uts on each side of and near the stream of water which
supplied the town of Sydney, they had, for the convenience of procuring
water, opened the paling, and made paths from each hut; by which, in
rainy weather, a great quantity of filth ran into the stream, polluting
the water of which every one drank. It therefore became an object of
police; and the governor prohibited removing the paling, or keeping hogs
in the neighbourhood of the stream, under penalty to the offender that
his house should be pulled down.

On the 13th, the _Providence_ sailed for Nootka Sound. She was followed
by the _Supply_, which sailed on the 16th for Norfolk Island, having on
board three officers of the New South Wales corps, and a detachment of
the regiment to relieve those now on duty there. On the 29th the _Young
William_, having been expeditiously cleared of her cargo, sailed for
Canton.

Clearing the store-ship, which was completed on the 19th, and stowing in
the public store the provisions she brought out, was the principal labour
of the month. Every effort was made to collect together a sufficient
number of working people to get in the ensuing harvest; and the muster
and regulation respecting the servants fortunately produced some. The
bricklayer and his gang were employed in repairing the column at the
South Head; to do which, for want of bricks at the kiln, the little hut
built formerly for Bennillong, being altogether forsaken by the natives,
and tumbling down, the bricks of it were removed to the South Head. A
person having undertaken to collect shells and burn them into lime, a
quantity of that article was sent down; and the column, being finished
with a thick coat of plaster, and whitened, was not only better guarded
against the weather, but became a more conspicuous object at sea than it
ever had been before.

November.] On the 5th of November, the _Sovereign_ store-ship arrived
from England; her cargo a welcome one, being provisions. Like the _Young
William_, she touched at Rio de Janeiro, and like her also had met with
very bad weather after she had left that port until her arrival; from
making the south cape of this country to her anchoring she had a passage
of three weeks. In this ship arrived Mr. Thomas Hibbins, the deputy
judge-advocate for Norfolk Island; but unfortunately without the patent
under the great seal for holding the court. One settler also arrived, a
Mr. Kennedy and his family (a sister and three nieces); and M