Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/201

 ON THE SOIL. 167 field would have made their successful employment as culti- ^"^^^ yators of the soil an impossibility. But in addition to these obstacles^ the settlement suffered from a drought of great severity, which lasted for more than a year. These disad- vantages were set forth in Phillip's despatch to Grenville of the 15th December, 1791 : — '^ I must beg your Lordship's permission to refer — for those causes which have prevented the colony's being in the situation I expected, and which I have no doubt but that it would otherwise have been in — to those parts of my letters in which I have pointed No out the loss of the man on whom I placed great dependence, and tendent. who was charged with directing the labour of all the convicts employed in agriculture ; the very long drought ; the reduced Th« ration, and which, when not so very low as to render the people incapable of labour, serves as a too well-founded excuse for their doing but very little work, and must be always attended with great discontent amongst such people ; the miserable state in sick which two large bodies of convicts have been landed, who are a burthen to the colony, and who, when they regain their health, are not in general calculated for hard labour; and the want of a proper person to be charged with the cultivation of the ground, and to have the direction of the convicts who are employed in agriculture. If I have too often adverted to this subject, I trust that the cause will excuse me to your Lordships, and for observing that it now only wants one month of four years since I first landed in this settlo- ment, during which time all the public live stock which has been inaufflcient received is not more than what would be necessary for one good farm, nor has that been received till within these three months/' The allusion made to the live stock pointed to a conspicuous DcfecUve defect in the arrangements which were made for founding ments. and maintaining the colony. The necessity of stocking the country was as apparent to the authorities of the Home Department as it was to Phillip, but the means taken to supply the want were ludicrously inadequate. The defect was aggravated by the mortality which took place among the animals that were placed on board the ships, and by the loss of the whole of the Guardian's shipment ; but accidents at sea were to be expected, and allowance should have been