102 THE NEW SOUTH WALES CORPS. 1780-00 j^ ^as intended in the first instance to send out the four companies with Major Grose by the end of the year 1789. Writing to Phillip on the 24th December of that year, Gren- ville informed him that a detachment^ consisting of about one hundred officers and men, had been put on board the Surprize, Scarborough, and Neptune, and that the remainder, consisting of upwards of two hundred more, under, the com- mand of Major Grose, would embark at Portsmouth, on board oriffioai his Majesty's ship Gorgon, in the course of a few days. The corSSi out. first part of the plan was carried out, but not the second. The Neptune, Surprize, and Scarborough sailed on the 17th January, 1790. According to a statement dated the 21st December, 1789* (apparently an enclosure to Grenville's despatch of the 24th idemf), the detachment of the Corps embarked on these vessels was distributed as follows : — Wj^button On the Neptune: Captain Nepean, Lieutenant Macarthur, and forty-three non-commissioned officers and privates. On the Surprize: Captain Hill, Ensign Prentice, Mr. Harris (Surgeon's Mate), and twenty-eight non-commissioned officers and privates. On the Scarborough : Lieutenants Abbott and Townson, and thirty-two non-commissioned officers and privates. In all, seven officers and one hundred and three non- commissioned officers and men. The names of the officers on each ship are not given in the official papers ; but they are mentioned by Mrs. Macarthur in her journal.J Beyond the narrative sent by Captain Hill to Mr. Wilber- force,§ and the journal kept by Mrs. Macarthur, || nothing descriptive of the voyage is known to have been preserved. Convict Captain Hill's letter is valuable as the testimony of an eye- on bran, witness to the ill-treatment the convicts received on board the transports ; and although Mrs. Macarthur's journal ia
- Historical Records, yoI. ii, p. 482.
t Historical Records, toI. i, part 2, p. 284. t Historical Records, yoI. ii, p. 489. § Historical Records, vol. i, part 2, p. 366. II Historical Records, vol. ii, p. 487. sports.
