Page:History of Botany-Bay.pdf/17

( 17 ) through all descriptions of persons, particularly as the vegetable productions of the country neither abound nor are efficacious in the removal of this disease. Many other calamitous circumstances combined to aggrivate their distress; and amongst others, the whole stock of black cattle, consisting of five cows and a bull, had strayed into the woods, and notwithstanding the most diligent search could not be found. But at length, they were happily relieved by the arrival of a fleet from England with ample supplies; and from the last accounts transmitted since that time, it appears, that the produce of the country being more abundant in consequence of a better knowledge being obtained of its resources, and the fisheries proving more successful, they are now in a more comfortable situation; and their future prospects are more promising, as is evident from the last accounts, which were conveyed by Governor Philip to Lord Sydney, who caused them to be laid before the House of Commons; and which we shall here transcribe; as they tend to shew the present state of the colony, and, no doubt, prove acceptable to the reader.

“Sydney-cove, Feb. 12. 1790. I had the honour of informing your Lordship, that a settlement was intended to be made at a place I named Rose-hill. At the head of this harbour there is a creek, which, at half