ABSTRACT
The settlement in New South Wales suffered various privations and its early years were difficult. In June 1790 the Second Fleet of convicts arrived in the colony, to be joined in August 1791 by the Third Fleet. In 1792 the Royal Marines were replaced with the New South Wales Corps, which had been specifically recruited in Great Britain. In 1791 the settlement was in extreme difficulty. It still depended on supplies from the mother country to sustain it. In June 1790 the Second Fleet, consisting of six ships, left England. Parker arrived at Port Jackson in September 1791 at the same time as the Third Fleet and she provides a graphic account of the state of the convicts on disembarkation. Parker depicts the natives of the area in a more positive way that most of the other contemporary accounts.
