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[Page 2]
| July 17 |
in some cases it has been found impossible to make the Convicts industrious neither kindness nor severity have any effect & tho I can say that the Convicts in general behave well here are many who dread Punishment less than they fear labor & those who have not been brought up to hard work bear it ill & shrink from it the moment the eye of the overseer is turned from them only one man in the Colony has yet been employed in superintending the labor of Convicts others have been tried & found unequal was he to dye we have no one capable of replacing him "I find upwards of 100 convicts who must ever be a burthen to the colony not being able to do any kind of labor from old age & chronical diseases one woman has lost the use of her limbs 3 years & 2 men are ideots such people are sent to us of 930 males sent out in the last ships 26 died on board 50 have died since landing & the number of sick this day is 450. I flatter myself however that after two years we shall want no farther supply of Flour I am laying out a farm at Rose hill the principal Street will be inhabited by Convicts whose huts are building 100 feet assunder each to contain 10 Convicts they will live more comfortably there than in larger buildings & having good gardens & frequent opportunities to exchange vegetables for little necessaries not furnished by the stores makes them begin to feel the benefit they may from further industry |