308 ENGLAND'S GREATEST ACQUISITION. 1788 although the changes in the weather were so frequent that 9 July. " clouds, storms, and sunshine passed in rapid snccession," it was agreed that the climate itself could not be healthier. Animals of all kinds seemed to thrive under its influence ; Invigorating and as a conclusive proof of its invigorating effect, Tench. mentions that " women, who certainly would never hskve bred in any other climate, here produced as fine children as ever were born."* climate. Eighty, seven dead or mlasing. One-third only avail- able for labour. The garrison. " The nioet valuable aoquiidtion Great Britain. ever made." Confidence in the future. Of the convicts, thirty-six men and four women died on the passage, twenty men and eight women since landing, eleven men and one woman absconded, four have been executed, and three killed by the natives. The number of convicts now employed in erecting the necessary buildings and cultivating the lands only- amounts to three hundred and twenty-six, and the whole number of people victualled amounts to nine hundred and sixty-six — conse- quently we have only the labour of a part to provide for the whole. Your lordship will doubtless see the necessity of employing a considerable force in the country, and I presume an addition of five hundred men will be absolutely requisite to enable me to detach three or four companies to the more open country near the head of the harbour. 1 could have wished to have given your lordship a more pleasing account of our present situation, and am persuaded I shall have that satisfaction hereafter ; nor do I doubt but that this country will prove the most valuable acquisition Great Britain ever made ; at the same time no country ofiers less assistance to the first settlers than this does ; nor do I think any country could be more dis- advantageously placed with respect to support from the mother country, on which for a few years we must entirely depend. However depressed Phillip may have felt while recounting his troubles and difficulties^ his confidence in the future of the colony seems to have become more and more a settled conviction within him. Considering that he was not at all given to the use of exaggerated language^ and that his views of things were decidedly prosaic, the expression of his opinion on this subject is certainly remarkable.
- Complete Account, p. 169.
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