Aborigines - Was It Smallpox?

Extract

When the fleet of British warships and transports led by H.M.S. Supply entered Botany Bay on the 18th of January 1788, the white invasion of Aboriginal Australia had begun. Captain Arthur Phillip in Supply was followed over the next two days by H.M.S. Sirius, six transports and three store ships. On the 26th January the Frenchman, La Perouse, with the ships La Boussole and L’Astrolabe, arrived at Botany Bay and remained there until the 10th of March, 1788. Because of the open nature of the bay, its shallow water and the lack of plentiful fresh water, Phillip decided to move the settlement, and on the 25th January sailed to Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) in Supply, with the transports following on the 26th of January. The white invasion and occupancy of Australia started in reality when the whole of Phillip’s fleet and colonists were anchored at the east of Sydney Cove. On board Phillip’s eleven ships came 736 male and female convicts, 17 convict children, 211 marines accompanied by their wives and children.