Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/73

 THB SECOND TLBBT. 57 defiance.'*' The naval agent on board the Lady Jidiana, ^^^^ Lientenant Edgar, does not appear to have made any com- plaint against the master of the Lady Juliana. If he did, it finds no place in the Records. A few days after the arrival of the Justinian, three other The transports, the Surprize, the Scarborough, and the Neptune, scar- came into port.t The shameful sacrifice of human life that and took place on board these ships during the voyage excited the greatest indignation both in the colony and in England. The treatment of the convicts on board these vessels appears to have been marked by the most callous indifference to suffering and disregard of human life. The episode forms the blackest chapter in the history of Australian transpor- tation. The three vessels (the Neptune, Surprize, and Scarborough) sailed from England with 1,006 male and eighty-nine female convicts.J By the time they had arrived d«^im» at Port Jackson, 267 persons, including eleven women, had voyage, perished ; a large number of those brought into port were in a dying condition, and of the remainder at least one-half had to go into the hospitals and tents on shore, where many and after of them died, some a few hours, others a few days, after their reception. On the 17th July, 1790 (about three weeks after the vessels arrived), Phillip reported to the Home Secretary that fifty had died since landing. Four hundred and fifty more were on the sick-list, and of the remainder many had '* barely strength to attend to themselves.^'§ The cause of the sickness and death on board these vessels oxot- ifl only too apparent. Not only was there overcrowding, but those in charge aggravated the evil by keeping the convicts below, where they were constantly breathing foul air. Only a few were allowed on deck at a time, and even when this privilege was extended to them they were so in the Hittorical Records, yoL ii, p. 483. t 26th and 28th June. i Historical Records, vol. i, part 2, p. 355. § lb., p. 362.
 * Lieutenant Woodriffs letter to Phillip, 19th Noyember, 1792, ia printed