The stock which had been distributed among the married settlers and others by Governor Phillip for the purpose of breeding from (as has been already observed) appeared to have been thrown away upon them when viewed as a breeding stock for settlers. No sooner had the _Atlantic_ sailed, than the major part of them were offered for sale; and there was little doubt (many of their owners making no scruple to publish their intentions) that had they not been bought by the officers, in a very few weeks many of them would have been destroyed. By this conduct, as far as their individual benefit was concerned, they had put it out of their own power to reap any advantage from the governor's bounty to them; but the stock by this means was saved, and had fallen into hands that certainly would not wantonly destroy it. There were a few among the settlers who exchanged their sheep for goats, deeming them a more profitable stock; but, in general, spirits were the price required by the more ignorant and imprudent part of them; and several of their farms, which had been, and ought to have always been, the peaceful retreats of industry, were for a time the seats of inebriety and consequent disorder. About this time there anchored in the cove an American ship, the _Hope_, commanded by a Mr. Benjamin Page, from Rhode island, with a small cargo of provisions and spirits for sale. The cause of his putting into this harbour, the master declared, was for the purpose of procuring wood and water, of which he stated his ship to be much in want; thus making the sale of his cargo appear to be but a secondary object with him. As the colony had not yet seen the day when it could have independently said, 'We are not in want of provisions; procure your wood and your water, and go your way,' the lieutenant-governor directed the commissary to purchase such part of his cargo as the colony stood in need of; and two hundred barrels of American cured beef, at four pounds per barrel; eighty barrels of pork, at four pounds ten shillings per barrel; forty-four barrels of flour, at two pounds per barrel; and seven thousand five hundred and ninety-seven gallons of (new American) spirits at four shillings and sixpence per gallon, were purchased; amounting in all to the sum of £2957 6s 6d.