209 STATE OF THE SETTLEMENT IN 1792. The despatch written by Phillip on the 19th March, 1792, 1793 the last year of his Governorship, shows that the difficulties Difflcuities under which the colony had so long laboured still existed, privatiom. The sick convicts brought by the Third Fleet in the winter of 1791 were a burden on the settlement; the want of implements to till the land, and clothing to protect the people from the weather, was severely felt.^ There was practically no live stock, and the colony was still threatened with star- vation. Want of sufficient food told on the strensfth of Emaciftted ^ convicts. the labourers, while the survivors of the convicts who had been landed sick from the transports became so weak that they were incapable of doing any work. This occurred at a time when the absence of the expected supplies from England, and the uncertainty that was felt as to the time of their arrival, made progress with cultivation a matter of vital importance. The hours of labour were few — they did not amount, according to CoUins's reckoning, to more than three days per weekf — and the men who could work were so convicts unftble prostrated that their services were of little value.J Under to work.
- ** The clothing which was received for the use of the convicts is so very
slight that most of the people are naked a few weeks after they have been clothed." — Phillip to Dundas, Historical Records, toI. i, part 2, p. 596. t " One day in each week was dedicated to issuing provisions, and the labour of the other fire (with interruptions from bad weather, and the plea of tbe reduced ration) did not amount in all to three good working-days. — Collins, vol. i, p. 207. Phillip, writing to Nepean on 29th March, 1792, informed him that hours of labour were from 5 a.in. to 9 a.m., and from 4 p.m. to 5 SO p.m. — Historical Records, vol. i, part 2, p. 610. X Writing of this state of thines, in February, Collins states (vol. i, p. 201) : —
- The convicts employed in cultivating and clearing public ground beyond
Parramatta, having been landed in a weak and sickly state, wore in general a most miserable and emaciated appearsnce, and numbers of them died daily. The reduced ration by no means contributed to their amendment." VOL. IL —
