Today is a rather important day in the birth of what was to become the nation of Australia. This date, January 18, 1788, saw the arrival, at Botany Bay of the first British prisoners, euphemistically called settlers, to begin the penal colony in Australia. That first fleet, made up of 11 ships, with a "cargo" of about 780 British convicts, was the vanguard of the penal colony with further fleets arriving in 1790 and 1791. The first free settlers did not arrive in Australia until 1793. The stories of the convicts and the free settlers are written up in many places, and among them are the following from the internet. http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/convicts/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Australia_(1788-1850) http://www.ulladulla.info/historian/ffstory.html http://www.botanybay.nsw.gov.au/city/history.htm http://www.skwirk.com.au/p-c_s-56_u-477_t-1302_c-5006/WA/8/The-First-Fleet-t he-process-of-colonisation/The-arrival-of-the-British/Colonisation-and-confl ict-the-European-arrive/SOSE-History/ http://www.imagesaustralia.com/botanybay.htm Capt'n John