Botany Bay and the First Fleet by Alan Frost

Author:Alan Frost
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Schwartz Publishing Pty. Ltd

However, public approval of the venture was certainly not general. Some reporting of it was doubtful, if respectful. In November, for example, the Daily Universal Register said that there was some question of the expedition’s being abandoned, on the grounds of cost; then, a few days later, it gave readers figures that it must have received from Nepean, demonstrating that the difference in cost between keeping a male convict on a hulk and sending him to New South Wales was only £4 (£28 as against £32).20 In December, however, this paper came out against the decision, on the grounds, first, that the colony would shortly become a nest of pirates, who would ravage Britain’s eastern trade; and second, that the colonists would soon demand independence in the manner of the ungrateful Americans.21

Other notices heaped scorn upon the decision. The Gentleman’s Magazine said that ‘this plan is so wild and extravagant, that we can hardly believe it could be countenanced by any professional man after a moment’s reflection’; and it pointed out that ‘it is notorious that the Dutch East India ships lose more than half the recruits they take on board for their settlement in India in crossing the Line’.22 The Bath Chronicle was particularly scathing:

Botany Bay still continues to be a subject of town talk, without anybody seeming to know anything about the matter. First, it is Botany Bay where the convicts are to be transported to; then it is not Botany Bay in that huge island New Holland, but the small rock called New Norfolk in the South Sea! Then it is both Botany Bay and Norfolk! Then it is neither of them, but the commodore may conveniently dispose of them at Botany Bay, or New Norfolk, or the Lord knows where! Wherever he can shoot his rubbish!

If we could really believe such folly reigns among statesmen, as to adopt any of the schemes above alluded to, we should say, it is very little difference to the bulk of the destined wretches which of those remote places they are bound for. We believe the first land that two-thirds of them will reach will be the bottom of the sea, there to make their final deposit in the bosom of the great deep; and probably there will be but a dark account of the remaining third part.23

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