many wounds inflicted; but no one was
killed. It appeared to afford much diversion; for they were constantly
well attended by all descriptions of people, notwithstanding the risk
they ran of being wounded by a random spear.

On the 26th that settlement was gratified by the arrival of his Majesty's
ship _Providence_, of twenty-eight guns, commanded by Captain Broughton,
from England. She sailed thence on the 25th of February last, in company
with his Majesty's ships _Reliance_ and _Supply_, which ships she left at
Rio de Janeiro some time in May last. We had the satisfaction of learning
that Governor Hunter was on board the _Reliance_, and might be daily
expected.

The _Providence_ met with very bad weather on her passage from the Brazil
coast, and was driven past this harbour as far to the northward as Port
Stephens, in which she anchored. There, to the great surprise of Captain
Broughton, he found and received on board four white people, (if four
miserable, naked, dirty, and smoke-dried men could be called white,)
runaways from this settlement. By referring to the transactions of the
month of September 1790, it will be found that five convicts, John
Tarwood, George Lee, George Connoway, John Watson, and Joseph Sutton,
escaped from the settlement at Parramatta, and, providing themselves with
a wretched weak boat, which they stole from the people at the South Head,
disappeared, and were supposed to have met a death which, one might have
imagined, they went without the Heads to seek. Four of these people
(Joseph Sutton having died) were now met with in this harbour by the
officers of the _Providence_, and brought back to the colony. They told a
melancholy tale of their sufferings in the boat; and for many days after
their arrival passed their time in detailing to the crowds both of black
and white people which attended them their adventures in Port Stephens,
the first harbour they made. Having lived like the savages among whom
they dwelt, their change of food soon disagreed with them, and they were
all taken ill, appearing to be principally affected with abdominal
swellings. They spoke in high terms of the pacific disposition and gentle
manners of the natives. They were at some distance inland when Mr. Grimes
was in Port Stephens; but heard soon after of the schooner's visit, and
well knew, and often afterwards saw, the man who had been fired at, but
not killed at that time as was supposed, by Wilson. Each of them had ha