Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/390

 278 ISLAND WOMBHT. - 1788 of Cook's Voyages. Instead of equalising the sexes in the ifiM^. first instance, the Government instructed Phillip to get women from the islands at every opportunity.* No ob- jection to such a heartless proceeding presented itself to Miniateriai Sydney OT his colleagues, so long as neither '' compulsive ^ ^^' . measures'* nor '^fallacious pretences" were made use of for the purpose ; nor were they deterred by the prospect of creating such a race as would have resulted from the intermixture of convicts and savages. Although Phillip, while in England,t entertained the common idea that island women might be added toiiherpopn- lation as easily as live stock, a very short experience in the colony seems to have satisfied him that it would  answer no other purpose than that of bringing them to pine away in Phfflip'8 j^ misery. The only course he could adopt under the circum- stances was to represent the futility of the proposal, and the consequent necessity for sending out more women as soon as possible. The result was that two hundred and twenty- two females, " many of them, says Collins,  loaded with wiyes for ^16 infirmities incident to old age," were sent out in the next ^ ** transport — ^the Lady Juliana — which arrived in June, 1790, two years after Phillip's despatch was written. In record- iz^ her arrival, Collins, appsurently unmindful of the social problem which Phillip had to solve, expressed his surprise Unprofitable that ^^ a cargo so unnecessary and unprofitable as two hun«i dred and twenty- two females " should have been sent out, instead of a supply of provisions. But circumstances had altered during the interval between the date of Phillip's request for more women and the arrival of the Lady Juliana. the Expedition oontains the following item : — " Women intended to be brought from the Friendly lalands, two hundred at half allowance, £109." In the serai-official sketch of the Expedition, Preferred to in Lord Sydney's letten to the Treasury and Admiralty, it was proposed that the tender should be ** employed in conveying to m& new settlement a further number of women from the Friendly IsUniu, New Caledonia, kc," ; because^ " wxtii- out a sufficient proportion of that sex^ it would be impoasihle to preserve the settlement from gross irregularities and disorders '^ ; post, p. 4$i, t Ante, pp. 40, 46. Digitized by Google
 * Post, p. 486. The official estimate of expeaditure in oonnection with