278 ISLAND WOMBHT. - 1788 of Cook's Voyages. Instead of equalising the sexes in the ifiM^. first instance, the Government instructed Phillip to get women from the islands at every opportunity.* No ob- jection to such a heartless proceeding presented itself to Miniateriai Sydney OT his colleagues, so long as neither compulsive ^ ^^' . measures'* nor '^fallacious pretences" were made use of for the purpose ; nor were they deterred by the prospect of creating such a race as would have resulted from the intermixture of convicts and savages. Although Phillip, while in England,t entertained the common idea that island women might be added toiiherpopn- lation as easily as live stock, a very short experience in the colony seems to have satisfied him that it would answer no other purpose than that of bringing them to pine away in Phfflip'8 j^ misery. The only course he could adopt under the circum- stances was to represent the futility of the proposal, and the consequent necessity for sending out more women as soon as possible. The result was that two hundred and twenty- two females, " many of them, says Collins, loaded with wiyes for ^16 infirmities incident to old age," were sent out in the next ^ ** transport — ^the Lady Juliana — which arrived in June, 1790, two years after Phillip's despatch was written. In record- iz^ her arrival, Collins, appsurently unmindful of the social problem which Phillip had to solve, expressed his surprise Unprofitable that ^^ a cargo so unnecessary and unprofitable as two hun«i dred and twenty- two females " should have been sent out, instead of a supply of provisions. But circumstances had altered during the interval between the date of Phillip's request for more women and the arrival of the Lady Juliana.
- Post, p. 486. The official estimate of expeaditure in oonnection with
the Expedition oontains the following item : — " Women intended to be brought from the Friendly lalands, two hundred at half allowance, £109." In the serai-official sketch of the Expedition, Preferred to in Lord Sydney's letten to the Treasury and Admiralty, it was proposed that the tender should be ** employed in conveying to m& new settlement a further number of women from the Friendly IsUniu, New Caledonia, kc," ; because^ " wxtii- out a sufficient proportion of that sex^ it would be impoasihle to preserve the settlement from gross irregularities and disorders '^ ; post, p. 4$i, t Ante, pp. 40, 46. Digitized by Google
