According to the best information which we have obtained, Botany Bay appears to be the most eligible situation upon the said coast for the first establishment, possessing a commodious harbour and other advantages which no part of the coast hitherto discovered affords. It is therefore our will and pleasure that you do immediately upon your landing, after taking measures for securing yourself and the people who accompany you as much as possible from any attacks or interruptions of the natives of that country, as well as for the preservation and safety of the public stores, proceed to the cultivation of the land, distributing the convicts for that purpose in such manner, and under such Inspectors and Overseers, and under such regulations as may appear to you to be necessary and best calculated for procuring supplies of grain and ground provisions.
The assortment of tools and utensils which have been provided for the use of the convicts and other persons who are to compose the intended settlement are to be distributed according to your discretion, and according to the employment assigned to the several persons. In the distribution, however, you will use every proper degree of economy, and be careful that the Commissary so transmit an account of the issues from time to time to the Commissioners of our Treasury to enable them to judge of the propriety or expediency of granting further supplies. The clothing of the convicts and the provisions issued to them, and the several civil and military establishments, must be accounted for in the same manner.
The increase of the stock of animals must depend entirely upon the measures you may adopt on the outset for their preservation; and as the Settlement will be amply supplied with vegetable productions, and most likely with fish, fresh provisions, excepting for the sick and convalescents, may in a great degree be dispensed with. For these reasons it will become you to be extremely cautious in permitting any cattle, sheep, hogs, etc., intended for propagating the breed of such animals to be slaughtered until a competent stock maybe acquired, to admit of your supplying the settlement from it with animal food without having further recourse to the places from whence such stock may have originally been obtained.
It is our will and pleasure that the productions of all descriptions acquired by the labour of the convicts should be considered as a public stock, which we so far leave to your disposal that such parts thereof as may be requisite for the subsistence of the said convicts and their families, or the subsistence of the civil and military establishments of the settlement may be applied by you to that use. The remainder of such productions you will reserve as a provision for a further number of convicts, which you may expect will shortly follow you from hence, to be employed under your direction in the manner pointed out in these our instructions to you.
From the natural increase of corn and other vegetable food from a common industry, after the ground has once been cultivated, as well as of animals, it cannot be expedient that all the convicts which accompany you should be employed in attending only to the object of provisions. And as it has been humbly represented to us that advantages may be derived from the flax-plant which is found in the islands not far distant from the intended settlement, not only as a means of acquiring clothing for the convicts and other persons who may become settlers, but from its superior excellence for a variety of maritime purposes, and as it may ultimately become an article of export, it is, therefore, our will and pleasure that you do particularly attend to its cultivation, and that you do send home by every opportunity which may offer, samples of this article, in order that a judgment may be formed whether it may not be necessary to instruct you further upon this subject.
And whereas we are desirous that some further information should be obtained of the several ports or harbours upon the coast, and the islands contiguous thereto, within the limits of your government, you are, whenever the Sirius or the Supply tender, can conveniently be spared, to send one, or both of them, upon that service.
Norfolk Island, situated in the lat.——, and long.——[blanks in manuscript] east from Greenwich about——, being represented as a spot which may hereafter become useful, you are, as soon as circumstances will admit of it, to send a small establishment thither to secure the same to us, and prevent it being occupied by the subjects of any other European power; and you will cause any remarks or observations which you may obtain in consequence of this instruction to be transmitted to our Principal Secretary of State for Plantation Affairs for our information.
You are to endeavour by every possible means to open an intercourse with the natives and to conciliate their affections, enjoining all our subjects to live in amity and kindness with them. And if any of our subjects shall wantonly destroy them, or give them any unnecessary interruption in the exercise of their several occupations, it is our will and pleasure that you do cause such offenders to be brought to punishment according to the degree of the offence. You will endeavour to procure an account of the numbers inhabiting the neighbourhood of the intended settlement, and report your opinion to one of our Secretaries of State in what manner our intercourse with these people may be turned to the advantage of this colony.
And it is further our royal will and pleasure that you do by all proper methods enforce a due observance of religion and good order among the inhabitants of the new settlement, and that you do take such steps for the due celebration of public worship as circumstances will permit.
And whereas many of our subjects employed upon military service at the said settlement and others who may resort thither upon their private occupations, may hereafter be desirous of proceeding to the cultivation and improvement of the land, and as we are disposed to afford them every reasonable encouragement in such an undertaking: It is our will and pleasure that you do, with all convenient speed, transmit a report of the actual state and quality of the soil at and near the said intended settlement, the probable and most effectual means of improving and cultivating the same, and of the mode, and upon what terms and conditions, according to the best of your judgment, the said lands should be granted, that proper instructions and authorities may be given to you for that purpose.