dually to
augment until the 9th of July, when the Mary Anne transport arrived from
England. This ship had sailed from the Downs so lately as the 25th of
February, having been only four months and twelve days on her passage. She
brought out convicts, by contract, at a specific sum for each person. But
to demonstrate the effect of humanity and justice, of 144 female convicts
embarked on board only three had died, and the rest were landed in perfect
health, all loud in praise of their conductor. The master's name was Munro;
and his ship, after fulfilling her engagement with government, was bound on
the southern fishery. The reader must not conclude that I sacrifice to
dull detail, when he finds such benevolent conduct minutely narrated.
The advocates of humanity are not yet become too numerous: but those
who practise its divine precepts, however humble and unnoticed be their
station, ought not to sink into obscurity, unrecorded and unpraised, with
the vile monsters who deride misery and fatten on calamity.

July, 1791. If, however, the good people of this ship delighted us with
their benevolence, here gratification ended. I was of a party who had rowed
in a boat six miles out to sea, beyond the harbour's mouth, to meet them;
and what was our disappointment, on getting aboard, to find that they had
not brought a letter (a few official ones for the governor excepted) to any
person in the colony! Nor had they a single newspaper or magazine in their
possession; nor could they conceive that any person wished to hear news;
being as ignorant of everything which had passed in Europe for the last
two years as ourselves, at the distance of half the circle. "No war--the
fleet's dismantled," was the whole that we could learn. When I asked
whether a new parliament had been called, they stared at me in stupid
wonder, not seeming to comprehend that such a body either suffered
renovation or needed it.

"Have the French settled their government?"

"As to that matter I can't say; I never heard; but, damn them, they were
ready enough to join the Spaniards against us."

"Are Russia and Turkey at peace?"

"That you see does not lie in my way; I have heard talk about it, but don't
remember what passed."

"For heaven's sake, why did you not bring out a bundle of newspapers? You
might have procured a file at any coffee house, which would have amused
you, and instructed us?"

"Why, really, I never thought about the matter until we were off