creding the neceflary buildings ; and the whole was named Portland
Place, in honour of his Grace the Duke o f Portland.
In confequence o f the proclamation which was iffued in the laft
month, one o f the run-away convids delivered himfelf up to a con-
ftable, and another was taken and lodged in confinement: they appeared
to be half ftarved ; yet their fufferings were not fufficient to
prevent fimilar defertions from work in others, nor a repetition of
the offence in themfelves; fuch was the ftrong averfion which thefe
worthlefs characters had to any thing that bore the name o f
work. More labour would have been performed in this country by
loo people from any part o f England or Scotland, than had at any
time been derived from 300 of thefe people, with all the attention that
could be paid to them. Had 2co families of decent labouring farmers
been fent out as fettlers a few years fince, and had a few.con-
v id s to affift them been placed wholly under their diredion and
authority, the cultivation would have been much farther advanced ;
and, in point o f provifions, thofe families would have been living
in luxury. More grain than could be confumed would have been
grown, inftead o f crops which in fome years were barely fufficient
to laft until the following harveft.
Thefe people were brought to trial for a theft which they were
ftated to have committed, but of which there was not any pofitive
proof, and they were acquitted. There was not any doubt of
their having affociated with and inftruded the natives how to commit,
with the leaft hazard to themfelves, the various depredations
which the fettlers had fuftained from them; yet there was no proof
o f this, at leaft no proof whereby they might have been capitally
punifhed, nothing fhort o f which would ever be fufficient to prevent
this dangerous intercourfe.
After exciting fome apprehenfions for her fafety, his Majefty’s
fhip the Reliance anchored in the Cove on the 26th, from the Cape
o f Good Hope, having had a very ftormy paffage, with 26 cows,
10 * 3 bulls,
3 bulls, and about 60 flieep on board, on government account.
She had been extremely leaky all the voyage ; and it muft be remembered,
that the other colonial fhip, the Supply, arrived in a
very infirm ftate*.
A moft unexpected and unaccountable defertion took place in
the night after the arrival of the Reliance. Two boys belonging
to that fhip carried away a fmall two-oared boat, in which they intended
to proceed to the fouthward, and there join the natives.
Being purfued, they were brought back, and gave the above account
o f their fcheme ; to effeCt which, they had provided themfelves with
a boat-cloak to fleep in, a pair o f piftols,- a fmall quantity o f gunpowder,
and 30 cakes o f portable foup. That any one who had
been accuftomed to the habits o f civilized life fhould find charms
in that led by the favages o f this country, .was unaccountable; for,
admitting that idlenefs was the inducement,, yet whoever affociated
with them muft accompany them wherever they went, and they
were generally on the move either by day or night. They were
feldom provided with more food than was fufficient for the day ;
and in their treacherous vifitations at night, for the purpofes of revenge,
the European might be eafily miftaken- for, or confounded
with, the favage. But thus it was, to the great evil o f the community
to which thefe unthinking wretches belonged.
The inhabitants o f the town of Sydney having been aflelfed to
fupply thatch for the roof o f the new gaol, and completed their
refpe&ive proportions, the building was inclofed during this month
with a ftrong and high fence. A building fuch as this had certainly
been long wanted. It was 80 feet in length ; the fides and ends
were conftrudted o f ftrong logs, a double row o f which formed
* A t her departure from the Cape, itw is generally conjedtured that (he would never reach
the fettlement j but her commander, Lieutenant William Kent, confidered and felt the de-
fign of his voyage-to be o f fo much importance to the colony, that he determined tp run every
rift ; and fortunately, though with great difficulty, he fucceeded.
V O L . I I . G each