Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/20

 4 PHILLIP AND fiOSS. ^'•^ the Home Office and Stephens of the Admiralty.* Ho SSSJi acjcordingly wrote a letter to Nepean, 12th February, NepMB. I790,t in which he dealt at some length with a subject that he thought had been buried half a year before. Ross's insinuation that the Grovemor left Sydney for Rose BKU on pleasure bent was met by Phillip with some warmth, and with more than a hint of suggestio falsi on the part of his adversary : — An « As to parties of pleasure, he [Major Ross] knew likewise that denial. I had never been a day, and very seldom an hour, on that account ; and he might have known that my absence which gave room for his complaint against the Judge-Advocate was at a time when my state of health was such that I should have been better pleased to remain in my bed than to have gone to Rose Hill to sleep on the boards in a hut belonging to the man who has the direction of the convicts. 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." The active part taken by Phillip in these exploring expe- energetic ditions, and the character of the work he did, may be seen from the chapter '^Phillip and Exploration."! It is evident that he regarded Ross's innuendo, at the time it was made, as quite unworthy of serious notice, and in all probability he would have said nothing about it to Nepean^ or to any other English official, but for the suspicion he appears to have entertained that an incorrect version might reach the authorities. The assertion that Phillip had withheld from the Lieu- tenant-Governor the confidence he should have reposed in hiTTi — ^that he had kept him '^ in the dark " — ^invited a further Phillip '* communicates nothing to any person here but to his secretaiy (Captain Collins)." — Historical llecords, toL i, part 2, p. 212. See also Secie- tary Stephens's letter to Major Boss of Ml liardi, 1791. — Historical Beoords, v6L. ii, p. 4ft4» t Histoiioal Beoords, roL i, part 2, ^yp. 301--M4. X Vol. i, pp. 134-169. Governor.
 * In a letter to Nepean, dated 16th November, 1788« Boas complained that