Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/436

 322 THE HOSPITAL. 1788 Here Phillip closed lis letter; but the two following ©July, paragraphs were afterwards added : — His Majesty's Commission, with that for establishing the Courts of Civil and Criminal Judicature, were read soon after landing ; County of and as it is necessary in public acts to name the county, I named JJ^JiSS? it Cumberland, and fixed its boundaries by Carmarthen and Laiid&- down Hills to the westward, by the northern parts of Broken fiaj to the northward, and by the southernmost part of Botany Bay to the southward. I have enclosed copies of a letter I have received from the surgeon, reporting the state of the hospital and the great necessity Thehospitai. of blankeU and sJieets, as well as sugar, and those articles coming under the denomination of necessaries, and the want of which is equally felt by the marines and convicts. The necessity of providing for the wants of the sick was frequently referred ^to in Phillip's letters before the First Fleet sailed. Although there was every reason to antici- pate attacks of scurvy and other complaints, not only during The sick the passago but afte^ the arrival of the ships in port, the Degree. j^^g^ ordinary precautions seem to have been neglected. With all his efforts to procure the requisite supplies, Phillip was unable to provide the medical staff with the common necessaries of which they w^re in daily need. From the Surgeon's letter to which he referred, it appears that No bedding, blankets and sheets had not been sent out, and the patients were consequently left to lie on their beds without them — one of the results being that " attention to cleanliness was utterly impossible.'' The ordinary articles of hospital diet No food. were also wanting ; there was no sugar, sago, barley, rice, oatmeal, or vinegar; and the patients were consequently dieted on salt provisions, *' without any possibility of a change." At the time Phillip wrote on this subject, there were over one hundred persons on the sick list ; and the hospital tents had been fully occupied from the arrival of the Fleet. According to White, no sooner had the tents been put up than they were *^ filled with patients afflicted with the true camp dysentery and the scurvy. More pitiable Digttized by VjOOQIC