The Portland daily press., 1898-03-22
BOTANY B aY.
First Load of Convicts Sent There Did Not
Land and None Have Landed Since.
Chicago Record. }

|
The first fiest sailed away from Eng
land in May, 1857, called at Rio Janelro
and arrived at Botany Bay early in JAN
uary, 1883. In the feet were 2o-gun
frigate, an armed tender, three storeshlps
and six transports, far the largest heet
that ever haa sailed to the South Sea,
though the largest vessel measured only
$50 tons, and the smallest only 27o tons.
On the six small transports for this long,
tropical voyage were packed convlcts
numbering s64 men and 1872 women.
| There were also carried 1853 marines and
ten officers, few surgeons and mechan-
les. the wives of forty Of the marines and
thirteen children, the offspring OF con-
victs. Approximately 1000 persons there.
fore went to found the colony in the new
est world less than no years old. Cap
tain Phillip of the British navy wars
placed in commend of the expedition and
given a commission as governor and cap
tain general of New South Wales.
1t is easy for the visitor of today to I'M
derstand the blank dismay that Philip
must have felt when the fleet sailed into
Botany Bay, and he saw for the first time
the place which had been recommended
TO him as the spot for settlement 1t had
been selected by the advice of Captain
Cook. whose botanists had been SO de-
! lighted with the profusion of new plants
they found there that they had given it
| the expressive name. Phillip found on
| first examination that more unsuitable
site for new settlement hardly could
have been chosen. The bay was shallow,
there was no good anchorage, there was
no good water, and the adjacent land WAS
not fertile, except for botanical speci-
mems. Leaving the feet anchored in the
bay, Philip started up the coast in his
tender, to hunt for better home. Nine
miles to the northward he found himself
facing those great gates now known as
Sydney Head, which Cook had seen fro m
distance, and satisfied with Botany
Bay, had marked on his chart as pos.
sible harbor for small boats. Phillip
rounded the south head, and was amazed
to see opening before him the bays of
Port Jaokson-Sydney harbor now
famed the world over as the finest harbor
in the seven seas, and disputed for that
distinction by few. Three days of explo-
ration left no possible doubt that this was
the place to be selected. and Philip re-
turned at once to Botany.
The feet was standing out of the bay,
when two French frigates appeared in the
offng They bore an exploring party
under Connie de la Perouse, without hos
tile intentions, which was an immense
relief to the colonists. Botany Bay was
left to the Frenchmen. They refreshed
and refitted there, staying until March
and burying on shore one of their COM
pany, the naturalist of the expedition.
who died of wounds received in an en-
NIT ho y,afivoS nf 81 1Qland thew
had touched. A few months later the
French expedition was shipwrecked. and
every one of the crew was murdered by
the natives of Vanikoro. one of the San
ia Cruz islands. In 1926 a monument to
the memory of the commander Of the ex-
petition was erected at Botany bay.
This is ali of the story of
NOUS because Of it's association with
convict transportation. No convict ever
was landed there, no settlement ever was
made there, and it never had anything
more to do with the system" than |
have related. 1t is a circular bay, with
an entrance so wide as to leave it almost
an open roadstead. The shores are fiat,
low. sandy and uninteresting. When 1
went there few days ago, the tide was
out and the beach was foul with all sorts
of drifts. One peninsula, just be-
tween the bay and the ocean, has been re-
served for noxiou6 trades, and they will
elbow the obelisk erected to the memory
of Captain Cook, SO that in the future
the bay will be no more savory than its
name has been, unjustly, in the past.
The French monument is at the other
side of the entrance to the bay.
It was the 10Th of January, 1888, when
the fleet of Governor Arthur Phillip en-
tered what is now Sydney harbor. The
settlement OF the continent OF Australia
was begun.