The arrival of the 'First Fleet' led by Captain Arthur Phillip in 1788 is an important event in Australian history and this manuscript account, probably a fair copy made by Philip Gidley King (1758-1808) to be sent to the Admiralty in London in 1790, provides an insight into the first British settlements in New South Wales. It is probable that the manuscript was passed to George III. The King was interested in naval matters and collected ships' journals and navy lists throughout his reign.

This report covers King's time as Lieutenant from 25 October 1787 through to his return to Britain in December 1790. An additional report, covering the departure of the Fleet from England through to its arrival in Cape Town, was sent to London before the ships left Africa. It contains detailed information about the arrival of the Fleet at Botany Bay, the surveying of Port Jackson, and friendly encounters with Indigenous Australians and with the French expedition led by Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse (1741-c.1788). The manuscript is comparable to two others in the State Library of New South Wales: King’s ‘private’ journal (SLNSW Safe 1/16/vol. 1-vol. 2) and a ‘fair copy’ (SLNSW Safe C/115 (Safe 1/246) as well as printed extracts found in John Hunter’s An Historical Journal of the transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island… (1793). Research into Hunter’s text and the three manuscripts by Gary Sturgess has shown that the Royal Library’s copy contains additional information not present in the others, and may be the closest to King’s ‘original’ manuscript, now believed to have been lost. Among the revelations in this journal is the confirmation of the establishment of the settlement at Sydney Cove taking place in the afternoon of 26 January 1788, not the morning, as implied by the other copies:

'At two pm The Union [flag] was hoisted on-shore & the Company of Marines were drawn up under it, Capt Phillip & officers to the Right & the Convicts to the Left. When possession of the territory was taken & "Their Majesties" & "His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales's healths' were drank & success to the Colony" after which a feu-de-joie was fired & the whole gave three cheers.'

26 January is now marked by many modern Australians as Australia Day and huge parties are held across the country. The arrival of the 'First Fleet', however, is also regarded among Indigenous communities as an invasion of ancestral land and the anniversary is marked as a day of mourning for those lost due to European settlement. King's description of his encounters with Indigenous Australians were friendly and demonstrated usual conventions of first encounter. Between 19 and 21 January 1788, King gave an account of the fleet's search for fresh water and the assistance offered by a group of Eora at Botany Bay:

'Captain Phillip shewed them some beads & ordered a Man to fasten them to the stern of one of the Canoes, on our rowing off the Shore they fetched the Beads. We then made signs to them for Water to drink, on which, one of them (who was an Old Man) pointed round the Point of land, on which they stood, the Boats were rowed round to it & on landing they directed us (by pointing) to a very good stream of fresh Water.'

Such encounters followed the instructions given by George III to Phillip, to 'endeavour by every means possible to open an intercourse' with Indigenous groups and to 'punish anyone who sought to wantonly destroy them.' However, by 1789, Phillip began kidnapping Indigenous Australians to try to learn more about the territory.

In February 1788, King was commissioned by Phillip to sail with HMS Sirius to Norfolk Island in order to establish an additional penal colony there and to provide a guaranteed source of hemp for sailcloth following the restriction of the Russian hemp trade by Catherine the Great. Much of the remainder of this journal covers the early history of the colony on the island, describing geography, climate, resources, the development of the settlement and the experiences of the convicts, providing names and King’s opinions of several of them. In January 1789, King offers an extended description of his investigation into a convict conspiracy uncovered on the island, detailing the punishments given to those involved. The account also describes days of leisure afforded to the convicts, including Christmas Day, which involved feasting on hogs, extra rations of flour and the lighting of celebratory bonfires.

In 1790, Sirius was wrecked at Norfolk Island and King returned to London with Governor Phillip's despatches. He travelled aboard a Dutch vessel, Snelheid, and the journal provides an account of the poor healthcare offered by the ship’s surgeon, ‘a man who appears to be very ignorant of his profession’, in the midst of an epidemic during the voyage home.

Due to its remoteness, in 1794, the Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales proposed the abandonment of the Norfolk Island penal colony in order to focus on new colonies on the Australian mainland. However, in 1824 a new settlement was founded to serve as a secondary penal colony to imprison those who had committed a crime in New South Wales following transportation. Evidence from the records of those imprisoned in this second period showed that many of the convicts were sent to the island for minor infractions, not serious offences as had been believed.
King would later serve as the third governor of New South Wales between 1800 and 1806, during which time he encouraged the foundation of many industries that helped the colony to become self-sufficient.

The manuscript has been digitised and is available via the Georgian Papers webpage.