s crew
was mostly composed of convicts; and having no officer in whom he could
place entire confidence, I lent to him Mr Denis Lacy, one of my young
gentlemen acquainted with the management of a time keeper, to act as his
chief mate.

The price of fresh meat at Port Jackson was so exorbitant, that it was
impossible to think of purchasing it on the public account. I obtained
one quarter of beef for the ship's company, in exchange for salt meat,
and the governor furnished us with some baskets of vegetables from his
garden; and in lieu of the daily pound of biscuit, each man received a
pound and a quarter of soft bread, without any expense to government. But
with these exceptions, I was obliged to leave the refreshment of the
people to their own individual exertions; assisting them with the payment
due for savings of bread since leaving the Cape of Good Hope, and the
different artificers with the money earned by their extra services in
refitting the ship. Fish are usually plentiful at Port Jackson in the
summer, but not in the winter time; and our duties were too numerous and
indispensable to admit of sending people away with the seine, when there
was little prospect of success; a few were, however, occasionally bought
alongside, from boats which fished along the coast.

In purchasing a sea stock for the cabin, I paid L3 a head for sheep,
weighing from thirty to forty pounds when dressed. Pigs were bought at
9d. per pound, weighed alive, geese at 10s. each, and fowls at 3s.; and
Indian corn for the stock cost 5s. a bushel.

To complete the ship's provisions, I entered into a contract for 30,000
pounds of biscuit, 8000 pounds of flour, and 156 bushels of kiln-dried
wheat; but in the meantime, the ship Coromandel brought out the greater
part of the twelvemonths' provisions, for which I had applied on sailing
from Spithead; and the contractor was prevailed upon to annul that part
of the agreement relating to flour and wheat. The biscuit cost 33s. per
hundred pounds; and considering that the colony was at short allowance,
and that the French ships were to be supplied, it was a favourable price.
From two American vessels which arrived, I purchased 1483 gallons of rum
at 6s. 6d. per gallon; which, with what remained of our former stock was
a proportion for twelve months. In other respects our provisions were
completed from the quantity sent out from England; and the remaining part
was lodged in the public stores, in charge of