is great reafon to fear that fevetal others will foon fhare the
fame fate. This diforder has now rifen to a moft alarming
height, without any poffibility of checking it until fome
vegetables can be raifed; which, from the fcafon of the
year, cannot take place for many months. / And even then
I am apprehenfive that there will hot be a fuffi.ciency produced,
fuch are the labour and difficulty which attend the
clearing of the ground. It will fcarcely be credited, when I
declare that I have known twelve men employed for five days,
in grubbing up one tree; and when this has been effe&ed,
the timber (as already obfcrved) has been only fit for firewood
; fo that in conference of the great labour in clearing
o f the ground, and the weak ftate of the people; to which
may be added the fcarcity of tools, moft of thole we had being
either worn out by the hardnels of the timber, or loft in the
woods among the grafs, through the carelefihefs o f the
c o n v id s ; the profped before- us is not of the moft pleafirtg
kind. All the ftock that was landed, both public and
private, feems, inftead of thriving, to fall oft exceedingly.
The number at firft was but inconfidcrable, and even that
number is at prefe'nt much diminilhed. The fheep, in particular,
decreafer apidly, very few being now alive in the
colony, although there were numbers, the property of Government
or individuals, when firft landed.
26th;, Two men of the Sirius were brought before the
Criminal court, and tried for aftaulting, and beating, in a
cruel manner, another man belonging to the fame veflel,
while employed on an illand appropriated by the governor
to the ufe o f the fliip. They were fentenced to- receive
five hundred lalhes each, but could not undergo the whole
of that punifhrfient, as, like moft of the perfons in the
colony, they were much afflicted with the feurvy.
> *2 8 th. Captain Hunter, his firft lieutenant, and "the
furgeomof the Sirius, went to the point o f land which
forms the north head of Port Jackfon. In going there
they difeovercd an old man, with a little girl about five
years of age, lying clofe to the ground watching their motions,
andla| the fame time endeavouring to conceal them-
felves. The furgeon had his gun with him, the effe&s of
which he let the old man fee, by (hooting a bird, which fell
at his feet. The explofion at firft greatly alarmed him, but
perceiving that they intended him no ill, he foon got over
his fears. The bird was then given to him, which (having
barely plucked, and not more than half broiled it) he devoured,