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CHAPTER IX
FORGOTTEN BY ENGLAND—SCARCITY OF FOOD—PHILLIP STILL CHEERFUL—WHITE'S AND TENCH'S LETTERS—'THE OUTCAST OF GOD'S WORKS'—LETTERS FROM HOME AT LAST—MORE CONVICTS ANNOUNCED—ANOTHER EXPEDITION TO NORFOLK ISLAND—APPROACH OF FAMINE—STARVATION ALLOWANCE—LOSS OF THE 'SIRIUS'
Early in 1789 it became apparent to Phillip that something had gone wrong with the storeships, which, with a childlike faith in the Government, he fully believed must have long before left England with supplies for the settlement. If either of the victuallers which sailed with the First Fleet had come to grief on the passage out—and there was no more likely contingency—the colony, months before the arrival of a second supply of stores, would have been actually starving. The possibility of this had been foreseen by Phillip and pointed out to Lord Sydney, but his lordship seems to have been easy in his mind, imagining no doubt that
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