rs by Governor Phillip for the purpose of breeding from (as has been
already observed) appeared to have been thrown away upon them when viewed
as a breeding stock for settlers. No sooner had the _Atlantic_ sailed,
than the major part of them were offered for sale; and there was little
doubt (many of their owners making no scruple to publish their
intentions) that had they not been bought by the officers, in a very few
weeks many of them would have been destroyed. By this conduct, as far as
their individual benefit was concerned, they had put it out of their own
power to reap any advantage from the governor's bounty to them; but the
stock by this means was saved, and had fallen into hands that certainly
would not wantonly destroy it. There were a few among the settlers who
exchanged their sheep for goats, deeming them a more profitable stock;
but, in general, spirits were the price required by the more ignorant and
imprudent part of them; and several of their farms, which had been, and
ought to have always been, the peaceful retreats of industry, were for a
time the seats of inebriety and consequent disorder.

About this time there anchored in the cove an American ship, the _Hope_,
commanded by a Mr. Benjamin Page, from Rhode island, with a small cargo
of provisions and spirits for sale. The cause of his putting into this
harbour, the master declared, was for the purpose of procuring wood and
water, of which he stated his ship to be much in want; thus making the
sale of his cargo appear to be but a secondary object with him.

As the colony had not yet seen the day when it could have independently
said, 'We are not in want of provisions; procure your wood and your
water, and go your way,' the lieutenant-governor directed the commissary
to purchase such part of his cargo as the colony stood in need of; and
two hundred barrels of American cured beef, at four pounds per barrel;
eighty barrels of pork, at four pounds ten shillings per barrel;
forty-four barrels of flour, at two pounds per barrel; and seven thousand
five hundred and ninety-seven gallons of (new American) spirits at four
shillings and sixpence per gallon, were purchased; amounting in all to
the sum of L2957 6s 6d.

This ship had touched at the Falkland Islands for the purpose of
collecting skins from the different vessels employed in the seal trade
from the United States of America, with which she was to proceed to the
China market. From the Cape of Good Hope