Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/171

 AFTER THE AKKIVAL OF THE SECOND FLEET. 143 by the arrival of the necessary supply of provisions to con- 1^^8<^1 tinue our labours/^ These supplies did not arrive with the regularity that was desired. Writing on the 24th July, 1790, Phillip informed Nepean that no butter, oil, or pease had been received, neither were there any spirits in stock. These articles had not been supplied when Phillip, writing to Grenville eight months later, expressed the hope that the speedy arrival of the ships from England would make a reduction of the ration unnecessary ; and, on the 1st April, 1791, he was obliged to reduce the allowance of food by Ration reductioDa one-quarter * To make matters worse, the quality of the provisions was inferior. The flour, which had been bought in Batavia at a high price, was, according to Phillip, ^^fuU one-eighth bran, and the rice was bad." Collins gives a still more unfavourable description of the food upon which the people had to subsist. According to his account the flour was " the best article " dispensed from the stores. ^' The b^ ,_, ^ ^ ^ provisions. rice was found to be full of weevils ; the pork was ill- flavoured, rusty, and smoked ; and the beef was lean, and, by being cured with spices, truly unpalatable. Much of both these articles when they came to be dressed could not be used.^t ^^ bis letter to Wilberforce,} Captain Hill com- plained bitterly of the ^^ scanty pittance of salt provisions *' on which he had to live, and which was set before him "unaccompanied by either vegetable, vinegar, or other thing to render it palatable or wholesome." He was obliged to buy some wine to " counteract the efEects of the diabolical morsel I am daily obliged to eat." The circumstances were altogether unfavourable for agri- cultural operations. The efltect of the reduction in the rations and of the innutritions food could, wrote Collins, be seen iii-fed in " the countenances of the labouring convicts." Those of the First Fleet had not recovered from the effects of the tlb. X Historical Records, toI. i, part 2, pp. 369, 370.
 * Collins, yol. i, p. 158.