Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/99

 FBOM EK&LAND. 79 Augnst.* When this despatch is read in connection with l78»-90 one written exactly four months later it becomes eren more incomprehensible. Writing to Phillip on the 24th Decem- ber^ Grrenyille^ after explaining that for several reasons it was necessary that all the convicts on the Neptune^ Scarborough; and Surprize, including those intended for Norfolk Island, should be disembarked at Sydney, he went on to say : — " The disembarking the convicts at Sydney, exclusive of the An accuntte consideration before mentioned, seems indeed to be a measure highly necessary, as from the length of the passage from hence, and the nature of their food, there is every reason to expect that many of them will be reduced to so debilitated a state that im- mediate relief will be found to be expedient for the preservation of their lives."t Although the shocking condition in which the convicts of the Second Fleet actually arrived could not have been foreseen, it is apparent that sickness was apprehended, and that convicts would be landed in such a condition that they would be a burden rather than a help to the colony. And yet the arrival of these ships was to mark a period beyond which very little further assistance would be wanted from the mother country. Phillip's reply to Grenville's first despatch was written on pwikp the 17th June, 1790,t a fortnight after it had been received to^Grenviiie by the Lady Juliana, and nearly a year after it left England. It betrays no feeling of annoyance, nor is a word said as to the probable influence that would be exerted on the future • Ante, p. 77. t It woTild appear from this paragxaj^ that the great mortality on the transports of the Second Fleet was partly due to close confinement in England prior to embarkation. Howard, referring to the emaciated condition of some of the conyicts when placed on board transports, mentioned as worthy of imitation a practice then in vogae in Portugal, of enrolling as soldiers all prisonem aboat to be transported to Brazil, and sending them to a sanitorium to bathe and be better clothed and fed, that they may be properly prepared for their long Toyage. The adoption of a similar system in England would haye prevented an enarmous amount of suffering.— nState of the Prisons, 4th edition, p. 150 and 466 (note). X Historical Beoords, toI. i, part 2, page 846. The despatch is addressed to Nepean, but is eyidently intended as a reply to Grenrilla.