The _Bellona_ at length arrived, with free settlers and their families, including a millwright and blacksmith; one of whom had been already in the colony, under other auspices! An authority to the Governor was now conveyed, to establish such persons as were eligible on terms highly advantageous. They chose a fertile spot, and to mark their civil condition, called their locations "Liberty Plains" (February, 1793). The British government provided their passage, an assortment of tools and implements, provisions for two years; their lands free of expense; and the service of convicts, with two years' rations and one year's clothing. It is difficult to imagine a more alluring offer; yet, except a Dorsetshire farmer, the rest were not _bona fide_ settlers: two formerly belonged to the _Sirius_, and a third to the _Lady Juliana_ transport; in short, they were sailors. Concluding, then, the secretary of state had sought settlers in earnest, the presumption is strong that no considerable number of persons could be found to engage in such an enterprise: one which seemed to comprehend all the perils of distance, of official tyranny, and of social corruption.[156] The additions, thus made to the free population, were generally of persons connected with the merchant service or the military profession; and who, by a residence intended only to be temporary and official, contracted a preference for the climate; where they found great respect and deference, by the paucity of their numbers. It was their example which finally overcame the reluctance to settle, which no mere offers of the crown were sufficient to conquer. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 138: _Bigge's Report._] [Footnote 139: Colonial Fund (1820): Quarter's salary, A. P. Humphrey, superintendent, L25; government printer, L7 10s.; Mr. Fitzgerald, schoolmaster, L6 5s.; G. Northam, chaplain's clerk, L3 5s.; James Charlton, executioner, L6 5s.!] [Footnote 140: "Report of Oxley."--_Barrow Field's Collection._] [Footnote 141: _Breton's New South Wales._] [Footnote 142: The following "Instructions" were laid before parliament: being a return to an address to his Majesty, dated 2nd February, 1832; they were, however, only partially acted upon:-- "_Copy of Instructions issued by the Governor of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, for the Regulation of Penal Settlements._ "As an aversion to honest industry and labor has been the chief cause of most of the convicts incurring the penalties of the law, they shall be employed at some species of labor, of an uniform kind, which they cannot evade, and by which they will have an opportunity of becoming habituated to regular employment. "With this view, all labor of a complex nature, the quantity of which cannot be easily determined, is to be studiously avoided: and the convicts are to be employed exclusively in agricultural operations, when the public buildings or other works of the settlement do not absolutely require their labor.