clothing for the marines; together with a large quantity of blankets and bedding for the hospital; and a large supply of unmade clothing for the convicts; with an ample assortment of tools and implements of agriculture. At the Cape of Good Hope Lieutenant Riou took on board a quantity of stock for the settlement, and completed a garden which had been prepared under the inmediate inspection of Sir Joseph Banks, and in which there were one hundred and fifty of the finest fruit trees, several of them bearing fruit. There was scarcely an officer in the colony that had not his share of private property embarked on board of this richly-freighted ship.

But how painful was it to the starving settlers to learn, that on the 23d day of December preceding, the Guardian struck against an island of ice in latitude 45 deg. 44 min. south, and longitude 41 deg. 30 min. east, whereby she received so much injury, that Lieutenant Riou was compelled, in order to save her from instantly sinking, to throw overboard the greatest part of her valuable cargo, both on the public and private account.

When Lieut. Edgar with the Juliana, arrived at the Cape, he found the Guardian lying there, Lieut. Riou having just safely regained that port, from which he had sailed but a short time before, with every fair prospect of speedily and happily executing the orders with which he was entrusted, and of conveying to the colony the assistance of which it stood so much in need. Unhappily for them, she was now lying a wreck, with difficulty, and at an immense expence, preserved from sinking at her anchors.

One-third of the stores and provisions intended for the colony were put on board the transport, the remaining twothirds were on board the Guardian. In addition to the above distressing circumstance, they learned that one thousand convicts were to sail at the latter end of the last year. The joy which had been diffused by the arrival of the transport was considerably checked by the variety of unpleasant and unwelcome intelligence which she conveyed.

On the 6th, preparations were made for landing the convicts from the Lady Juliana; but in the distressed situation of the colony, it was not a little mortifying to find on board the first ship that arrived, a cargo so unnecessary and unprofitable as two hundred and twenty-two females, instead of a cargo of provisions; the most of them, however, appeared in good health, and to have been well treated during their long passage. The supply of provisions on board her was so inconsiderable as to permit only an addition of one pound and a half of flour being made in the weekly ration. Had the Guardian arrived, probably the settlement would never more have experienced want.

When the women landed on the 11th, many of them appeared to be loaded with the infirmities incident to old age, and to be very improper subjects for any of the purposes of an infant colony. Instead of being capable of labour, they seemed to require attendance themselves, and were never likely to be any other than a burthen to the settlement, which must sensibly feel the hardship of having to support by the labour of those who could toil, and who at the best were but few, a description of people utterly incapable of using exertion toward their own maintenance. Much of the flour, when disembarked, was found totally destroyed, which was considered, in the present situation of the colony, a serious loss. On the 20th, however, the colony was restored to comfort, by the arrival of the Justinian storeship, from England, after a short passage of only five months, by which they learned that three transports might be hourly expected, having on board the thousand convicts of whom they had before heard, together with detachments of a corps raised for the service of this country.

On the day following the arrival of the Justinian, every thing seemed getting into its former train; the full ration was ordered to be issued; instead of daily, it was to be served weekly as formerly; and the drum for labour was to beat as usual in the afternoons at one o'clock. How general was the wish that no future necessity might ever occasion another reduction of the ration, or an alteration in the labour of the people!

A shop was opened on shore by the master of this ship at a hut lately occupied as a bakehouse for the Supply, for the sale of some articles of grocery, glass, millinery, perfumery, and stationary; but the risk of bringing them out having been most injudiciously estimated too highly, as was evident from the increase on the first cost, which could not be disguised, they did not go off so quickly as the owners supposed they would.

CHAP. IX.

Three Transports arrive-Horrid State of the Transports on BoardMortality and Number of Sick-A Party sent to Rose Hill-Grants of Land-The Governor wounded by a Native-Intercourse opened with the Natives Convicts abscond with a boat-Visit from the Natives-Supply returns from Batavia-Differences with the Natives.

EARLY on the morning of the 23d, a sail to the northward was discerned from the look-out; but the weather coming on thick, it was soon lost sight of. The bad weather continuing, it was not seen again until the 25th, when word was carried to the settlement, that a large ship, apparently under jury-masts, was seen in the offing; and, on the following day, the Surprise transport anchored in the cove from England, having on board, including officers and men, thirty of the New South Wales corps; together with two hundred and eighteen convicts. She sailed on the 19th of January from Portsmouth, in company with two other transports, with whom she parted between the Cape of Good Hope and Port Jackson.

They had the mortification to learn, that the prisoners in this ship were very unhealthy, upwards of one hundred being at that time on the sick list on board. They had been very sickly also during the passage, and had buried forty-two of these unfortunate people. A portable hospital had most fortunately been received by the Justinian, and there now appeared but too great a probability that they soon would have patients enough to fill it; for the signal was flying at the South head for the other transports, and they were expected to be in as unhealthy a state as that which had just arrived.

On the evening of the 28th the Neptune and Scarborough transports anchored off Garden Island, and were warped into the Cove on the following morning. Nor were they mistaken in their fears of the state in which they might arrive, as by noon the following day, two hundred sick had been landed from the different transports. The west side afforded a scene truly distressing and miserable; upwards of thirty tents were pitched in front of the hospital (the portable one not being yet put up); all of which, as well as the adjacent huts, were filled with people, many of whom were labouring under the complicated diseases of scurvy and the dysentery, and others in the last stage of either of those terrible disorders, or yielding to the attacks of an infectious fever.

The appearance of those who did not require medical assistance was lean and emaciated. Several of these miserable people died in the boats as they were rowing on shore, or on the wharf as they were lifted out of the boats; both the living and the dead exhibited more horrid spectacles than had ever been witnessed in that country. All this was to be attributed to-confinement, and of the worst species, confinement in a small space, and in irons, not put on singly, but many of them chained together. On board the Scarborough a plan had been formed to take the ship, which would certainly have been attempted, but for a discovery which was fortunately made by one of the convicts who had too much principle to enter into it. This necessarily, on board that ship, occasioned much future circumspection; but Captain Marshall's humanity considerably lessened the severity which the insurgents might naturally have expected. On board the other ships, the masters, who had the entire direction of the prisoners, never suffered them to be at large on deck, and but few at a time were permitted there. This consequently gave birth to many diseases. It was said that on board the Neptune several had died in irons; and what added to the horror of such a circumstance was, that their deaths were concealed, for the purpose of sharing their allowance of provisions, until chance, and the offensiveness of a corpse, directed the surgeon, or some one who had authority in the ship, to the spot where it lay.

A contract had been entered into by government with Messrs Calvert, Camden, and King, merchants, of London, for the transporting of one thousand convicts, and government engaged to pay 171. 7s. 6d. per head for every convict they embarked. This sum being as well for their provisions as for their transportation, no interest for their preservation was created in the owners, and the dead were more profitable (if profit alone was consulted by them, and the credit of their house was not at stake) than the living.

The total number of sick on the last day of June was three hundred and forty-nine. The melancholy which closed this month appeared unchanged in the beginning of July. The morning generally opened with depositing in the buryingground the miserable victims of the night. Every exertion was made to get up the portable hospital; but, notwithstanding they had been assured that it had been put up in London in a very few hours, they could not complete it until the 7th, when it was instantly filled with patients. On the 13th, there were four hundred and eighty-eight persons under medical treatment, at and about the hospital-a dreadful sick list!

Such of the convicts from the ships as were in a tolerable state of health were sent to Rose Hill, to be employed in agricultural and other labour. A subaltern's detachment from the New South Wales corps was at the same time sent there to assist the marine corps in performing the military duty.

H