298 CONFLICTS WITH THE NATIVES. 1768 9 July. Aggressors. Frequent thefts. Provisions in convict ships. Planninj^ a town. The lines of empire in an infant face. wounded in the back by a :^>ear. He denies having given the natives any provocation, and says that be saw them carrying away a man that had gone out for the same purpose, and whom they had wounded on the head. A shirt and hat, bodi pierced with speax^ have been since found in one of the native huts, but no intelligenoe can be got of the man ; and I have not any doubt but that the natives have killed him, nor have I the least doubt of the convicts being the aggressors. Eleven male and one female convicts have been missing since we landed. A bull-calf has likewise been wounded by a spear, and two goats have been killed by some of our own people, the skin of one being found where the natives never appear, so that the little stock we now have is likely to decrease ; and though robberies are punished with severity, there is not a week passes but there are peofde who lose their provisions and clothes, which in our present situation it is impossible to prevent I should hope that few convicts will be sent out this year or the next, unless Uiey are artificers, and after what I have had the honor of observing to your lordship, I make no doubt but proper people will be sent to superintend them. The ships that bring out convicts should have at least the two years' provisions on board to land with them ; for tlie putting the convicts on board some ships, and the provisions that were to support them in others, as was done, I beg leave to observe, much against my inclination, must have been fatal if the ship carrying the provisions had been lost. In the natural course of events, the growth of the social organism with which Phillip was charged had now so far adTanced that the formation of a town had begun to occupy his attention. With the assistance of his Sur- veyor-General, Mr. Alt, an ex-Baron of Hesse Gassel, he designed a plan for the purpose, a copy of which he en- closed in his despatch. His description of the infant city shows how deeply he was impressed with the conviction that it was destined to become prosperous as well as per- manent ; that the huts and thatch-roofed buildings of his day would soon gire way to structures of a more durable kind ; and that in place of a few wretched stragglers from the army of civilised life, the shores of Sydney Cove would Digitized by Google
