FOR THE EXPEDITION. 43 absolutely necessary to fit out — and they feel it the more as the 1787 officers of marines have now received a year's advance ; indeed 1 jan.-Feb. doubt if one or two of the assistant surgeons will be able to leave town without the advance. Another letter to Nepean followed on the 11th of the same month : — By letters from lieutenant Shortland and the surgeon's assistant on board the Alexander, I find that one hundred and eighty-four men are put on board that ship, and fifty-six women on board the Lady Penrhyn ; that there are amongst the men several unable to help themselves, and that no kind of surgeon's instruments have been put on board that ship or any of the transports. You will, sir, permit me to observe that it will be very difficult to prevent the crowded most fatal sickness amongst men so closely confined; that on board ^ that ship which is to receive two hundred and ten convicts there is not a space left for them to move in sufficiently large for forty men to be in motion at the same time — nor is it safe to permit any number of men to be on deck while the ship remains so near the land. On this consideration, 1 hope that you will order the Alexan- der and Lady Penrhyn to join his Majesty's ship Sirius im- mediately, and proceed to Spithead, where .more liberty may be allowed the convicts than can be done with safety in the river ; and those that are waiting to compleat the number to be sent out in those ships may be sent round to Portsmouth with the other convicts, for the most fatal consequences may be expected if the full number is kept on board any length of time before we sail. You will, I presume, see the necessity of ordering some surgeon's Medical, instruments to be sent on board the ships that carry the convicts ; and I hope that no more will be embarked till the ships are ready to sail, and whicK they cannot be for a week after they get to Spithead. On the 28th February he wrote to Sydney on similar topics. The particular matters he referred to may seem very small at this distance of time; but in his eyes they were evidently essential to the health of his people : Having received the enclosed reports respecting the marines and convicts now embarked on board the Alexander and Lady Penrhyn, transports, I beg to submit it to your lordship whether Digitized by Google
