The great labour in clearing the ground will not permit more than eight acres to be sown this year with wheat and barley. At the same time the immense number of ants and field mice will render our crops very uncertain.
Part of the live stock brought from the Cape, small as it was, has been lost, and our resource in fish is also uncertain. Some days great quantities are caught, but never sufficient to save any part of the provisions; and at times fish are scarce.
Your Lordship will, I presume, see the necessity of a regular supply of provisions for four or five years, and of clothing, shoes and frocks in the greatest proportion. The necessary implements for husbandry and for clearing the ground brought out will, with difficulty, be made to serve the time that is necessary for sending out a fresh supply.
The labour of the convicts shall be as is directed, for the public stock, but it is necessary to permit a part of the convicts to work for the officers, who, in our present situation, would otherwise find it impossible to clear a sufficient quantity of ground to raise what is absolutely necessary to support the little stock they have; and I am to request that your Lordship will be pleased to direct me to what extent that indulgence may be granted the officers of the garrison.
The Sirius shall be sent to the northward to barter for stock, and which shall be employed solely for the purposes of increasing the breed of such cattle as she may procure. The Supply is in no ways calculated for this service, as in the least sea her decks are full of water.
The beginning of May the rainy season was once more supposed to be set in, but after a week we had fine weather.
The three transports for China sailed the 5th, 6th, and 8th of May; and the Supply having been caulked sailed the 6th to Lord Howe Island, to endeavour to procure turtle, in hopes of checking the scurvy with which most of the people are affected, and near two hundred rendered incapable of doing any work. It is not possible to send the Sirius to the northward, for she must then have her carpenters, and only three of those hired from the transports now remain; and tho' the detachment began to build barracks for the use of the men and huts for the officers the 14th of February, and near a hundred convicts were given to assist in this work, they are not yet finished, nor is the hospital or the storehouse that is to receive the provisions still remaining on board three transports, and on these works the carpenters of the Sirius are employed. I have before pointed out the great labour in clearing the ground as one cause of our slow progress.
Your Lordship will, I hope, excuse the confused manner in which I have in this letter given an account of what has passed since I left the Cape of Good Hope. It has been written at different times, and my situation at present does not permit me to begin so long a letter again, the canvas house I am under being neither wind nor waterproof.
I have, etc.,
A. PHILLIP.