Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/202

 168 flETTXiEBS ^^^ made for tkem. If all tke live ^Btock sliipped daring the first three or four years had been landed at Port Jackson in safety^ fiJ^rtatiora ^* would have been insufficient for the purpose for whidi it inodequftte. ^3^ intended ; bnt what with accidents at sea, and losses on land, the live stock in the colony when Phillip wrote his despatch in December, 1791, nearly four years after its establishment, was not enough, as he forcibly expressed it, '^ for one good f arm,^' and most of it had been receiyed during the last few months, viz., that brought from the 4Jape in the Gorgon by Lieutenant-G-ovemor King. The loss of the Guardian seems to have paralysed the Home Department, for although the importance of intro- ducing live stock was recognised in the despatches sent to Phillip, no measures were taken to supply the colony for a considerable time afterwards. The Gorgon was well fitted for carrying sheep and cattle, but no arrangements were made to employ her in this work, and, but for the enei^y Lieutenant- and forethought of Ejng, who exceeded his authoriiy, and King's ran the risk of being reprimanded for so doing, she would have arrived at Sydney without a single head.* As Phillip pointed out in writing to Dundas on the 19th March^ 1792, the proper plan would have been to fit out a couple of ships for the express purpose of conveying live stock from the Cape to Port Jackson. It was not until the middle of 1792 that any systematic plan for stocking the colony with cattle and sheep was considered by the Home Department, and the arrangement then proposed was of doubtful value, and certain, whatever happened, to cause delay. The Gxrvemment had been for some time in correspondence with the authorities at Calcutta, with the view of obtaining regular supplies of provisions for the settlement from that place, and it was proposed Korember, 1791, two months after t^e arriral of the Gorgon^ consisted of one stallion, one mare, two oolte, sixteen cowa, two calves, one nm, fiftj ewes, six lambs, one boar, fourteen sows (old and young), and twenty-two pigs. — ^Historical BeccTds, toI. i, part 8» p. 5ld.
 * Aooording to tho official return, ibe public lire stock in the aettlemei t in