Page:Admiral Phillip.djvu/55

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CHAPTER IV


THE VOYAGE OUT—PHILLIP's SUBORDINATES—ROSS THE MALCONTENT—PHILLIP'S RECEPTION AT RIO—ARRIVAL AT THE CAPE—LETTERS FROM COLLINS AND YOUNG SOUTHWELL—CONTRAST BETWEEN THE VOYAGES OF THE FIRST AND SECOND FLEET


The saloon passenger on a sixteen-knot Orient or P. and O. liner, during the six weeks of ennui enforced by a passage from London to Sydney, can sometimes, if he tries very hard, find something to growl about; the bedroom steward may bring his morning coffee a moment or two late, and so forth; but such trifles are not great hardships compared with those which attended the method of carrying emigrants followed in the 'favourite clippers' that brought out the bulk of Australian settlers before trade unionism and 'one-man-one-vote' politics put a stop to emigration. Everyone has read stories of how emigrants were accommodated. The foul-smelling, unpainted, deal-boarded part of the ship's hold where passengers were stowed, bred a just discontent among the half-starved exiles, and the captain of an emigrant ship was kept

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