six are sent to the hospital since that ship's arrival at Spithead.'
The Government, as a matter of fact, was too busy with the impeachment of Warren Hastings to trouble itself with trifles of this kind—for the despatch of a fleet of convict transports, even though it was to colonise new territory, was regarded as a trifle at this time. No single page of history recorded it, even the Annual Register did not think it worth an entry.
To some of Phillip's wise and well-considered suggestions, the Government responded that upon the death or suspension of any civil officer he was at liberty to appoint any 'proper person' in his place until His Majesty's pleasure was known; that he could send a suspended officer to England by the first opportunity—with his reasons for such suspension; that the Government would not object to his choice for the site of the principal settlement, but he was to understand that he was not to be allowed to delay the disembarkation of the establishment upon his arrival on the coast upon the pretence of searching after a more eligible place than Botany Bay.
If Phillip felt insulted at this dictum he was too good a disciplinarian himself to show it. The Government's chief anxiety was to get rid of a batch of convicts—it was Phillip's desire to effect that riddance in a humane manner, to treat them as human beings, and to endeavour to make them reclaim themselves when they reached their destination.
