"Have the French settled their government?"
"As to that matter I can't say; I never heard; but, damn them,
they were ready enough to join the Spaniards against us."
"Are Russia and Turkey at peace?"
"That you see does not lie in my way; I have heard talk about it,
but don't remember what passed."
"For heaven's sake, why did you not bring out a bundle of newspapers?
You might have procured a file at any coffee house, which would have
amused you, and instructed us?"
"Why, really, I never thought about the matter until we were off
the Cape of Good Hope, when we spoke a man of war, who asked us
the same question, and then I wished I had."
To have prosecuted inquiry farther would have only served to increase
disappointment and chagrin. 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. Exclusive of these, the
'Salamander', (Captain Nichols) who, of 155 men lost only five; and the
'William and Anne' (Captain Buncker) who of 187 men lost only seven,
I find most worthy of honourable mention. In the list of convicts brought out
was Barrington, of famous memory.
Two of these ships also added to our geographic knowledge of the country.
The 'Atlantic', under the direction of Lieutenant Bowen, a naval agent,
ran into a harbour between Van Diemen's land, and Port Jackson,
in latitude 35 degrees 12 minutes south, longitude 151 degrees east, to which,
in honour of Sir John Jervis, Knight of the Bath, Mr. Bowen gave the name
of Port Jervis.
