Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/47

 THE FAMINE OE 1789^«0. 31 dependence of the settlement was upon the storeships from ^^^ Exi^^land. The official despatches and prirate letters written at this time are almost entirely confined to the one topic — the scarcity of provisions. The question of how to feed the OonUnued people was so ui^ent and so difficult that matters of less moment^ though important in themselves^ were lost sight of. But if the people were ill-fed, they were equally ill-clad, and were in need of many other necessaries, particularly tools and implements. Even if the storeships had arrived before it became necessary to reduce the ration, great inconvenience would have been caused by the insufficient supplies of clothing, boots and shoes, and agricultural and other implements sent out by the First Fleet. In his earliest foreseen despatches, Phillip strongly urged that more should be sent without delay. But at the time now referred to (April, 1 790) nothing had been received for nearly three years, and most of the people were half -naked as well as half-starved. The officers brought out private stocks of wearing apparel, but those who depended upon the Government stores — ^and they constituted well-nigh the entire population — ^were reduced to sore straits. The distress of the lower classes was aggra- vated by the approach of winter. The convicts — male and SS^^and female— with difficulty pieced together rags to cover their ^,Sfc*^ nakedness. The soldiers were not much better oS. The majority of them were forced to appear on guard barefooted, and many both amongst the soldiers and convicts were so emaciated that they were physically incapable of performing their accustomed tasks. At such a time of want the rites of hospitality were necessarily curtailed. The man who by a happy chance increased his stock of food by aid of fowling-piece or rod could offer his gpiests no bread; and invitations to dine, even of two tLooMuid poandf were teken in the ooane of the montli, wbick pro- duced a saving of five hundred poundB of pork at the etore, the allowance of thirty-one men for four weeki." — lb., pp. 113*114.
 * "^ by Phillip.