THE SECOND FLEET. 69 requested to give certificates of the number of convicts ^^^ landed^ so that the oflScers might claim the reward.* This was an improvement on the terms under which the transport Boddingtons was chartered in the year 1793. The amount to be paid to the contractor (Mr. William P*yn»«|t Richards, junior) t was to be £22 per head for each con- vict. This was £4 2s. 6d. more per head than the sum paid to the owners of the vessels of the Second Fleet, but there was an important condition in the contract. The sum of £5 per head was kept back, and was only payable on the pro- duction of a certificate from the Governor that so many convicts had been landed; for every convict who died at sea the contractors lost £5.1 The effect of these different Effect of the new measures was that the owners, the masters, and the surgeons reguiatioM. in charge became pecuniarily interested in the welfare of the convicts. It is scarcely necessary to say that under the new system the abuses which led to the wholesale destruc- tion of life on board the vessels of the Second and Third Fleets had no existence. The necessity that existed for changing the system was shown not only by the doings on board the vessels of the Second Fleet, but by the case of the Queen, transport, which S^^J "*• arrived in October, 1791. In this instance a complaint was ^•'^^p^^ made to Phillip, who caused a magisterial inquiry to be held. The evidence proved that provisions had been deliberately Defmudinj and fraudulently kept back from the convicts. § Phillip did Seir foodl not attempt to inflict any penalty, but sent a copy of the proceedings to Lord Grenville, explaining that he adopted this course because he doubted if he had " the power of inflicting a punishment adequate to the crime." || Phillip
- nistoricfil Becords, toI. ii, p. 134.
t A good deal of correspondence passed between Mr. Bichards and Sir Joseph Banks on the subject of transporting and maintaining conyicts. See Historical Becords, toI. i, part 2, pp. 508-519, 522, 624, 652, 580, 625, 636, 642, 670. X Collins, Tol. i, pp. 304-305. § The eridenoe taken in this case and the finding of the Court -will be found printed at length in the Historical Records, vol. ii, pp. 453 et seq. II Historical Records, toL i, part 2, p. 538.
