roo ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH COLONY [June^ 



the rifk of bringing them out having been rnoft injudicioufly efti- 

 mated too. highly, as was evident from- the increafe on the firft coff, 

 which could not be difguifed, they did not go off fo quickly as the 

 owners fuppofed they would. 



A report having been circulated foon after the eftablilhing of' 

 this fettlement, that a confiderable fum of money had been fub- 

 fcribed in England, to be expended in< articles for the benefit of the 

 convi&s who had embarked, which articles had been entrufted to the 

 Rev. Mr. Johnfon, to be difpofed of according to the intention of the 

 fubfcribers, Mr. Johnfon wrote to his friends in England to confute 

 this report ; and by the accounts lately received, it appeared that no 

 luch public collection had ever been made. At Mr. Johnfon's requeft, 

 therefore, the Governor publifhed a contradiction of the above report 

 in the general orders. The convicts had hitherto imagined that they 

 had a right to the articles which had from time to time been distri- 

 buted among them; but Mr. Johnfon thought it neceflary that they 

 mould know it was to his bounty alone that they were indebted for 

 them, and that, confequently, the partakers of it were to be of his 

 own felec~tion. 



The female convicts who had lately arrived attended divine fervice 

 on the firft Sunday after their landing ; when Mr. Johnfon, with much 

 propriety, in his difcourfe, touched upon their fituation fo forcibly as 

 to draw tears from many of thefe unfortunates, who were not yet fo 

 hardened as to be infenfible to truth* 



Early on the morning of the 23d, a fail to the northward was dif? 

 cerned from the look-out; but the weather coming on thick it was 

 foon loft fight of. The bad weather continuing, it was not feen again 

 until the 25th, when word was carried to the fettlement, that a large 

 Ihip, apparently under jury-mafts, was feen in the offing; and on the 

 following day the Surprife transport anchored in the cove from Eng. 

 land, having on board, including officers and men, thirty of the New, 

 South Wales corps ; together with two hundred and eighteen convicts. 

 She failed on the 19th of January from Portfmouth, in company with"; 



6 two 5 



