interval correspondence took place between department and department and between Governor Phillip and the departments. Phillip, who was first captain of the Sirius, Hunter being second in command, had two important matters to look to-the general outfit of the expedition and the equipment of his own vesseland during the time of preparation he wrote many letters to Ministers, Under Secretaries, and other officials. Most of these were sent from London, where he was detained, as stated in King's Journal, awaiting the decision of the Ministry on matters of importance relating to the expedition. He did not go on board the Sirius at the Motherbank until the 11th May, the day before the fleet got under weigh. From the Motherbank Phillip sent one letter, and three others were despatched by the Hyæna, which accompanied the Sirius a hundred leagues from the entrance of the English Channel. The papers next in order consist of a series of letters from Phillip written at Santa Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, and the Cape of Good Hope, at which ports the fleet put in for water and fresh provisions.

On the 18th January, 1788, the Supply, having on board Governor Phillip, who had left the Sirius eighty leagues to the east of the Cape, entered Botany Bay, and on the 26th the whole fleet was at anchor in Sydney Cove.

Phillip was not in a position to send any communication to England until one of the transports sailed on the return voyage, and his first despatch to the Secretary of State for the Home Department bears date 15th May, 1788. After this he sent despatches as opportunities arose. These despatches deal very fully with the condition and progress of the settlement; they constitute, in fact, a history of the Colony from its establishment to the close of Phillip's Governorship. Phillip's first despatch, addressed to Lord Sydney, was replied to on the 20th June, 1789, by the Right Hon. W. W. Grenville, afterwards Lord Grenville, who had succeeded Lord Sydney, and the correspondence was continued with regularity. At this time Ministerial changes and promotions were frequent, and as the passage to Australia was not usually made under six or eight months, Phillip sent despatches to England in ignorance of the actual state of

affairs. He wrote to Lord Sydney after that Minister's place had been taken by the Hon. W. W. Grenville, and to Grenville when he in turn had been superseded by the Right Hon. Henry Dundas. Eight months after Grenville had been raised to the Peerage, Phillip addressed his despatches to "the Right Hon. W. W. Grenville." These things are not of great importance in themselves; they are simply pointed out for the purpose of explaining apparent discrepancies.

The despatches from Sydney to London are more numerous and more voluminous than the despatches from London to Sydney. This is what might have been expected. Phillip was required to transmit to the Home Office a full account of his proceedings and the affairs of the settlement, and he faithfully obeyed his instructions. His despatches, though not wordy, were frequently of considerable length. He had to deal with matters of detail as well as questions of importance, and it was sometimes necessary to treat special subjects in separate despatches. A large portion of this volume is taken up by Phillip's communications to the English Departments of State, while the replies, which in many instances contain little more than an acknowledgment of the intelligence received from Phillip and a brief intimation of opinion regarding his proceedings, occupy a comparatively small space.

Although the English Government depended chiefly upon Phillip's reports it was not without information from other sources. Major Ross, who acted as Lieutenant-Governor until the detachment of Marines, which he commanded, was replaced by the New South Wales Corps, wrote official despatches to the Admiralty, as well as private letters to Evan Nepean, Under Secretary for the Home Department, and Phillip Stephens, Secretary to the Admiralty. Ross's private letters are of greater interest than his public ones, for they are written without reserve, and give his independent views of the condition and prospects of the Colony at the time.

It may be as well to state here that other private letters will be found in the correspondence now published, but, although private, they are of such a nature that their right to a place in the

Records cannot be disputed. Apart from the Banks Papers, few of which are official, although they relate to matters historically important, the Records contain a number of private and quasiprivate letters which are as much a part of history as the formal despatches. The correspondence of this class includes letters between Phillip and the English Ministers, and between Phillip and the Under Secretaries. With only a few exceptions these letters refer to matters of public concern, and some of them are of peculiar interest and importance. They are written with a freedom which is foreign to official communications, and they throw light upon points which without them would be obscure. Correspondence of this nature, written in confidence, need not be treated as confidential now. An examination of the Records will show that private letters, when they bore upon matters of public importance, were considered by the English Government and frequently acted upon. The manner in which they were treated is indicated by the fact that private letters have been found among the papers preserved in the Departments of State.

