AND EXPLORATION. 143 May, 1789, after his voyage to the Cape of Good Hope for 1788 proyiflioiiB, he was surprised to find the little settlement in Novemb«r. a very flourishing condition ; and in July, 1790, Phillip ^^laid down the lines of a regular town^^ there ; the principal street being one mile in length, with a breadth of two hundred J<»^".°'^. and five feet. The regular town was afterwards named Parramatta by Phillip, on the 4th June, 1791 — that being the King's birthday. The Rose Hill experiment led to other results besides an extension of farming operations. It convinced Phillip that the only means by which the cultivation of the soil could be carried on with permanent success, so as to render the colony independent of supplies from England, was to intro- duce free settlers, and supply them with convict labour on Free certain terms until they had established themselves. It was entirely owing to his repeated and emphatic representa- tions on this subject that the Home Government consented, in 1792, to send out free settlers ; and the method of deal- ing with convict labour, afterwards known as the Assign- AssignmeDt ment system, is clearly traceable to the same source. The first settlers — ^there were only five of them — arrived early in 1793, after Phillip had left the colony ; and each received a small grant of land at the upper part of the harbour above the Plats,'^ to which they gave the name of Liberty ^^^^ Plains. One of the conditions under which they engaged to settle in the colony was that the service of convicts should be assigned to them free of expence, and those con- victs whose services might be assigned to them should be supplied with two years' rations and one year's clothing.'^ Such was the commencement of the Assignment system, of which so much was afterwards heard. Under Phillip's re- commendation, it was originally limited to certain cases and conditions, for the purpose of inducing free settlers to reside feet idea of the labour to be required from, and thatmiffht be performed by, the convicts ; and whose figure was calculated to make the idle and the worthless shrink if he came near them." This man was said to be the only free person in the colony who had any knowledge of farming ; post, p. 361. Digitized by Google
