makeshift hospital, stocked with only rudimentary supplies, and assisted by untrained convict personnel. The arrival of the Second Fleet in mid-1790 threw up new challenges for Balmain and the other surgeons. The treatment of the convicts had been so harsh that they were confronted with large numbers of sick and dying people, and the death rate rose alarmingly over a two-month period. In September 1790 Governor Arthur Phillip was speared in the shoulder by an Aboriginal man named Willemering at the place he named Manly. Balmain skillfully removed the broken spear which was protruding through the shoulder and dressed the wound. Henry Waterhouse described the operation: "We got up within two hours to Sydney Cove, when the surgeons were immediately sent for and Mr Balmain attended with his instruments. On his examining the wound, the governor desired him candidly to tell him how many hours he had to settle his affairs ... but Mr Balmain made us all happy by confidently assuring the governor he did not apprehend any fatal consequences from the wound. The spear was then extracted." Phillip expressed his appreciation by appointing him to the post of Surgeon to the Norfolk Island Colony. On Norfolk Island Balmain arrived at Norfolk Island in November 1791. On the same ship was a young convict girl Margaret Dawson. She had been a servant in London and sentenced to seven years' transportation in February 1786 for stealing from her employer. At fifteen years of age, she was one of the youngest convicts on the First Fleet, sailing on the Lady Penrhyn. How well Balmain had known her in Sydney is not known, but they formed a de facto relationship that resulted in the birth of a daughter named Ann, on Norfolk Island in May 1794. On 22 Oct 1793 Balmain was one of the signatories of the proceedings of the first Settlers Meeting held on the island. In January 1794 the commandant of Norfolk Island, Philip Gidley King appointed Balmain as a Civil Magistrate to Norfolk Island. In this role he signed a proclamation fixing the prices for labour and goods, and declaring that monies gained by duties levied on the sale of spirits were to be spent on the establishment of schools. Through his clemency and sensitivity as a magistrate he helped to quell a riot between soldiers and convicts following a brawl outside the playhouse in November 1794. When