Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/91

islanders had some faint hope that when the Supply reached Sydney (in March, 1790) she might find that provisions had arrived from England, and might return to the island with relief. In May these hopes were abandoned. and the truth was surmised. On the 14th May the Lt.-Gov. and his Council issued the following order:

At a meeting of the Governor and Council held to consider of the very exhausted state of the provisions in this settlement, and to consult upon what means are most proper to be pursued in order to preserve life until such time as we may be relieved by some arrivals from England, of which we have been so long in expectation, but probably disappointed by some unfortunate accident having happened to the ships intended for this country, the state of the provisions having been laid before the Council, and the alarming situation of the settlement having been taken into the most serious consideration, the following ratio of provisions was unanimonsly resolved and ordered to take place on Saturday, the 15th instant, viz.: Flour, three pounds per week for every grown person. Beef, one pound and a-half per ditto; or in lieu of the beef, seventeen ounces of pork. Rice, one pound per ditto. Children above twelve months old, half the above ratio. Children under twelve months old, one pound and a-half of flour, and a pound of rice per week. In future all crimes which may by any three members of the Council be considered as not of a capital nature, will be punished at their discretion by a further reduction of the present allowance of provisions."

Every day the starving people looked wistfully upon the vacant sea, and 'every day they looked in vain. But for a providential discovery of birds on their own small island (five miles by three only) they might soon have ceased to look. In April it was found that the Norfolk Island petrel, known amongst sailors as the mutton-bird,^[1] crowded at night upon Mount Pitt (so named by P. G. King after the great minister), the highest point of the island, and bond and free went out in parties to capture them. Small fires were lighted to attract the attention of the birds. The creatures having lighted on the ground, could not rise again without the aid of some jutting eminence, and the hungry islanders rushed on them and killed them. So numerous were they, that although between two and three thousand were captured nightly, at the end of May they seemed as plentiful as ever. But who could tell when they would cease to visit a spot which had been changed from the cradle to the grave of their race? How precarious was the winged supply of food! The birds came to their nests in the ground. The time must come when the visitors would be all