276 GLOOMY PREDICTIONS. 1788 salt provisions, but altogether insufficient to depend upon, 15 May. The wild vegetables, fruits, and berries which grew in the neighbourhood were eagerly sought after, and proved useful Wild plants, in the treatment of scurvy and dysentery ; the native tea plant was largely used as a substitute for tea-leaves ; but notwithstanding all the assistance that could be obtained from these sources, the difficulty of keeping up the supply of food increased steadily from day to day. Phillip's foresight led him to dwell upon this matter with increasing emphasis in every despatch he wrote. His un- easiness on the subject is manifest in every line. He knew too well, from his painful experience when preparing for the voyage out, how difficult it was to awaken any interest offloiaj in the official mind as to the fate of the Expedition: he indifference -i.ti. -I'l-i it t knew the risk of a store-snip being lost on the passage, and the length of time that must elapse before the loss could become known in England ; and he knew that fresh ship- loads of convicts, as useless as the first, would probably be sent out to him without any regard to the position in which ha might be placed. His repeated references to these matters, however — in his letters to Nepean as well as in his de- spatches to Sydney — proved of no avail ; the dismal events he dreaded and predicted came to pass ; and as a last resort he recalled Lieutenant King from Norfolk Island early in 1790 and sent him to England, in order to make the state of affairs known to Ministers in some more moving shape than a despatch. If the wreck of the Sirius in March of that year made every heart in the little colony tremble, the loss of the Guardian in December, 1789, followed by the arrival of the Second Fleet with nearly a thousand sickly convicts, was a still more appalling disaster. Convict The labour of the convicts shall be, as is directed, for the public stock ; but it is necessary to permit a part of the convicts to work for the officers, who, in our present situation, would otherwise find it impossible to clear a sufficient quantity of ground to raise what is absolutely necessary to support the little stock they have ; and labour. Digitized by Google
