Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/258

 216 STATE OF THE 1^®^ the Pitt was the first letter which Grose wrote to England ; Groue'sflnt it was addressed to his friend Evan Nepean, He thns England, describos his early impressions of the colony : — • "I am at last, thank God, safely landed with my family at this place, and, to my great astonishment, instead of the rock I expected to see, I find myself surrounded with gardens that ms fiwt flourish and produce fruit of every description. Vegetables are here in great abundance, and I live in as good a house as I wish for. I am given the farm of my predecessor,**^ which produces a sufficiency to supply my family with everything I have occasion for. In short, all that is wanting to put this colony in an inde- pendent state is one ship freighted with com and black cattle. Was that but done, all difficulties would be over."t While Collins was writing gloomy passages in his note- book, and even the sanguine Phillip was sending to England contrasiB. despatches pointing out the distressed condition of the people and the alarm which was felt, Grose painted every- thing couleur de rose. As he had, at the time of writing, been in the colony six or seven weeks, the tone of his letter can only be explained on the supposition that he did not know what was going on around him. It is true that he was stationed at Sydney, the head-quarters of the Corps, and therefore did not see the weak and emaciated convicts fainting at their work and '^ daily dropping into the grave ";t but these things, one would have thought, were the com- mon talk of the settlement. He must have known, at any rate, that the people were living on a scanty allowance of food, for at that time every one shared alike — the Governor received no more from the public stock than the meanest Grose's convict. Only a few months later, in fact, he made a com- aitcr. plaint to the War Office that the officers and men df the New South Wales Corps were treated no better than the con- victs.§ Whether it was that he had brought from England • Major Boss. "^ Historical Secords, toL i, part 2, p. 618. X Collins, Tol. i, p. 209. § On the 22nd October, 1792, he wrote to Under Secretary Lewis : — '^ Noir, whenever it happens that a short allowance is issued to the felans« the