of spirits allowed the husbands-that is, one-quarter of a pint per day, on condition that the quantity so issued should be hereafter stop'd from the husbands' allowance if not approved of. The same ration is settled by the Navy Board for the detachment as for the convicts, and is as follows, viz. : 1788 5 July. Rations for seven days successively for each marine and male Rations. convict Seven pounds of bread, or, in lieu thereof, seven pounds of flour. Seven pounds of beef, or, in lieu thereof, four pounds of pork; three pints of pease; six ounces of butter; one pound of flour, or, in lieu thereof, half a pound of rice. I am informed that seven pounds of pork is given to the soldiers in the settlement when they are served pork, and not four pounds of pork in lieu of seven pounds of beef; and here, as is the custom of the Navy, the eighth is deducted. percentage. You will, sir, be so good as to explain the intent of Government Stoppage of on this head. The eighth is stopped for the benefit of the Crown, and to make up for the loss in serving in small quantities. The Commissary, of course, has not any advantage from the provisions. The one pound of flour is not clearly understood. If intended to be given weekly, as is done, or if it was intended to be given in lieu of pease, which from the manner of wording the order from the Navy Board does not appear to have been the intention of Government. If it is not the intention of Government that the what does eighth should be stopped, I have promised that they should be Government repaid when the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of intend? his Majesty's Treasury have signified their pleasure thereon. the Every possible attention will be given to the cultivation of the Flax. 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 sheep do with one or two young bulls as the ships intended for this settle- not thrive. ment 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. the natives Cloathing for the natives, if sent out, will, I daresay, be very Clothing for 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 Bad very bad, and a great part of it was likewise too small for people clothing. 1788 5 July. 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 the natives. carpenters' axes, hats, hooks and lines will be the most beneficial, as well as most acceptable, to the natives. I have, &c., Presents for 9 July. Invalided officers. Arduous duties. A new drummer. Another Lieutenant wanted A. PHILLIP. MAJOR ROSS TO SECRETARY STEPHENS. Sir, Enclosed you have a copy of the report of the surgeons,* and the Governor is to order them a passage in such of the returning transports as he chooses. I have directed them, upon their arrival in England, to transmit to you a copy of their letter of leave, as likewise an account of their then state of health, and to request their Lordships' orders for their future proceedings. The several duties we have to perform being very severe upon the officers in general, and the subalterns in particular, I beg to assure their Lordships that nothing less than the chance of saving those officers' lives could have made me grant the leave they requested, and therefore hope their Lordships will approve of what I have done. I have taken them off the strength of the detachment, and Second Lieut. Dawes, who has been discharg'd from the Sirius's books, has taken the place of Second Lieutenant Collins in it. I have likewise turned a drummer, a very bad one, into the ranks, and replaced him with a very fine, stout boy, son to one of the detachment, in order to draw as few men as possible from the Sirius; and, sir, as he is attested, he stands upon the strength of the detachment. I have, &c., R. Ross, Major. Sir, MAJOR ROSS TO SECRETARY STEPHENS. 9th July, 1788. Inclosed you have for their Lordships' information a general return of the state of the detachment under my command. By it you will see that we want one second lieutenant to complete the four companies. *Surgeon White, chief surgeon of the settlement, and Surgeon Worgan, of the Sirius, reported that Lieut. Collins suffered from dysentery and Lieut. Maxwell from amaurosis. As I have ever since my arrival here entered my son, John Ross, as a volunteer, serving without pay, may I presume to solicite their Lordships to do me the honor of appointing him to that vacancy in the detachment? 1788 9 July. John Ross. What emboldens me to pray their Lordships for this particular mark of favor is, my knowing the attention shown by the Board of Admiralty in giving a preference to the children of old officers, An old among which number I may, after two-and-thirty years' actual service, surely class myself. I have, &c., officer's son. [Enclosure.] R. Ross, Major. OFFICERS OF THE DETACHMENT OF MARINES. Major-Commandant :-Robert Ross. Captains:-James Campbell, John Shea. Captain-Lieutenants :-James Meredith, Watkin Tench. First Lieutenants :-George Johnston, John Johnstone, John Creswell, James Maitland Shairp, Robert Kellow, Thomas Davey, John Poulden, Thomas Timins. Second Lieutenants:-Ralph Clarke, William Faddy, William Dawes. Adjutant Second Lieutenant :-John Long. Quarter-master First Lieutenant :-James Furzer. My Lord, R. Ross, Major. GOVERNOR PHILLIP TO LORD SYDNEY. July the 9th, 1788. 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 stores and the remainder of the stores and provisions. provisions. sick leave. The commandant of the detachment, having enclosed letters from First Lieutenant James Maxwell and Second Lieutenant officers William Collins, and desired that their requests to return to returning on Europe might be complied with, if their state of health was found by the surgeon to be as represented, and the surgeon having reported First Lieutenant Maxwell as incapable of duty, from a defect in his sight, and Second Lieutenant Collins to be so debilitated in state from a long illness that his life depends on his returning to Europe, these officers have my leave; and Lieutenant Collins is charged with the despatches for your Lordship. Lieu- Lieutenant tenant Dawes,* who came out as a lieutenant of marines on board Dawes. the Sirius, replaces one of these officers. The hutting the battalion is still going on, and though from Building seventy to one hundred convicts have been almost constantly * William Dawes, Second Lieutenant of Marines. Officer of Engineers and Artillery. L huts. 1788 9 July. Carpenters and bricklayers wanted. Provisions from England necessary. Failure to obtain turtle. Store-ships and 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 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 any kind of work. 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. The store-ships and transports, as cleared, are ordered to transports 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. return. A convict speared. Twelve convicts missing. 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 who they had wounded on the head. A shirt and hat, both pierced with spears, have been since found in one of the natives' 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 * Scarborough, Charlotte, and Lady Penryhn. They sailed respectively on the 5th, 6th and 8th May. Ante, p. 136. 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 cloaths, which in our present situation it is impossible to prevent. 1788 9 July. should be I should hope that few convicts will be sent out this year or Despatch of the next, unless they are artificers, and after what I have had criminals the honour of observing to your Lordship I make no doubt but restricted. 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 intimation, must have been fatal if the ship carrying the provisions had been lost. Sydney. Obser I have the honour to enclose your Lordship the intended plan Plan of 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 vatory. 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 No buildings will be begun in the course of a few months, some regular limestone. 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, hospitals, &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 The streets 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 Building the allotment, which will be sixty feet in front and 150 feet in restrictions. depth. This will preserve uniformity in the buildings, prevent narrow streets, and the many inconveniences which the increase 200 feet wide |