On 3 February 1788 the Rev. Richard Johnson, the official chaplain to the settlement, conducted the first divine service in Sydney, preaching in the open air on a text from Psalm 116, ‘What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me?’ On 17 February he celebrated the first holy communion. Meanwhile, on 6 February 1788, the women convicts had been landed at Sydney Cove, after being searched, and it was observed that many of them were well dressed for the occasion. However, according to surgeon Arthur Bowes, "The convicts got to them very soon after their landing, and the scene of debauchery and riot that ensued during the night may be better conceived than express’d, particularly when I say that within one hour of their landing - before they c’d adjust their tents in order for sleeping in them - there came on the most violent storm of lightn’g, thunder, and rain I ever saw." At 10 next morning everyone was summoned to a special parade in order to hear Governor Phillip’s Commission read. After the ceremony:

the convicts were order’d to sit down, and the Governor made an harangue to them, telling them he had try’d them hitherto to see how they were disposed, that he was thoroughly convinced they were many of them incorrigable, and that he was convinced nothing but severity w’d have any effect upon them to induce them to behave properly. He also assur’d them if they attempted by night to get into the women’s tents there were positive orders for the centry to fire upon them; that they had been very idle, wandering ab’t the country, and not more than 200 out of 600 convicts were at work; that the industrious sh’d not labour for the idle; if they did not work they sh’d not eat; that in England if thieving poultry was to be punish’d w’h death in consequence of their being so easily supply’d, but here a fowl was of the utmost consequence to the settlement, as well as every other species of stock, as they were reserved for breed, therefore stealing the most trifling article of stock or provissions sh’d be punish’d with death; that however such severity might militate against his humanity and feelings, yet justice demanded such rigid execution of the laws, and they might implicitly rely upon justice taking place. Their labour w’d not be equal to that a husbandman in England endures who has a wife and family to provide for; they w’d never be work’d beyond their abilities, but everyone sh’d contribute his share in order to render himself and the community at large happy and comfortable; as soon as the nature of the settlement w’d admit of, that they sh’d be employ’d erecting houses for the different officers, the soldiers, and afterwards for themselves. After this harangue they were dismiss’d in the same form in which they were assembl’d. The Governor had a cold collation under a large tent, to which the general officers were invited.

- A. Bowes, Journal, MSS. 995, Mitchell Library, Sydney; reproduced in Historical Records of New South Wales, vol. II, p.393