S6 .THE SECOND FLEET. 1790 charge of the fleet and look after the convicts. If the instructions given to this oflSoer had been carried out, the abuses which disgraced the Second Fleet would have been impossible. He was directed : — S&o^na. '"^^ ^^®^* *^® ®^^P® ^ frequently on the passage as opportunities offer, and see they are wash'd and air'd, and that the convicts are kept clean, have their cloaths shifted and washed, and as much air given them as possible, consistent with their safety ; and that the sick are kept seperate, and the place allotted for them fumigated when necessary ; that they are supplied with wine and other neces- saries when required by the surgeon ; and that justice is done to the whole of them on board, agreeable to contract."* These instructions indicate a proper concern for the wel- fare of the convicts, but unfortunately they were of no An effect. One man could not possibly keep watch over three tost * vessels, which were liable, from the accidents of wind and weather, to be separated from each other for many days at a time. This difficulty, which does riot seem to have occurred to the Government, rendered all precautions nugatory. But whatever protection the naval agent may have afforded to the prisoners, it was given for only a part of the voyage, and it was on the passage from the Cape to Sydney, after A diBnatrouB the death of Lieutenant Shapcote, that the worst of the voyasre* atrocities were committed. When the vessels arrived at the Cape many deaths had occurred (sixty-nine), and the convicts were suffering from scurvy. In his report to the Commissioners of the Navy, dated from the Neptune, in False Bay, 24th April, 1790, Shapcote says : — " The soldiers and convicts, to a very large number, are exceed- ing ill with the scurvy, and as our stay here will be short, I have, in consequence of representations from the surgeon's mate of the troops and the different surgeons of the ships, ordered the masters to issue to them fresh meat every day, with a sufficient quantity of vegetables."t
- Historical Heoords, toI. ii, p. 487.
t Hi£toi*ical Beoords, toL i, part 2, p. SJkk
