A Voyage to Botany Bay by George Barrington

A FAVOURABLE slant of wind enabled us to make the land of New South Wales on the 12th of October, about eight leagues distant. We stood on till we were within about six or seven miles from the shore, and then ranged pleasantly along the coast. At noon we were abreast of a point of land, called Red Point, only ten leagues distant from Botany Bay. About two leagues to the southward of the Bay is a chain of chalky hills, over-topped by level land. On this land is a clump of trees, something like Postdown-hill, in the neighbourhood of Portsmouth. The wind springing up to the eastward, we stood from the land, under an easy sail, till daylight, when we were quite abreast of the Bay; and, at noon, on the 13th, came to an anchor in Port Jackson, about five or six leagues to the northward of it.

At ten o'clock the next morning the convicts were all ordered on shore; their appearance was truly deplorable, the generality of them being emaciated by disease, and those who laboured under no bodily disorder, from the scantiness of their allowance, were in no better plight. The boats from all the ships in the harbour attended, in order to land them; there were in all two hundred and fifty men, six women, and a convict's wife and child who had obtained permission to accompany her husband. We lost during the voyage thirty-two men. Upon their landing they were entirely new cloathed from the king's store, and their old things were all burnt, in order to prevent any infectious disorder that might have been in the ship, from being introduced into the colony.