5 6 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



La Perouse. Captain Phillip sailed out in the Supply, and gave a welcome to the 

 celebrated Frenchman, whose ships came to an anchor in Botany Bay just as the ten 

 English vessels were leaving. The convict squadron was soon within the shelter of Port 

 lackson, and in the evening all the men were assembled, the Union Jack was run up 

 to the top of a. flag-staff that had just been erected, and with three volleys they 

 signalized the termination of their long and dreary voyage. 



A canvas house was put up for the Governor on the east side of the Cove, and 

 round it was formed a small garden wherein might be cultivated the fig, the orange and 

 the grape, of which young plants had been brought from the Cape. The live stock was 

 landed, and on the 6th of February, when the settlement began to look a little com- 

 fortable, the women went on shore. On the following day the marines were drawn up 

 in a square, on a slope afterwards known as D awes' Point, and the Governor's commis- 

 sion was read. He then addressed the convicts, and in a speech of much earnestness 

 besought them to consult their own happiness and welfare by leading praiseworthy lives 

 in their new abode. 



Judged by his correspondence, which has but recently been published in the work 

 already quoted, Phillip had an arduous time of it in arranging all the details of the 

 great undertaking which had been entrusted to his command. He appears to have made 

 written notes of any ideas that occurred to him in connection with it, and in a marked 

 degree these notes display the keen foresight and judgment which distinguished the man ; 

 many of them betray only his want of knowledge of the land in which he was about 

 to settle ; and some are absolutely quaint in their suggestiveness : As, for instance, in 

 referring to the probable necessity for inflicting capital punishment on the convicts, he 

 says : " I should think it will never be necessary. In fact I doubt if the fear of death 

 ever prevented a man of no principle from committing a bad action. There are two 

 crimes that would merit death, and for either of them I should wish to confine the 

 criminal till an opportunity offered of delivering him as a prisoner to the natives of New 

 Zealand, and let them eat him. The dread of this will operate much stronger than the 

 fear of death " And again, in contemplation of the social and domestic difficulties of the 

 position, which might well have alarmed a more worldly-minded man than the conscien- 

 tious sailor, he says : " The women (convicts) in general, I should suppose, possess 

 neither virtue nor honesty. . . . The natives may, it is probable, permit their women 

 to marry the men (convicts) after a certain time. . . . Women may be brought from 

 the Friendly and other islands, a proper place prepared to receive them, and where 

 they will be supported for a time, and lots of land assigned to such as marry with the 

 soldiers of the garrison." Then, with perhaps some prevision of the future greatness of 

 the nation he was about to found with such unpromising materials, he writes : " As I 

 would not wish convicts to lay the foundation of an empire, I think they should ever 

 remain separated from the garrison and other settlers that may come from Europe ; and 

 not be allowed to mix with them, even after the seven or fourteen years for which they 

 are transported may be expired." 



A hard task, however, lay before him, for he had been instructed by the English 

 Government to make the colony self-supporting, and two years were allowed in which to 

 secure by farming and other industries at least half the sustenance of the people under his 



