Portsmouth Telegraph or Mottley's Naval and Military Journal

February 3, 1800

New South Wales

Extract of a letter from Mr. Black of the ship Indispensable dated Sydney, Port Jackson Dec 1., 1798

'I am as yet unable in inform you when I shall leave this place. It is doubted that the ship must be condemned here; and her cargo sent home by some other conveyance, in consequence of the iron work in her bottom being defective, which we fear cannot be repaired here. She is, however, now out on a cruize,

Living ashore here is excessively expensive, every article of provisions bearing a most exorbitant price; at this time mutton is 2s pr lb; goat's flesh 1s 6d.; port 1s 3d; fowls abut 4s and 5s; gees 12s; tea 3 per pound; spirits 50s per gallon, and other things in proportion. The demand for spirits is beyond conception. There are in the Colony about 6000 inhabitants, and upon a moderate calculation, it is computed they expend 100 gallons weekly, notwithstanding the repeated positive orders of Government to prohibit the importation of that article.'