On the morning of the ninth, the signal for a sail was made at the South Head; and before night it was made known that the _Mary Ann_ transport was arrived from England, with one hundred and forty-one female convicts on board, six children, and one free woman, some clothing, and the following small quantity of provisions: one hundred and thirty-two barrels of flour; sixty-one tierces of pork; and thirty-two tierces of beef.
This ship sailed alone; but we were informed that she was to be followed by nine sail of transports, on board of which were embarked (including one hundred and fifty women, the number put into the _Mary Ann_) two thousand and fifty male and female convicts; the whole of which were to be expected in the course of six weeks or two months, together with his Majesty's ship _Gorgon_.
We also learned that Lieutenant King, who sailed hence the 17th April 1790, arrived in London the 20th day of December following, having suffered much distress after leaving Batavia, whence he was obliged to go to the Mauritius, having lost nearly all the crew of the packet he was in by sickness. Mr. Millar, the late commissary, died on the 28th of August.
With great satisfaction we heard, that from our government having adopted a system of sending out convicts at two embarkations in every year, at which time provisions were also to be sent, it was not probable that we should again experience the misery and want with which we had been but too well acquainted, from not having had any regular mode of supply. Intimation was likewise given, that a cargo of grain might be expected to arrive from Bengal, some merchants at that settlement having proposed to Lord Cornwallis, on hearing of the loss of the _Guardian_, to freight a ship with such a cargo as would be adapted to the wants of the colony, and to supply the different articles at a cheaper rate than they could be sent hither from England. We were also to expect a transport with live stock from the north west coast of America.
The master, Mark Monroe, had not any private letters on board; but (what added to the disappointment every one experienced) he had not brought a single newspaper; and, having been but a few weeks from Greenland before he sailed for this country, he was destitute of any kind of information.