Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/70

Ix AN INTRODUCTORY his brains to provide against all possible contingencies^ especially against scurvy ; for the six small transports were crowded with convicts who had been hurried on board in a shamefully neglected condition — so neglected that Phillip was obliged to supply them with clothing, and to borrow soap from the marines in order that the men and women might be well scrubbed before the ships put to sea— (pp. 43, 48, 49, 67, 490) . Phillip believed in the virtue of soap and water. The first blackfellow whom, he captured and t>amed in the colony was put in a tub and scrubbed, while he and his officers stood by to watch the process ; but he did not care to preside at the cleansing of seven hundred and fifty-six convicts covered with rags and filth. In the midst of all his anxious care and attention — ^which embraced everything he could think of, from capital punishment down to the '^ women^s cloathes " — the most important point of all never presented itself to his mind. In these days the founder of a projected colony would probably ask for some information about his colonists before he ventured to start on his expedi- tion; seeing that the success of it would* entirely depend on their capacity for colonising work. Agricultural labourers and mechanics of all kinds would be required as soon as tents were pitched ; and if no such men were in the ships, starvation would threaten the settlement on the one hand, and sickness from exposure on the other. Obvious as these matters seem to be now, they did not occur to Phillip until he was forced to think of them when he began to direct farming and building opera- tions at Sydney Cove. He did not see the men and women placed under his charge until the fleet reached Santa Cruz ; he had not even seen a list of their names and occupations. If he had known half as much about them before he sailed as he knew in the first week or two after he had landed, he would not have incurred the risk he did without strenuous efforts to remedy a neglect that he would have known to be fatal. How is this oversight to be explained ? The answer will be found by looking at the transportation system as Phillip looked at it. In his days it was an organised branch of the Government service, and had been so for a century. Convicts Digitized by Google