You will be furnished with a four oared boat, and you are not on any consideration to build, or to permit the building of any vessel or boat whatever that is decked; or of any boat or vessel that is not decked, whose length of keel exceeds twenty feet:  and if by any accident any vessel or boat that exceeds twenty feet keel should be driven on the island, you are immediately to cause such boat or vessel to be scuttled, or otherwise rendered unserviceable, letting her remain in that situation until you receive further directions from me.

You will be furnished with six months provisions, within which time you will receive an additional supply, but as you will be able to procure fish and vegetables, you are to endeavour to make the provisions you receive serve as long as possible.

The convicts being the servants of the Crown, till the time for which they are sentenced is expired, their labour is to be for the public; and you are to take particular notice of their general good or bad behaviour, that they may hereafter be employed or rewarded according to their different merits.

You are to cause the Prayers of the Church of England to be read with all due solemnity every Sunday, and you are to inforce a due observance of religion and good order, transmitting to me, as often as opportunity offers, a full account of your particular situation and transactions.

You are not to permit any intercourse or trade with any ships or vessels that may stop at the island, whether English or of any other nation, unless such ships or vessels should be in distress, in which case you are to afford them such assistance as may be in your power.

Given under my hand, at Head Quarters in Port Jackson, New South Wales, this 12th day of February, 1788.

(Signed)

Arthur Phillip.

Chapter IX.

February 1788 to March 1788

A Criminal Court held—­Broken Bay explored by Governor Phillip—­Interviews with the Natives—­Peculiarities remarked—­Friendly behaviour and extraordinary courage of an old man.

Governor Phillip soon found with great regret, though doubtless without much surprise, that in the community committed to his care the strict enforcement of the sanctions of law was peculiarly necessary.  There were in it many individuals whom neither lenity could touch, nor rigour terrify; who, with all sense of social duty, appeared to have lost all value for life itself, and with the same wantonness exposed themselves to the darts of the savages, and to the severe punishments which, however reluctantly, every society must inflict when milder methods have been tried without success.  Towards the latter end of February a criminal court was convened, in which six of the convicts received sentence of death.  One, who was the head of the gang, was executed the same day; of the rest, one was pardoned; the other four were reprieved, and afterwards