Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/105

PBOK ENGLAND. 85 Bnt even if Phillip had chosen the head of the harbour ^'^^^ as the site for the settlement^ the fact would have made little difference to the future of Sydney. Parramatta would J^p**^ have been the principal town, but it would not have kept Sydney- its position. For a time, indeed, it did enjoy the distinction. When it was discovered that there was better land in the neighbourhood than any that could be found near Sydney Cove the bulk of the population settled there, and Sydney was only second in importance. In fact, so little was thought of it that Tench, writing in December, 1791, described it as follows : — " This place (Sydney) had long been considered only as a dep6t WSJJ^ for stores. It exhibited nothing but a few old scattered huts and some sterile gardens. Cultivation of the ground was abandoned, and all our strength transferred to Rose Hill." * But the growth of the colony caused Parramatta to lose its pride of place, and the principal port of the colony became also its chief city. Phillip had scarcely finished writing his reply to Grenville^s despatch of the 20th June, 1789, when the Justinian arrived with that of the 24th August, 1 789.t This was the despatch in which Phillip was enjoined to be careful in the distribution Economy of the provisions sent by the Lady Juliana and Guardian, and Phuiip. urged to use every exertion to make the colony independent of the mother country for its supply of provisions. These injunctions show the anxiety of the Government to keep down the expenditure, and to get rid of the burden of provisioning the colony as speedily as possible. But they need not have been written. Phillip had been provident from the first; and the sharp experience of the last six months had taught him to be more careful than ever of the stores. As to the exhortation to do his best to make An oneaiiad- for the colony self-supporting, he might have answered it by exhortation. quoting his own despatches, which show that this object had • Tench, Complete Account, p. 158. t Historical Becorde, toI. i, part 2, pp. 252 and 260.