6 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



The wind had been favourable for a start for a whole week, but 

 with all his professed anxiety to get away before it changed, it was 

 not till Thursday, the 10th of May, that he made signal for sailing. 

 Then an unexpected difficulty arose to check his impetuosity in the 

 discovery of an incipient mutiny amongst the sailors of the trans- 

 ports, who, not having the fear of naval discipline before their eyes, 

 refused to work unless they were paid up to the date of their de- 

 parture. As most of them had already been employed on board 

 their respective ships for nearly six months, and many declared 

 that they wanted to purchase absolute necessities of outfit for so 

 long a voyage, it did not seem an unreasonable demand. Their 

 dissatisfaction was naturally enhanced by the knowledge that the 

 sailors of the Sirius and the Supply had received the usual advance 

 of two months' wages, in accordance with the practice of the Royal 

 Navy on extended cruises. But these were the days of high- 

 handed authority in matters marine, and Captain Phillip was equal 

 to the occasion. The Hycena, frigate, had been appointed by the 

 Admiralty to the special duty of accompanying the fleet for a dis- 

 tance of 100 miles clear of the English Channel, and he directed 

 the masters of the respective transports to put their recalcitrant 

 seamen on board that ship, receiving in exchange an equal number 

 of blue-jackets, to be afterwards re-exchanged at sea. Half a 

 dozen in all succeeded in deserting, but the ringleaders having 

 been safely transferred to the man-of-war, the embryo mutiny 

 collapsed, and on Saturday morning, the 12th of May, the signal 

 was once more hoisted for sailing. Before the entire fleet had 

 weighed anchor the wind which had so long blown from a favour- 

 ing quarter fell dead, and the night found all brought up again off 

 Spithead, barely a mile away from the quarters occupied for be- 

 tween two and three months. But the fates could not continue 

 permanently adverse, and at daybreak next morning (Sunday, 13th 

 May, 1787) the whole fleet passed out through the Needles, and 

 shaped a western course down Channel with a favouring breeze 

 and the bright sunshine that makes the white cliffs of old England 

 such a picturesque sight. 



The wind falling light it took three days to clear the Channel, 

 and that time was quite long enough to show that the progress of 



