1738 10 July. Two hundred natives. them laid down their spears, and though we were within ten yards of them before they discovered us in less than three minutes amounted to two hundred and twelve men. We parted with these people on good terms, and their behaviour convinces me that they will never be the first agressors, though I have been fully satisfied that they revenge the smallest affront. Whether from their superiority of numbers, for we were only twelve, or from their not being accustomed to act with treachery, the Friendship. moment the friendship I offered was accepted on their side they joined us, most of them laying down their arms; and afterwards, with the greatest confidence, brought down their women to receive fish-hooks, and what we had to give them. Of these people we know little; for though I go amongst them as often as the many circumstances which draw my attention permit, yet not being able to remain any time with them, and The natives they never coming near us, but when we are near the coves in which they reside, or for a few minutes in their canoes alongside the Sirius, very few words of their language are attained. hold aloof. Store-ships good. The store-ships and transports are now preparing to return to Europe, the Fishburn excepted. That ship cannot be cleared untill a secure place is made for the spirits, which I hope will be done, so as to permit her to sail before the middle of August. At I have only to add that, with respect to this country, the The climate climate is very good, and it will, I make no doubt, be as healthy as any in the world when the woods are cleared round us. present the only disorder that prevails is the scurvy, which still rages. The storms of thunder and lightening, judging from what we had soon after we landed, must be very heavy in the summer; and as several trees have been fired and some sheep and hogs killed in the camp, all the provisions the colony has to subsist on Danger from untill fresh supplies are sent from Europe being in two stores, which are thatched, give me some anxiety, but for which there is no remedy at present. Had the three store-ships parted company and afterwards been lost the consequences must have been fatal to the settlement, for no resources within our reach would have supported us untill supplies could have been procured from the Cape or any European settlement. lightning. provisions. Their Lordships will, without doubt, order that those sent out in future are embarked in the ships that bring the provisions Two years' intended to support them for two years after they land, which is the least time they can be victualled for, untill a regular cultivation has taken place, and which will, I apprehend, be four years. The islands may furnish us with live stock to breed from, but I am fully satisfied that all the Sirius will be able to procure in a year will not be more than a month's subsistence for the colony, should we be obliged to make use of it. The Supply is no way calculated for a service of that kind. Cloathing in this country is full as necessary as in England, the nights and mornings being very cold; and before any supplies can be sent out most of the people will be without shoes, the most necessary article. 1788 10 July. Of the convicts, thirty-six men, four women died on the passage,* Deaths. twenty men eight women since landing; eleven men and one woman have absconded, and are supposed to have perished in the woods; three have been killed by the natives, and four have been executed. The rains setting in have prevented the Golden Grove being Rain. cleared, and that ship will sail, with the Fishburn, as soon as possible after the other ships. The weekly accounts, returns of marines on board the Sirius, and last weekly return of the detachment serving on shore are inclosed. I have, &c., Sir, A. PHILLIP. MAJOR ROSS TO SECRETARY STEPHENS. † Camp, Sydney Cove, New South Wales, You will please to inform the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of the Adm'lty that since my last letter from the Cape of Good Hope, which we left the 13th Novr., 1787, nothing material happen'd till a few days after, when Governor Phillip inform'd me for the first time of his intention Altered of proceeding to Botany Bay in the Supply, tender, as he wished, plans. if possible, to arrive there some time before the rest of the fleet. He likewise said that the Alexander, Scarboro', and Friendship, the best sailing transports, should be order'd to follow him under the direction of the agent, and that the other transports, with the victuallers, were to be left with Captain Hunter. He then asked me if I chose to proceed in either of the first-named transp'ts. I told him I was there to be dispos'd of in whatever way he might think I could be made most useful for carrying on the publick service; but as the principal part of the detachment under