Page:Admiral Phillip.djvu/80

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56
BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

observing a second time that a regular supply of provisions from England will be absolutely necessary for four or five years, as the crops for two years to come cannot be depended on for more than what will be necessary for seed. … I should hope that few convicts will be sent out this year or the next, unless they are artificers, and … I make no doubt but proper people will be sent to superintend them. The ships that bring out convicts should have at least the two years' provisions on board to land with them, for the putting the convicts on board some ships and the provisions that were to support them in others, as was done … much against my inclination, must have been fatal if the ship carrying the provisions had been lost.

'I have the honour to enclose your Lordship the intended plan for the town.[1] The Lieutenant-Governor has already begun a small house, which forms one corner of the parade, and I am building a small cottage on the east side of the cove, where I shall remain for the present with part of the convicts and an officer's guard. The convicts on both sides are distributed in huts, which are built only for immediate shelter. On the point of land which forms the west side of the cove an Observatory is building, under the direction of Lieutenant Dawes,

  1. This plan was altered by Phillip's successors, and in consequence, instead of being wide open thoroughfares, the streets of Sydney are as narrow as those of London.