Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/55

 THE WBECK OP THE GUAKDIAN. 39 seriously that the cost of repairing her would have exceeded ^'^ that of a new ship ; she was accordingly beached at Table The vewei Bay, and there abandoned. Some of her stores were saved, at Table and a small portion was sent on by the Lady Juliana, which arrived at Sydney on the 3rd June, 1790, bringing at the same time the first news of the disaster. Before meeting with the accident, the Guardian had taken on board at the Cape a quantity of live stock for the use of the settlement, all of which had to be sacrificed to save the ship. She Her carjiro* carried also, at the instance of Sir Joseph Banks, a ^^plant- cabin'' or "coach/' in other words, a temporary compart- ment constructed on deck "for the purpose of conveying to Port Jackson, in pots of earth, such trees and plants as will be useful in food or physic, and cannot conveniently be propagated by seed, and for bringing from thence any useful productions."* The trees and plants never reached the colony, but the experiment was renewed with success some years afterwards. The Guardian was one of the first ships equipped for the relief of the settlement. Nepean wrote to Phillip on the 20th June, 1789, statins that she would "sail in about aHcrdepar- . ture from fortnight," and, although she did not actually leave England England, until September, her sailing qualities were so good that she would have arrived at Sydney long before the Lady Juliana, which sailed from England two months earlier.f The Guardian arrived at the Cape on her passage from England in November, and put back to Table Bay after her accident on the 21st February, about a week before the Lady Juliana reached that port. It will thus be seen that the frigate p. 229; letter from Banks to Q-renviJIe, and letter from Grenville to the Lords of the Admiralty.— lb., pp. 247-249. " At the Cape of Good Hope, Lieu- tenant Riou took on board a quantity of stock for the settlement, and com- pleted a garden which had been prepared under the immediate direction of Sir Joseph Banks, and in which there were near one hundred and fifty of the finest fruit-trees, several of them bearing fruit." — Collins, vol. i, p. 115. t *'The Guardian was a fast sailing ship, and would probably have arrived in the latter end of January or the beginning of February [1790]." — Collins, vol. i, p. 116,
 * See letter from Baoks to Nepean, Historical Records, vol. i, part 2