my command were on board the transports which were to proceed with the agent, I thought it best to go with them if he approv'd of it. I could not, I confess, but feel myself much hurt at His Excellency's not having given me the most distant hint of his intention prior to our quitting the Cape, that I might No notice given. have made some preparation for such an event, and more particularly so as I found that it had been made known to others, as a proof of which I received my first intimation of his design from the mess of the Sirius's gun-room. * According to the official return, post, p. 193, there also died five convicts' children, one marine, one marine's wife, and a marine's child, making the total number of deaths on the passage 48. + Major Ross, in this despatch, writes upon matters which are dealt with in Phillip's despatch of 15th May. Ante, pp. 121-136. 1788 10 July. On board the Scarborough. Gales. On the 25th November, the Governor, with Lieut. King and Lieut. Dawes of the Sirius's detachm❜t of marines, embark'd on board the Supply, myself and the Adjutant on board the Scarbro', and the Qr.-master, who I thought it necessary to carry with me (to take charge of such marine stores as might be landed), on board the Alexander. At 12 o'clock we parted company, and in the evening of the same day we lost sight of both the Supply and Sirius. From this time til our making the South Cape we were most fortunate in fair winds, but from thence to Botany Bay we had bafeling, and at times, strong gales. On the morning of the 19th of Jan., 1788, the Alexander, Botany Bay. Scarbro', and Friendship entered Botany Bay, where we found the Supply had arrived the evening before, and the next morning the Sirius, with the other transports and victuallers, joined us. A bad situ. ation. Port Jackson chosen. French ships in Immediately on my arrival I waited upon the Governor, whom I accompanied in quest of the most proper spot for carrying his Majesty's intention of forming a settlement on this coast into execution. Meeting with no eligible situation on this or the following day's excursion, the whole country, as far as we saw, appearing to us to be either sand, rock, or swamp, and, as far as we could judge, unfit for any kind of cultivation. From this appearance his Excellency, before he would land the detachment or the convicts, determin'd to explore the nearest harbour (mention'd by the late Captn. Cooke) to the northward. Before he left us (22nd Jan'y) he directed me to land a certain number of men on the south side of the bay every morning to fall trees and form saw-pits, in order that the whole might be set to work in errecting stores, &c., in case he did not meet with a more promising situation. On his return he inform'd me that he found Port Jackson one of the finest harbours in the world; that he had determin'd to fix the settlement in one of the many coves in it, and that he would proceed before us in the Supply, the Sirius, with the transports and victuallers, to follow as soon as possible. On the 25th, his Excellency, with a detachment of two subalt'ns, a proportion of non-commiss'd officers and twenty privates, sail'd for Port Jackson; and on the 27th the Sirius, with her convoy, with much difficulty worked out of the bay, and just as the night came on got safe into the cove, where we now are. I have to observe to their Lordships that on the day we left Botany Bay. Botany Bay two French ships of war arrived there. I found they were on a voyage of discovery, but as Governor Phillip can give their Lordships a much better account of them than I have the power of doing, I must refer their Lordships to his letter on that subject. On the 26th his Excellency directed that a number of the convicts should be landed every morning for the purpose of falling 1788 10 July. trees and forming saw-pits, go on board to dinner, land after it, and be embark'd again in the evening. This mode being found tedious and troublesome, two days after orders were given to land the detachment and the convicts as soon as tents could be got ready for them, which was soon accomplished, and all in health landed; the Governor, with the civil department and a number of the convicts, taking possession of the east side of a Landing. small stream which runs into the cove, and the marine detachment, with the rest of the convicts, of the west side of it, in which state we still remain, and send a subaltern's guard to the opposite side every morning. Here, in justice to myself and the detachment under my command, I must observe to their Lordships that the detachment is at this hour without any kind of place of defence to retire to in case of an alarm or surprize, tho' I have, in justice to myself, No defences. repeatedly mention'd and urged his Excellency to get something or other errected for that purpose. Indeed, a surprize seems to me, from all I