Other letters, private in form, but of public importance by reason of the information contained in them, are printed with the Records. They include an unofficial letter from Captain William Hill, who commanded a detachment of the New South Wales Corps on board the Surprize, one of the vessels belonging to the Second Fleet, which gives fuller information regarding the sufferings of the convicts on the voyage than can be found in the official despatches. There is also an unofficial letter from the Rev. R. Johnson, the first chaplain of the Settlement, describing the sad condition of the convicts brought by the Neptune, Surprize, and Scarborough-the Second Fleet-on their arrival at Sydney, which is valuable for a similar reason. Among other private letters of historical value is one from Captain Edward Manning, commander of the Pitt, in which an account is given of a severe outbreak of fever amongst the soldiers and seamen during the voyage. Major Grose, the Commandant of the New South Wales Corps, who was on board the vessel with a detachment of soldiers, wrote an official letter on the subject to Nepean, but Captain Manning's account, written without any restraint, is

much fuller and far more interesting. In the same category may be placed a letter from Lieutenant Fowell, of the Sirius, in which he sends to his father in England a full account of the loss of that vessel at Norfolk Island and King's voyage to Batavia in the Supply.* A letter from Mr. William Wilberforce, the philanthropist, to the Right Hon. Henry Dundas, as to the appointment of a second chaplain for New South Wales, enclosing a note from the Archbishop of Canterbury, has been found among the Home Office Papers, and is reproduced. Though the latter was written in confidence, it is of great public interest. That it was considered and acted upon can scarcely be doubted, for a second chaplain, the Rev. Samuel Marsden, was soon afterwards appointed.

The despatches written by Phillip at Sydney begin by announcing the arrival of the First Fleet in Botany Bay in January, 1788, and carry the record of transactions to the 16th October, 1792, two months before he took his departure for England. In the interval several fresh batches of convicts had been sent out, and notwithstanding the great loss of life on board some of the transports, and the heavy mortality that took place after the convicts were landed, the population of the settlements had increased to upwards of 4,000, of which number about one-fourth belonged to Norfolk Island. In the face of serious difficulties a good deal of work had been done. Buildings had been erected at Sydney, branch settlements had been established at Parramatta and Toongabbe, and 1,500 acres of land had been brought under cultivation. Exploration had not been neglected. A knowledge of the country between Parramatta and the Nepean had been acquired, while the Hawkesbury had been explored from its mouth to Windsor, where a settlement was afterwards formed. The progress that was made may be traced step by step in the despatches, which also reveal the disadvantages under which the young community laboured, the privations and sufferings which all classes of the people endured, and the obstacles which were

* King, who was on his way to England with despatches from Phillip, parted company with Fowell at Batavia. The latter had instructions to hire a vessel at that place to take provisions to Sydney. While engaged in this service he caught a fever and died.

placed in Phillip's way by the perverse temper of some of the marine officers. To what extent the situation was realised in England, and what steps were taken to afford relief, may be discovered by examining the despatches sent to Phillip, beginning with Lord Grenville's communication of 20th June, 1789 (the first despatch from England), and ending with the despatch of his successor, the Right Hon. Henry Dundas, 14th July, 1792. Other correspondence took place between the Home Office in London and the Governor in Sydney. There was a regular interchange of letters between Phillip and his friend, Under Secretary Nepean, who discussed at length matters which were briefly dealt with in the communications between Minister and Governor. The two sets of correspondence must be read together; the one is the complement of the other.

Although the official despatches from the Home Office to Phillip and from Phillip to the Home Office, constitute the most important part of the records, other papers of great interest connected with the affairs of the settlement are printed. There are, for example, the letters sent by Captain Hunter to the Admiralty about the voyage of the Sirius to the Cape of Good Hope, where she was sent for supplies in October, 1788, and her loss at Norfolk Island in March, 1790, while taking provisions to that settlement; and the letters of Lieutenant Riou, who describes the accident to the Guardian, which struck an iceberg while on her way to Sydney under his command with supplies for the settlement, and was taken with difficulty to Table Bay, where she was abandoned.

The steps taken to send out a special force (the New South Wales Corps) for service in the Colony, to replace the detachment of marines, which constituted the first garrison, and the conditions under which the corps was raised by Major Grose, are set forth in the correspondence which passed between that officer and the War Office, and between the War Office and the other Departments of State. King, who went out as Lieutenant-Governor of Norfolk Island in 1791, purchased live stock at the Cape for the benefit of the settlement at Sydney, and a full account of these transactions is given in the letters which were sent by him to the Home Office. As previously stated, it became necessary very