PHILLIP AND HIS WORK. 95 admitted that nothing but the anxious precautions taken by l78a-98 Phillip in England and on his way out could have enabled him to bring his ships into harbour, after an eight-months' voyage through unknown seas, without having met with dieaster in any shape, either to the ships or the people on board them. Surgeon White, the medical officer in charge sunceon of the settlement, recorded his feelings as he saw the ships at anchor in Botany Bay : — To see all the ships safe in their destined port, without ever having by any accident been one hour separated, and all the people in as good health as could be expected or hoped for, after so long a voyage, was a sight truly pleasing, and at which every heart must rejoice.* Another authority was equally emphatic : — Snch!** Thus, after a passage of exactly thirty-six weeks from Portsmouth, we happily effected our arduous undertaking, with such a train of unexampled blessings as hardly ever attended a fleet in a like pre- dicament. Of two hundred and twelve marines we lost only one, and of seven hundred and seventy-flve convicts put on board in England but twenty-four perished in our route, f Judge- Advocate Collins, too, with judicial precision and solemnity of statement, summed up the case in these terms : — Adlwkte Thus, under the blessing of God, was happily completed in eight Collins, months and one week a voyage which, before it was undertaken, the mind hardly dared venture to contemplate, and on which it was impossible to reflect without some apprehension as to its ter- a periioua mination. This fortunate completion of it, however, afforded even to ourselves as much matter of surprise as of general satisfaction ; for in the above space of time we had sailed 5,021 leagues, had touched at the American and African continents, and had at last rested within a few days' sail of the antipodes of our native country, without meeting with any accident in a fleet of eleven sail, nine of which were merchantmen that had never before sailed in that distant and imperfectly explored ocean. And when it is considered that there was on board a large body of convicts, many of whom were embarked in a very sickly state,
- Joamal, p. 114.
t Tench, Narrative, p. 46. Digitized by Google
