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As Botany-Bay is not many leagues distant from Port Jackson, and the natives are exactly the same in their dispositions, manners, customs, &c as also the animal and vegetable productions and the climate and soil varying but in a small degree, we shall therefore copiously describe them under the head of Port Jackson, as related by the new colonists who had more time to observe, and more leisure to digest, these particulars, than the first discoverers.
Commencement of the Colony.
Governor Philips had with him, when he sailed from England, 558 male convicts, and 220 females, amounting, in all, to 778; also a few horses, cows, sheep, hogs, fowls, and several other animals necessary for the settlements.
As Botany Bay was the spot destined for the planting a new colony in this part of the globe, the fleet, fitted out by Government, for the expedition, sailed from England in March 17874, and having in the course of their voyage, touched at Teneriff, Rio de Janeiro in the Brazils, and the Cape of Good Hope, reached and anchored in the Bay on the 20th of January 1788, after a passage of thirty-six weeks, in which a most arduous undertaking was effected with more success, and less loss, than hardly ever attended a fleet in such a predicament.
