The greatest evil
that attended these desertions was the loss of the boats which were taken
off, for the colony could not sustain much injury by the absence of a few
wretches who were too idle to labour, and who must be constantly whispering
their own discontents among the other convicts.
On the 24th of this month we had the satisfaction of seeing the
_Indispensable_, a storeship, anchor in the cove from England, with a
cargo consisting principally of provisions for the colony. We understood
that she was the first of six or seven ships which were all to bring out
stores and provisions, and which, if no accident happened in the passage,
might be expected to arrive in the course of two months. The supply of
clothing and provisions intended to be conveyed by them, together with
what had been received by the _William_, was calculated for the
consumption of a twelvemonth. The quantity which now arrived in the
_Indispensable_ formed a supply of flour for twelve weeks, beef for four
ditto, pork for four ditto, and of peas for fourteen ditto. She sailed
from Spithead the 26th of last December, touched at Teneriffe and at the
Cape of Good Hope, from which place she sailed on the 30th of March last,
and made the South Cape of this country the 17th of this month.
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