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 1788 he wrote that 'the country would not support itself for a hundred years.' Another writer described it as 'the outcast of God's works.'

The first news from the settlement sent home via China by the returning transports did not reach England until March 1789, when letters down to November 1788 all came in together. No storeship had up to that date been ordered for despatch to Botany Bay.

The Home Office was at this time the department for the administration of the Colonies, and Sydney, who was at the head of it, did not even reply to Phillip's despatches, but in April he gave instructions that a man-of-war should be got in readiness to carry provisions to the settlement. At the same time he arranged for the despatch of another batch of convicts, totally disregarding Phillip's statements that clothing, implements and provisions were urgently needed, and that more useless mouths to feed would mean disaster.

In June 1789 Lord Sydney resigned office and was succeeded by Lord Grenville. His first despatch to Phillip was the first communication, after more than three years' absence from England, that Phillip had received from his superiors.

In this letter Grenville informs the Governor of