1792 newspaper AUSTRALIA Botany Bay Colony in DISTRESS

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Please visit our EBAY STORE at the link directly below for THOUSANDS more HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS on sale or at auction: /Steve-Goldman-HISTORICAL-NEWSPAPERS_W0QQsspagenameZL2222QQtZkm SEE PHOTO----- COMPLETE ORIGINAL and very scarce NEWSPAPER, the Edinburgh Advertiser (SCOTLAND) dated June 26, 1792. This Edinburg Advertiser is an 8-page newspaper, with a page size of 11.5" x 9". This newspaper contains a FRONT PAGE headline "Intelligence from Botany Bay" and a 1/2 column report on the Botany Bay Colony (AUSTRALIA) being in GREAT DISTRESS !! Botany Bay is a bay in Sydney , New South Wales , a few kilometres south of the Sydney central business district . The Cooks River and the Georges River are the two major tributaries that flow into the bay. Two runways of Sydney Airport extend into the bay. On 29 April 1770, Botany Bay was the site of James Cook 's first landing of HMS Endeavour on the continent of Australia , after his extensive navigation of New Zealand . Later the British planned Botany Bay as the site for a penal colony . Out of these plans came the first European habitation of Australia at Sydney Cove . Following the loss of the American Colonies , American War of Independence 1775-1783, Britain needed to find alternative land for a new British colony. Australia was chosen for settlement, and colonisation began in 178 8. Rather than resorting to the use of slavery to build the infrastructure for the new colony, convict labour was as a cheap and economically viable alternative. It is commonly reported that the colonisation of Australia was driven by the need to address overcrowding in the British prison system however it is simply not economically viable to transport prisoners half way around the world for this reason alone. Many convicts were either skilled tradesmen or farmers who had been convicted for trivial crimes and were sentenced to 7 years the time required to set up the infrastructure for the new colony. Convicts were often given pardons prior to or on completion of their sentences and were allocated parcels of land to farm. Sir Joseph Banks , the eminent scientist who had accompanied Lieutenant James Cook on his 1770 voyage, recommended Botany Bay as a suitable site. In 1787, the First Fleet of 11 ships and about 1530 people (736 convicts, 17 convicts' children, 211 marines, 27 marines' wives, 14 marines' children and about 300 officers and others) under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip set sail for Botany Bay. The Fleet arrived between 18 and 20 January 1788, but Botany Bay was found to be unsuitable and on 26 January—a date now celebrated as Australia Day —one of the ships in the fleet, the Supply , made a landing at the nearby Sydney Cove . Phillip named the settlement after the Home Secretary , Thomas Townshend, 1st Baron Sydney ( Viscount Sydney from 1789). The only people at the flag raising ceremony and the formal taking of possession of the land in the name of King George III were Phillip and a few dozen marines and officers from the Supply , the rest of the ship's company and the convicts witnessing it from on board ship. The remaining ships of the Fleet were unable to leave Botany Bay until later on 26 January because of a tremendous gale. The new colony was formally proclaimed as the Colony of New South Wales on 7 February. On 24 January 1788 a French expedition of two ships led by Admiral Jean-François de La Pérouse had arrived off Botany Bay, on the latest leg of a three-year voyage that had taken them from Brest, around Cape Horn, up the coast from Chile to California, north-west to Kamchatka, south-east to Easter Island, north-west to Macao, and on to the Philippines, the Friendly Isles, Hawaii and Norfolk Island. Though amicably received, the French expedition was a troublesome matter for the British, as it showed the interest of France in the new land. Nevertheless, on 2 February Lieutenant King, at Phillip's request, paid a courtesy call on the French and offered them any assistance they may need.... read more

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