed grain, all of which must be procured for the new settlers with a view to their future subsistence; and as expenses will thereby of course be increased, it will be necessary that your lordships should authorise the naval commander or the superintendent to draw upon you for the amount, and that, in addition thereto, a quantity of merchandise should be put on board the ship-of-war or the tender previous to their sailing, sufficient to obtain supplies of live stock by means of barter with the inhabitants of the islands contiguous to the new intended settlement, from whence such supplies may at all times be obtained.
A small quantity of garden seeds should be sent out from hence, together with some seed grain, to prevent inconveniences that might happen should any difficulties arise in procuring a supply, particularly of the latter, at the Cape of Good Hope.
The tools for erecting habitations and implements for agriculture, which it is supposed will be most useful in the settlement, are specified in the list accompanying this, and with which it will be proper to supply the marines and the convicts after their landing at the settlement. It is therefore his Majesty's further pleasure that these articles be also provided and sent out, together with bedding for each of the convicts, and a proportion of cloathing agreeably to the estimate enclosed. The marines will be supplied with bedding from the ship-of-war.
I have it in command from his Majesty only further to acquaint your lordships, that a quantity of surgical instruments and medicines and necessaries for the sick will likewise be wanted, and as soon as an estimate can be formed it shall be transmitted to your lordships, together with the staff establishment.
In the meantime I have only to recommend it to your lordships to cause every possible expedition to be used in preparing the shipping for the reception of the said convicts, and for transporting the supplies of provisions and necessaries for their use to the place of their destination.
The letter to the Admiralty was as follows:-
The King having been pleased to signify his royal commands that seven hundred and fifty of the convicts, now in this kingdom under sentence of transportation, should be sent to Botany Bay, on the coast of New South Wales, in the latitude of 33° south, at which place it is intended that the said convicts should form a settlement, and that the Lords of the Treasury should forthwith provide a sufficient number of vessels for their conveyance thither, together with provisions and other supplies for their subsistence, as well as tools to enable them to erect habitations and also implements for agriculture; and it being his Majesty's intention that a ship-of-war of a proper class, with part of her guns only on board, commanded by an able and discreet officer, and a sufficient establishment of inferior officers and men, together with a vessel of about two hundred tons burthen, commanded also by an officer, should as soon as the convict ships are ready proceed with them to the new settlement for the purpose of regulating their sailing, and for the preservation of peace and good order during the passage, as well as for other purposes after their arrival:
I am commanded to signify to your lordships the King's pleasure that you do forthwith cause a ship-of-war and a tender for those services to be fitted for sea with all possible expedition; and when the said convicts shall be put on board the ships which are preparing for their reception in the river Thames, to instruct the commander of the ship-of-war to take the convict ships under his protection, and proceed with them and the tender (which he will employ as he shall find occasion) to Botany Bay, calling off Plymouth on his way thither for another convict ship, the master of which will be directed to join the convoy from thence, upon its appearance.
From the length of the voyage to New South Wales the convoy will of course find it necessary to put into port on their way thither for the purpose of recruiting their water. Your lordships will therefore give instructions accordingly, only taking care that one of the places to be fixed upon for a rendezvous may be the Cape of Good Hope, from whence it is intended that as many supplies as possible for the new settlement shall be procured.
As it has been thought advisable that some military establishment shall be made at the new intended settlement, not only to enforce due subordination and obedience, but for the defence of the settlement against incursions of the natives, and as, from the nature of the service to be performed, it is highly expedient that it should be composed of men accustomed to and under proper discipline, his Majesty has been pleased to direct that one hundred and sixty private marines, with a suitable number of officers and non-commissioned officers, shall proceed in the ship-of-war and the tender to the new settlement, where it is intended they shall be disembarked for the purposes before mentioned. They will be properly victualled by a commissary immediately after their landing, and provision has also been made for supplying them with such tools, implements, and utensils, as they may have occasion for, to render their situation comfortable during their continuance at the new intended settlement, which it is designed shall not exceed a period of three years.
When these circumstances are known, it is very probable that many of the non-commissioned officers and men may express a desire of embarking upon this expedition. If the whole number to be employed upon it were to consist of persons of that description, it would, upon many accounts, be advisable to give them a preference. It is therefore his Majesty's pleasure that their wishes in this respect should, as much as possible, be attended to; and that your lordships should, if there should be occasion, hold out such further indulgences to them as may induce them to embark voluntarily upon this service, either by bounty or promise of discharge, should they desire it upon their return; or, at the expiration of three years, to be computed from the time of their landing at the new intended settlement, should they prefer remaining in that country.
I enclose to your lordships herewith the heads of a plan upon which the new settlement is to be formed for your further information, together with the proposed establishment for its regulation and government; and as soon as I am acquainted by your lordships with the names of the officers intended to command the ship-of-war and the marine corps, I shall receive his Majesty's further pleasure for preparing their commissions and such instructions as may be requisite for their guidance.
From the nature of the services they are to execute under these instructions, entirely unconnected with maritime affairs, it would be proper that they should be immediately subordinate to the direction of this office, and upon that ground it is his Majesty's pleasure that they should be directed, after their arrival at New South Wales, to follow such orders and directions as they may receive from his Majesty, through his Principal Secretary of State for this Department.
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