INTRODUCTORY 11 



the commander recording his grateful congratulations that this 

 part of the voyage had been accomplished in the short space of 

 five weeks and four days. 



It was now something over five months since the fleet sailed 

 from Portsmouth, and the most serious part of the journey had yet 

 to be commenced. So far the various ports of call were more or 

 less known to navigators, having trustworthy charts, and possessing 

 most of the necessaries and conveniences of commerce. Beyond 

 the Cape, however, lay a vast expanse of ocean where there was 

 no prospect of the voyagers encountering any other vessels, and 

 where, if it became necessary to refit or to seek fresh water or pro- 

 visions, they must be entirely dependent on their own discoveries. 

 No wonder the travellers were rather low spirited at the prospect, 

 and the words of the historian, David Collins, seem to indicate the 

 general feeling of, at any rate, the voluntary passengers : " It was 

 natural," he says, "to indulge at this moment a melancholy re- 

 flection which obtruded itself on the mind. The land behind us was 

 the abode of a civilised people ; that before us was the residence 

 of savages. When, if ever, we might again enjoy the commerce of 

 the world, was doubtful and uncertain. The refreshments and the 

 pleasures of which we had so liberally partaken at the Cape were 

 to be exchanged for coarse fare and hard labour at New South 

 Wales. All communications with families and friends now cut 

 off, we were leaving the world behind us, to enter on a state 

 unknown ; and, as if it had been necessary to imprint more 

 strongly on our minds, and to render the sensations still more 

 poignant, at the close of the evening we spoke a ship from London. 

 The metropolis of our native country, its pleasures, its wealth and 

 its consequences, thus accidentally presented to our minds, failed 

 not to afford a most striking contrast with the object now prin- 

 cipally in our view." 



Fortunately, however, for the future of New South Wales, the 

 desponding frame of mind exhibited by so large a portion of the 

 staff did not prevent the authorities doing what they could to 

 ensure success. From Eio de Janeiro they had brought a liberal 

 supply of the seeds and plants of coffee, cocoa, guava and cotton, 

 which unhappily did not fructify ; with the oranges, lemons, 



