THE SEA. 



SINGAPORE, LOOKING SEAWARDS. 



of its shores. Rounding the western side, lie proceeded northwards to Torres Straits, near 

 which, on a small island off the mainland, he took possession of the whole country, 

 in the name of his sovereign, George III., christening it New South Wales. It is still 

 called Possession Island. Captain Cook gave so favourable an account of Botany Bay on 

 his return, that it was determined at once to form a colony, in which convict labour 

 should be systematically employed. Accordingly, a fleet of eleven vessels, under Captain 

 Phillip, left Portsmouth on the 13th of May, 1787, and after a tedious voyage, reached 

 Botany Bay the following January. 



Captain Phillip found the bay was not a safe anchorage, and in other respects was 

 unsuitable. A few miles to the northward he discovered an inlet, now named Port 

 Jackson from the name of the seaman who discovered it and which had been over- 

 looked by Cook. The fleet was immediately removed thither, the convicts landed, 

 and the British flag raised on the banks of Sydney Cove. Of the thousand individuals 

 who formed this first nucleus of a grand colony, more than three-fourths were convicted 

 offenders. For some time they were partially dependent on England for supplies. It had 

 been arranged that they should not, at first, be left without sufficient provisions. The 

 first ship sent out after the colonists had been landed for this purpose was struck by 

 an iceberg in the neighbourhood of the Cape of Good Hope, and might not have been 

 saved at all, but for the seamanship of the "gallant, good Riou," who afterwards lost 

 his life at the battle of Copenhagen. He managed to keep her afloat, and she was at 

 length towed into Table Bay, and a portion of her stores saved. Meantime, the colonists 

 were living "in the constant belief that they should one day perish of hunger/' 

 Governor Phillip set a noble example by putting himself on the same rations as the 



