This was done accordingly; and, every necessary arrangement having taken
place, the troops intended for the garrison embarked, and the convicts,
male and female, were distributed in the different transports.
May.] On Monday the 7th of May Captain Phillip arrived at Portsmouth, and
took the command of his little fleet, then lying at the Motherbank.
Anxious to depart, and apprehensive that the wind, which had for a
considerable time been blowing from the quarter favourable to his passage
down the Channel, might desert him at the moment when he most wished for
its continuance, he on the Thursday following made the signal to prepare
for sailing. But here a demur arose among the sailors on board the
transports, who refused to proceed to sea unless they should be paid
their wages up to the time of their departure, alleging as a ground for
this refusal, that they were in want of many articles necessary for so
long a voyage, which this money, if paid, would enable them to purchase.
The custom of their employ, however, being against a demand which yet
appeared reasonable, Captain Phillip directed the different masters to
put such of their people as refused to proceed with them to sea, on board
of the _Hyaena_ frigate, and to receive an equal number of her seamen,
who should afterwards be re-exchanged at sea, her captain being directed
to accompany the fleet to a certain distance.
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