Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/145

FOR THE EXPEDITION. 47 public interest tlian of his own. He did not even know 1787 what salary and allowances it was proposed to attach to ^aw*- his appointment. As to that matter, he was informed in a letter from Whitehall, dated 20th April, that — It will be proposed to Parliament in a few days to fix your Saiaiy. salary as Governor at £1,000 per annum nett, which, with the pay of the Sirius, is judged to be a proper allowance for the sup- port of the stations you are appointed to fill. You will also be allowed a contingent charge of 5s. per diem for the pay of a sec- retary, and X20 per annum for stationery. On another delicate matter, he was roughly told that — With regard to the compensation you solicit by way of table Table money, I am to inform you that no allowance whatever of that sort can be granted to you. In answer to his memo, with respect to the site of the intended settlement, he received very pointed instructions : — There can be no objection to your establishing any part of the No delay in territory or islands upon the coast of New South Wales, in the ing.™ neighbourhood of Botany Bay, which you may consider as more advantageously situated for the principal settlement ; but at the same time you must understand that you are not allowed to delay the disembarkation of the establishment upon your arrival on the coast, upon the pretence of searching after a more eligible place than Botany Bay. In another letter to Sydney, written on the 12th March, Phillip — evidently feeling the weight of responsibility that lay on his shoulders, and anxious to avoid the false position in which he might ultimately find himself placed through the negligence of others — sought to impress on his lord- ship the necessity for immediate action in order to avert disaster. From the manner in which the marines and con- victs were crowded together on board the ships, coupled pean of with the unsatisfactory arrangements for victualling them, bwuSu" ^ he thought it '^more than probable" that half the men might be lost on the voyage. But for his persistent repre- sentations on these matters, it is not at all unlikely that the First Fleet — ^instead of arriving, as it did, with healthy crews Digitized by Google