Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/266

 224 STATE OF THE 1703 Ills mind early in the month to return to England as Boon as he had received permission to do so^ and he was anxiously awaiting instructions from England which would enable him to get away by the Atlantic, the next vessel to sail for England. If he missed this chance, he told Nepean in a private letter, he did not see how he was to get home unless by way of China or the north-west coast of America, in search of health/^ toe^Rojai'' Phillip's report on the Royal Admiral is brief and cau- AdmiraL tiously worded ; he evidently wrote under restraint. The mortality on board this vessel, though slight compared with the destruction of life which marked the voyages of the Second and Third Fleets, was greater than it should have been, and many of the convicts arrived in bad health, thus increasing the burden which the settlement had to bear. Twelve convicts died on the passage, and sixty-one were landed sick. This would have been considered bad for any vessel, but there was a special ground for dissatisfaction in this case. When the reports of the disastrous voyages of tSmcrf anew ^^^ Ncptuuc, Surprize, and Scarborough reached England, •ystein, ^^q Homc Department resolved to employ as transports in future vessels belonging to the East India Company instead of making contracts with English shipping firms, and the adoption of this course, it was confidently expected, would put an end to the shocking abuses which had thrown so much discredit on the transportation system. The Royal Admiral was the first Indiaman employed in the service, and her record was highly unsatisfactory. In the case of some of the vessels which had come out under different management, the great mortality and sickness was caused by indiflEerence and inhumanity. In this instance it does iMuffldent not appear that the convicts were purposely ill-treated, but tion. the ship was too small for the number on board. The fact was manifest to Phillip, who would have been justified in writing strongly on the subject to the authorities in England,
 * ' neither of which would be very agreeable to a man going-