Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/419

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and every convict "half a pint of spirits made into grog," that they all might drink his Majesty's health and be happy. Even at this early period of his administration, Phillip had gained a reputation for kindness and generosity in dealing with his unfortnnate subjects; for White, in mentioning "this act of lenity and mercy," speaks of "many others which the Governor had shown." Night-time was dis- tinguished by "an immense bonfire," in place of a general illumination, which everybody went forth to see ; the cele- brations of the day concluding with a supper at Govern- ment House, where Phillip and his guests "terminated the day in pleasantry, good humour, and cheerfulness." During all the festivities of the occasion, however, it was noticed that Phillip was " in great pain from a return of his complaint"—an attack which had seized him in the side and loins, brought on by his having slept several nights on the wet ground at Broken Bay, before he was perfectly recovered from the complaint which had attacked almost everyone after the arrival of the Fleet. His sufferings had been aggravated by "a fall into a hollow place in the ground, concealed by the long grass," while he was out on Bis last expedition in April. But "though his countenance too plainly indicated the torture which he suffered " while entertaining his guests on the royal birthday," he took every method in his power to conceal it, lest it should break in upon the festivity and harmony of the day." This attack seems to have troubled him greatly for a long time after- wards. In February, 1790, he told Evan Nepean, in reply to a passage in one of Boss's letters twitting him with his absence from head-quarters on " parties of pleasure," that "a journey I made soon after we landed fixed a complaint in my side which has rendered the fatigues of examining the country round us not parties of pleasure, but parties in which nothing but a sense of duty and necessity would make me engage"; and that his absence on a certain occasion took place "at a time when my state of health was such that I should have been pleased to remain in my bed, rather than