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the famine time, Collins says, the little society that was in the place was broken up, and every man seemed left to brood in solitary silence over the dreary prospect before him.

With the exception of the Johnsons, the only free women and children in the settlement were the families of the marines, and it was not until the arrival of the New South Wales Corps, in the ships of the Second and Third Fleets, that a 'Government House set' began to loom on the social horizon.

Many of the officers of the regiment were men of good family. Major Grose, who brought with him a Commission as Lieutenant-Governor, and was accompanied by his wife, was a man who had seen much active service, and it was at his suggestion, and by him, that the corps was raised. The senior captain was a brother of Nepean, the Under-Secretary to the Home Department, and Macarthur, the senior lieutenant (whose name will be remembered when all 215