Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/169

 AFTER THE ARRIVAL OF THE SECOND ELEET, 141 of liis efforts to advantageously employ the convicts wto 1<^-®1 arrived in June, 1790. This was the drought which lasted from July of that year until August, 1791. Phillip reported in March, 1791, that : — " From June until Aproionged the present time so little rain has fallen that most of the runs of water in the different parts of this harbour have been dried up for several months, and the run which supplies this settlement* is greatly reduced, but still sufficient for all culinary purposes."t This condition of things seems to have Buprised Phillip, who offered the opinion, with some confi- dence, that such a dry season did not often occur. He was speaking, of course, of the coast districts, for his knowledge of the country went no further ; and it is worthy of note that in this, as in other matters, he formed a sound opinion from Phiuip'a very slender evidence. Severe and prolonged droughts are ^"^^^ ^"" common in the interior parts of New South Wales and the other Australian colonies, but they are infrequent on the coast. The crops sown in 1790, Phillip reported, had suffered The horveet greatly from the dry weather.J He remarked, however, that they had turned out better than was expected ; but did not state how many acres were in cultivation, nor what the yield was, although he had given particulars of the previous harvest. Collins, who reported the former season's yield, is also silent with reffard to this harvest. In fact, it is a meagre . . return. evident that the yield was too small to be worth mentioning. Mrs. Macarthur, writing to England in March, 1791, made the following allusion to this subject : — ^^ We have not • The Tank Stream. t Historical Records, toI. i, p. 2, p. 470. In a later despatch, Phillip sajs that rerj little rain fell from the beginning of July, 1790, to Angust, 1791. — lb., p. 633. t In his account for September, 1790, Ck>llin8 'writes (toI. i, p. 187) : — ireather was daily burning it up. Toward the latter end of the month some nan fell, the first which deserved the name of a heavy rain since last June." In October things were no better : — " The little rain which fell about the close of the preceding month soon oeased, and the garde&s and the oom- grounds were again parching for want of moiBtiire."
 * Very small hopes were entertained of the wheat this season ; extreme dry