Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/80

Supplies were running short at Sydney. Phillip was well satisfied that—

"Everything which perseverance and industry can accomplish will be done by you, and I only thus particularly mark our situation that it may be fully known to you. . . . We have not that resource in fish that you have, nor can we, from the nature of the ground, make that progress in cultivation which you will be able to do. . . . ships will most undoubtedly be sent in time from England, but the summer is far advanced."

When the plot was formed in Jan., 1789, by the convicts to seize the officers, a sailor learned the secret from a convict woman, and revealed it to King, who sent a ring-leader to Sydney, with a request that whatever sentence might be adjudged, might be inflicted at Norfolk Island "as an example to others." Fishing was still carried on in spite of the conspiracy, the discovery of which "was the most fortunate event that could have happened," as it induced King to clear the ground round the houses for future security, and a hurricane which tore up trees in the island had no food for its fury, the fall of which could injure the houses. Phillip wrote:^[1] "It is with greatest satisfaction that I assure you every part of your conduct has met my warmest approbation, and I feel myself happy in having at Norfolk Island an officer who makes the public interest his own, and which will, I hope, meet a just reward." A guard of marines was sent from Sydney. King read service in his own house. The order for attendance was: "No person is to absent himself from public worship, which will begin every Sunday morning at eleven o'clock, in the commandant's house, when every one will come clean and orderly and behave themselves devoutly."

The ravages of caterpillars in May, 1789, alarmed the islanders, and in spite of all attempts to destroy the invaders, some acres of wheat were utterly devastated. A curious question was raised in 1789 by convicts, who averred that the terms of their sentences had expired, while the government had no documents by which to test the facts. Phillip, to augment the stores of food, suggested to King that until fresh papers could arrive from England