82 DESPATCHES ^'^ quite out of their power to take tip land under the conditions laid down. So far from being able to maintain, feed, and clothe convict servants, they would not have been able, as settlers, to support themselves. It was only possible to place Fed by the sottlcrs upou the Boil by giving to each man provisions from ment. the store for a year or two, and convict servants, who were to be supplied with food and provisions form the same source. Phillip settled the question in a few words : — " No soldier or oliher person in this settlement could at present accept of the assistance of convicts in caltivating the land which might be granted them on the conditions pointed out in the Instructions — 'of feeding and cloathing them.' I believe, sir, that it will be little less than two years from the time of granting the lands before those lands will suppcwrt the cultivators."* PhiUip Phillip had, in fact, anticipated the Royal Instructions, ftnticipcites J. ■/ wa ^ for he proposed in his despatch of 13th February, 1790, that the first settlers should be allowed a certain number of convicts for two years, who were to be supported during that time at the expense of the Crown.t Phillip also felt called upon to reply to that part of Gren- ville's despatch in which it was intimated that but for the expense that had been incurred the Minister would have Site of the felt inclined to recommend that Norfolk Island should be .fiettlement. ^ ^ made the principal settlement. We have here another example of the indiBEerence displayed by the English authorities. While Grenville took no notice of Phillip's dis- tinct and oft-repeated warning against flooding the settle- ment with convicts, he went out of his way to express an
- Historical Becords, toL i, part 2, p. 347.
t " As the labour of clearing the j^nnd of timber will be great, I think «ach settler shoald not have less than twenty men on his farm, which I sup- pose to be from five hundred to one thousand acres ; it will be neoessaiy to give that number of conyicts to those settlers who come out, and to sup- port them for two years from the public stores ; in that time, if they are in any ways industrious — and I do not think they will be able to do it in less tine — at the expiration of the two years they may return half the conricta they hare been allowed, and woald want no further assistance from GtoYcnt- ment." — Phillip to Sydney, Historical Jtaoords, vol. i, part 2, p. 806.
