344 HARD TIMES. 1788 transport, and at onoe stock this settlement. Sava is at too great 28 Sept a distance for the Sirius to be employed on that service to any extent* Your lordship will, I hope, excuse so long a detail of matters trifling in themselves, and which I should not have dwelt on bat that I wished the situation of the colony to be known as fully as possible. A letter to Nepean^ of the same date, was written to accompany this despatch, for the purpose of reminding him of the pressing wants of the settlement. The people at People in this time had neither needles nor thread, and consequently "^^ could not mend their clothes; no leather, nails, or cob- blers'- wax to keep their shoes together ; no bedding to lie upon, for sheets and blankets had not been thought of. Phillip ventured to suggest, probably because they were still suffering from scurvy and other kinds of sickness, that " some kind of bedding " was necessary for them, as well as " some kind of covering " for the children. They, it seems, had been kept on very short commons from the Governor ^^^) since the good-hearted Governor had been obliged, chfidren. ^' ^^ Several instances," to order them half the man's allow- ance, or even two-thirds — ^that being the woman's share. The ordinary ration for a child was one-third of a man's ; and as at this time they were all fed on salt provisions — there being no such luxuries as barley, sago, oatmeal, or any Salt fare, other children's food in the stores, except rice — ^the little folks had uncommonly hard times of it. The stock of cows having been lost early in June, there was no milk and no fresh butter in the settlement ; the salt butter had disap- peared, and was replaced by " the like quantity of sugar," as Collins says (p. 81) — ^that is, six ounces per week. Although the people were on full rations at this time, there was nothing to eat but salt beef, salt pork, flour, rice, and pease — ^with such vegetables as could be grown about the
- Savu is a small island lying to the soath-west of Timor. It was visited
b^ Captain Cook in September, 1770, and is described in the aoconnt of his voyage. — Hawkesworth, vol. iii, p. 681. Digitized by Google
