FROM SYDNEY COVK 509 to nothing if boiled; 2^ B>. of flour, 1 lb. of rice, and 1 B>. of pease 1790 per week, is what we live upon^ If Heaven be but favorable to the voyage of the Supply (and, thank God, she is as ably commanded and navigated as any ship in the King's service) all things will yet do ; for when I spoke of only eight weeks* provisions in the stores I meant at full allowance, whereas what we have at present is but a third. Again, to help ua out we use eveiy means to get fish, and some- times with good success, which is an incredible relief. On the fishing service the officers, civil and military, take it in turns every Fishing night to go out for the whole night in the fishing-boats ; and the p*^*^- military besides keep a guard at Botany Bay and carry on a fishery there, taking it three days and three days, turn and turn about Were the ground good, our gardens would be found of infinite use to us in these days of scarcity, but with all our efforts we cannot draw much from them. As to jmrade duties and show we • have long laid them aside, excepting the mounting a small guard Soldiers by day and a picquet at night. Our soldiers have not a shoe, and ^*^<^'- mount guard barefoot. Among other letters which I write by this opportunity is a very a letter to long one to the .... in which I have very fairly and freely ^ set down my opinion about this country. The following passage, which I extract for your satisfaction, will, I hope, impress his lord- ship strongly with the idea of giving his opinion for abandoning the colony should he ever be consulted on the occasion, or should it at any time become matter of parliamentary debate : — The country, my lord, is past all dispute a wretched one — a very wretched — and totally incapable of yielding to Great Britain a retam for colonising it There is no wood fit for naval purposes; no fibrous ^rass or plant from which cordage can be made; no substance which can aid or improve the Reaaonsfor labours of the manufacturer ; no mineral productions ; no esculent vegetable 2e oofow worth the care of collecting and transporting to other climes ; and lastly, which is of the most serious consideration, no likelihood that the colony will be able to support itself in grain or animal food for many years to come : so that a regular annual expense Ib entailed on the mother country as long as it shall m kept. Besides this, I have given his lordship every other piece of information relative to our government, management of the con- victs, and knowledge of the natives, in my power. The following letter, written by an officer of the Sirius to a friend in Chelsea, is indorsed "Chelsea letter" in Sir Joseph Banks's handwriting. The person to whom it was addressed sent it for publication with an introductory note, dated " Chelsea, December 31, 1790," in which he described his correspondent as " a very worthy and intelligent young man, who left England as an officer in his Majesty's ship Sirius." Like the other letters Digitized by Google
