We Therefore Quitted The Ship, Wondering
And Lamenting That So Large A Portion Of Plain Undisguised Honesty
Should Be So Totally Unconnected With A Common Share Of Intelligence,
And Acquaintance With The Feelings And Habits Of Other Men.
By the governor's letters we learned that a large fleet of transports,
with convicts on board, and His Majesty's ship Gorgon, (Captain Parker)
might soon be expected to arrive.
The following intelligence
which they contained, was also made public.
That such convicts as had served their period of transportation,
were not to be compelled to remain in the colony; but that no
temptation should be offered to induce them to quit it, as there
existed but too much reason to believe, that they would return
to former practices; that those who might choose to settle in the
country should have portions of land, subject to stipulated
restrictions, and a portion of provisions assigned to them on
signifying their inclinations; and that it was expected, that
those convicts who might be possessed of means to transport
themselves from the country, would leave it free of all
incumbrances of a public nature.
The rest of the fleet continued to drop in, in this and the two
succeeding months. The state of the convicts whom they brought out,
though infinitely preferable to what the fleet of last year had landed,
was not unexceptionable. Three of the ships had naval agents on board
to control them. Consequently, if complaint had existed there,
it would have been immediately redressed.
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