Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/467

THE LITTLE PLAN. 353 immediately employed by themselves, the little progress made in 1788 clearing land that requires so much labour will be accounted for. 30 October. A letter sent from the Admiralty to the Commanding Officers of Marines at Portsmouth and Plymouth is what the officers say they govern themselves by, and in which they say no extra duty is pointed out. What I asked of officers were so very little, and so &r from being what would degrade either the officer or the gentleman in our situation, that I beg leave to repeat once more to your lordship the request I made soon after we landed, and which was made in the following words : — '< That officers would, phiiup^s when they saw the convicts diligent, say a few words of encourage- '®*i"®^ ment to them ; and that when they saw them idle, or met them straggling in the woods, they would threaten them with punish- ment." This I only desired when officers could do it without going out of their way ; it was all I asked, and was pointedly refused. They declared against what they called an interference with convicts, and I found myself obliged to give up the little "The little plan I had formed in the passage for the government of these 5^ " **^®*^ people, and which, had even that been proposed to the officers, required no more from them than the hearing any appeal the overseer might find it necessary to make, and a report from the oificer to me, or to the Judge-Advocate, if he thought it necessary, but which never has been asked of the officers, as they declined any kind of interference. The Golden Grove store-ship sailed for Norfolk Island the 2nd of October with provisions and some stores, and carried a midship- Population- . 1 J I! • .. -r, for Norfolk . man, two seamen, a sergeant, corporal, and nve privates, with idaod. twenty-one men and eleven women convicts. Their numbers will be increased in the course of the summer. The Fishbum is now fitting for sea, that she may sail with the Golden Grove, as soon as that ship returns from Noiiolk Island. The same reason which ' makes me trouble your lordship with tedious extracts from my former letters makes it necessary to point out in this letter that we at present depend entirely for Depend I)rovi8ions being sent from England ; and I beg leave to observe Engii^d?" that if a ship should be lost in the passage it might be a very con- siderable time before it could be known in England. The Sirius, from the length of the voyage, would not be able to supply this settlement from the Cape; and though the islands may furnish refreshments in great abundance to one or two ships, if the z Digitized by Google