Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/257

SETTLEMENT IK 1792. ^15 of the disaster which overtook the Qoardian, and were ^'^ sorely troubled by the conviction that if the ships should fail they would be brought to the point of starvation. So The keen was the anxiety that Phillip made arrangements for starvation, the Pitt, which was going to India after taking convicts to Norfolk Island, to call at Calcutta, and, if the Atlantic had not been heard of, to receive on board a cargo of provisions and return to Port Jackson with all speed. Fortunately, however, her services were not required. The circumstances under which the Pitt was sent from England were not realised by the Governor at once. When she was unloaded, he discovered that, although she had on board only a small quantity of provisions for public use, she had brought out four thousand pounds' worth of goods, which were sold privately in the settlement. Besides this, Prhnue she had articles on board which the Commissaiy was obliged to purchase. It also appears that public stores, placed on board in the first instance, were sent on shore to make room for '^ private trade." Phillip called attention to the facts The Ktfs in a despatch written seven months after the arrival of the vessel, but not with the indignation the circumstances would have justified.* The Pitt was despatched at a critical time. If she had been well provisioned, the colony, on her arrival, would have experienced material relief ; sent out as she was, with only a small quantity of salt provisions for the public stores, and a considerable number of convicts, she brought only disappointment and vexation. In striking contrast to other accounts of the state of the settlement at, and immediately following, the arrival of • Phillip to Dtindas.— Historical Becords, toI. i, part 2, p. 649. "A shop Tiras opened at a hut on nhorc for the sale of the rarioas articles brought out in the Pitt ; and notwithstanding that a fleet of transports had but lately sailed hence, notwithstanding the different orders wBioh bad been sent to Bengal, and the high price at which ererything was sold, the avidity with which aU descriptions of people grasped at what was to be purchased was extxaocrdinary." — Collins, vol. i, p. 202.