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Diary Jan 1.1791
BOTANY BAY
The following Letter is from Mr. White, Surgeon General at Botany Bay.
Sydney Cove, Port Jackson, New South Wales, April, 17, 1790.
DEAR SIR,
His Majesty's ship Sirius and Supply Tender sailed from hence the 6th of March last, with the Lieutenant-Governor, half the Marines, and about two hundred convicts, for Norfolk Island, and landed them safe the 16th. This division of our numbers the Governor thought necessary on account of the low state of our provisions. The ships stood off and on until the 19th, before an opportunity of landing the provisions and stores offered; then the Sirius stood in as close as possible to hasten and facilitate getting the things through a heavy surf, which continually rolls in on the beach, but by a current, or some other unforeseen cause, she was driven on a reef of hidden rocks and irrecoverably lost. The ship's bow is in a position which will probably make her hold together until everything is got ashore, where all the Officers and men are safe, with a greater store of provisions than we have here. Had the Sirius arrived safe, she was immediately to have gone to China for some relief for us, and on her dispatch our all depended: but alas! that hope is no more, and a new sense of distress and misery opens to our view. When the Supply arrived with the melancholy tidings, the Governor called all the Officers together, to consult and deliberate on what was best to be done in our present distracted and deplorable situation. He laid before us the state of the provision store, which contained only four months flour, and three of pork at half allowance, which has been our ration for some time past, every other species of provision being long since expended. We therefore determined on the necessity of reducing our half allowance of those two articles, to such a proportion, as will enable us to drag out a miserable existence for seven months. Should we have no arrivals in that time the game will be up with us, for all the grain of every kind which we have been able to raise in two years and three months, would not support us three weeks, which is a very strong instance of the ingratitude and extreme poverty of the soil and country at large; though great exertions had been made. Much cannot now be done, limited in food, and reduced as the people are, who have not had one ounce of fresh animal food since first in the country; a country and place so forbidden and so hateful, as only to merit execration and curses; for it has been a source of expence to the mother country, and of evil and misfortune to us, without there ever being the smallest likelihood of its repaying or recompensing either. From what we have already seen, we may conclude that there is not a single article in the whole country, that in the nature of things could prove of the smallest use or advantage to the mother country or the commercial world. In the name of Heaven, what has the Ministry been about? Surely they have quite forgotten or neglected us, otherwise they would have sent to see what become of us, and to know how we were likely to succeed. However they must soon know from the heavy bills which will be presented to them, and the misfortunes and losses which have already happened to us, how necessary it becomes to relinquish a scheme that in the nature of things can never answer. It would be wise by the first steps to withdraw the settlement, at least such as are living, or remove them to some other place. This is so much out of the world and tract of commerce that it could never answer. How a business of this kind, (the expence of which must be great) could first be thought of without sending to examine the country, as was Captain Thompson's errand to the coast of Africa, is to every person here a matter of great surprise. Mons. Peyrouse and Clanard, the French Circumnavigators, as well as us, have been very much surprised at Mr. Cook's description of Botany Bay. The wood is bad, the soil light, poor and sandy, nor has it anything to recommend it. Accurate observers have surveyed the country without being able to see anything like the meadow land that Mr Cook and others mention. The Frenchmen declare the same, and that in the course of their voyage they never saw a place half so unpromising for a settlement as this. They laid at Botany Bay eight weeks just after our arrival in the country repairing some damages which the Boussale and Astrolabe under their command received while at the Navigators Islands.
Before they came to Botany Bay, they had been at Norfolk Island, but could neither anchor or land. They made an observation with respect to it, (which from its singularity, propriety, and force, I cannot suppress) that it was only a place fit for Angels and Eagles to reside in. The Supply Tender sails tomorrow for Batavia, in hopes the Dutch may be able to send in time to save us. Should any accident happen to her, Lord have mercy on us! she is a small vessel to perform so long and unexplored a voyage, but we rely much on the abilities and active attention of Lieutenant Ball, who commands her. Lieutenant King, 2d of the Sirius, takes his passage in her to Batavia, from thence to the Cape of Good Hope (in his way to Europe) where he has orders to charter a ship and send her to us immediately, should no other ships have passed that place in their way here.
Whatever may be my fate and that of my fellow sufferers, God bless you all in England, prays your faithful and sincere, &c. &c.
This letter was addressed to Mr Skill dealer in ham, tongues salt salmon &c in the Strand.