KOBPOLK ISLAN1> OCCUPIKD. 37 eBtrance^ of the cove." A third, sentenced to receive fifty lashes, was pardoned hj the Governor. Before the end of the month a plot for robbing the provision store was detected, although at the time the quantity of provisions Hupphed was the same for soldier, officer, and convict. "With bnt scant stores of food, and far from any port of ^i^PPb'^ the Governor was bonnd at all risks, and for the Kalie ot" the convicts themselves, to guard with care the little he had. One man at once snifered death, and others were sentenced to banishment from the settlement.^ On the following day the Governor, having made an example, pardoned some offenders, one of them on condition of his becoming the pnblic executioner. To conform to his special instrnctions, Pliillip, within a few weeks of his arrival^ deputed Philip Gidley King, second lieutenant oF the Sin us ^ to establish a settlement at Norl'oUv Island. Phillip sent to Lord Sydney a copy of the instruc- tions given to King, adding — '* and I beg leave to recommend him as an officer of merit, and whose perseverance in that or any other service may be depended on,"^ King was instructed by Phillip to take measures
- for seen ring yourself and people, and for the preservation of stores and
provisions, am immediately to proceed to t>ie ciiUivation of the flax plantj growing apoiitatieuusly on tliti iaiaud, aa also of cotton, corn, and other plants, with the seeds of whieh you are furnished, and which you are to regard as pnblic stock, and of the increase of which yon are to send me an account, that I may know what quantity may be drawn from the island for public use, or what supplies it may be nocesaary to send hereafter. " -* Colliiia, The island was christened ** Pinchgut*' at once by the prisonei^, and retained the name long after its origin had been forgotten. '**' " Six men were condemned to death ; one, who was the head of the gam^, wa8 executed the same thiy, the otheis I reprieved. Tbey are to be exiled from the aettletnent, and when the scaa<m pennita I Intend they shall be landed near tiie South Cape. . . . The one who sutfered and two others were condemned for robbing the stores of provisions the very day they received a weekly provision. . . ."^Despatch from Phillip, 15th May, 1788. -* Phillip ami King w^ere old comrades. 11 le latter served in various ships of war in the East Indies from 1770 to 1774, in North America from 1775 to 1779 ; obtained bis lieutenancy in the Remnvn in 1778; served in the Channel and at *4ibraltar from 17S0 to 1783, and under Phillip in the Europi' from 1783 to 178.5. Phillip wrote, privately^ to Lord Sydney (July, 17S8) : ** Lieutenant King, ^vho is at Norfolk Island, is a very steady good officer. He, too, is cut off from all society, and m tu il gitusvtvo'n. that will re<|uire patience and perseverance, both 'wVrtC;ife Tgonafcftawfc, N4VnX
