Confident in the future, he **did not doubt (July 1788) that the country would prove the most valuable acquisition Great Britain ever made; at the same time no country offers less assistance than this does, nor do I think any country could be more disadvantageously placed with respect to support from the mother countr}^ on which for a few years we must entu'ely depend/' Fifty farmers would do more in one year than a thousand convicts in producing food. The free settlers for whom Phillip had sighed did not arrive during his term of office, but as they were sent out in response to his entreaties, their landing may properly be mentioned in the record of his services. On the 15th Jan. 1793 a ship was sighted, and at night
- a large fire for the information of the stranger was lighted
at the South Head.*' She was the Brflona, with stores and provisions, a few female convicts, and five free settlers with their families. It does not seem that general information had induced them to immigrate, for four of the new settlers had, in the Shins and Ladp Juliana, visited Sydney before. On this occasion the English Goveniment paid their passage- money, gave them implements, gnaranteed to them two years' provisions, and assigned to them convict labour free of expense, with one year's clothing and two years* rations for each convict so assigned, Man is gregarious, even when pecuniary profit might prompt him to separate from crowds, and the new settlers^ clung to the neighbourhood of Sydney and Parramatta instead of selecting their farms at the Hawkesbury, They called their selection ** Liberty Plains/' only one convict I'ment lasted until 1854, when exigencies of war caused the creation of separate War Department, and the Colouial IkspartnieMt had also it« Frmcipal Secretary uf State. Phillip's corn Bp>ndent (until 5th June 1789) was Lf>rd Sydni^Vj who Mas succeeded by Mr. iirenville, who gave way to Mr* Dundaa in 1 79-. The Duke of Portland liekl th« seals for a short time (1794), ^>ut in 17?)5 ilr. Dundft-B (strongly entreated) reaunicd ihera as Secrctaiy for the Colonics and War. He was succeeded in 180 J by Lord [Bobwrt. In IH04 Lord Camden, in 1805 Lord Castlereagh, in ISllO Mr. Wintlhani, in 1HU7 Lord Caatlereagb, m I8i>9 the Karl of Liverpool, auc- cessively held the oliiee. In 1812 Earl Bat hurst accepted it, and held it until 18*27, wlitn he was succeeded by Lord Uoderieh. '^ The liellvnti settlers are in ** situations of their own choosing." — Despatch from GroBe. Cj ^wpra, p. 43 and «»