have seen, to be the only danger we have to apprehend. The natives, tho' in number near us, shew no inclination to any kind of intercourse with us, for ever since our arrival there has not one of them come near us on this side, and Natives shy. only two, who had been known at Botany Bay, visited the other side soon after our arrival. harmless as two Tho' we have had little or no opportunity of coming at their real dispositions and character, yet I am by no means of opinion that they are that harmless, inoffensive race they have in general been represented to be, and my suspicions have in some measure Not so been confirm'd by an event that Captn. Campbell met with a few represented. weeks past. Being out with a party, he met with the bodys of two of the convicts (who had been sent out to cut thatch for covering in the store-house), who had been most barbarously mangled and murther'd by the natives. One of the bodys had no less than seven spears in it, some of which went through and They kill through, and the skulls of both were fractured. What appears convicts. very extraordinary is that they took away no part of the provisions or cloths belonging to the unfortunate men, but the whole of their working implements had been carried off. But to return to the detachment. We still remain under canvas, no habitations Under being provided for either officers or men but what they themselves, with the assistance of four carpenters and a few others, convicts (all of no trades), has been given me for the use of the detachment, were for some time errecting, and when any of them will be finished (the whole, from the nature of this sandy soil, being obliged to be constructed of wood) is impossible for me to say; but I fear it will be a length of time before the principal hutts can Building possibly be finished, for the wood here is of so indifferent a quality huts. that we sometimes fall a number of trees before we meet with one canvas. 1788 10 July. On board the Scarborough. Gales. On the 25th November, the Governor, with Lieut. King and Lieut. Dawes of the Sirius's detachm't of marines, embark'd on board the Supply, myself and the Adjutant on board the Scarbro', and the Qr.-master, who I thought it necessary to carry with me (to take charge of such marine stores as might be landed), on board the Alexander. At 12 o'clock we parted company, and in the evening of the same day we lost sight of both the Supply and Sirius. From this time til our making the South Cape we were most fortunate in fair winds, but from thence to Botany Bay we had bafeling, and at times, strong gales. On the morning of the 19th of Jan., 1788, the Alexander, Botany Bay. Scarbro', and Friendship entered Botany Bay, where we found the Supply had arrived the evening before, and the next morning the Sirius, with the other transports and victuallers, joined us. A bad situ. ation. Port Jackson chosen. French ships in Immediately on my arrival I waited upon the Governor, whom I accompanied in quest of the most proper spot for carrying his Majesty's intention of forming a settlement on this coast into execution. Meeting with no eligible situation on this or the following day's excursion, the whole country, as far as we saw, appearing to us to be either sand, rock, or swamp, and, as far as we could judge, unfit for any kind of cultivation. From this appearance his Excellency, before he would land the detachment or the convicts, determin'd to explore the nearest harbour (mention'd by the late Captn. Cooke) to the northward. Before he left us (22nd Jan'y) he directed me to land a certain number of men on the south side of the bay every morning to fall trees and form saw-pits, in order that the whole might be set to work in errecting stores, &c., in case he did not meet with a more promising situation. On his return he inform'd me that he found Port Jackson one of the finest harbours in the world; that he had determin'd to fix the settlement in one of the many coves in it, and that he would proceed before us in the Supply, the Sirius, with the transports and victuallers, to follow as soon as possible. On the 25th, his Excellency, with a detachment of two subalt'ns, a proportion of non-commiss'd officers and twenty privates, sail'd for Port Jackson; and on the 27th the Sirius, with her convoy, with much difficulty worked out of the bay, and just as the night came on got safe into the cove, where we now are. I have to observe to their Lordships that on the day we left Botany Bay. Botany Bay two French ships of war arrived there. I found they were on a voyage of discovery, but as Governor Phillip can give their Lordships a much better account of them than I have the power of doing, I must refer their Lordships to his letter on that subject. On the 26th his Excellency directed that a number of the convicts should be landed every morning for the purpose of falling |
