them to the commissary's office,
where, after registering them, they were to receive certificates signed
by him, of their being permitted to carry such arms.

Some few settlers, who valued their arms as necessary to their defence
against the natives and against thieves, hastened to the office for their
certificate; but of between two and three hundred stands of arms which
belonged to the crown not fifty were accounted for.

The many robberies which were almost daily and nightly committed rendered
it expedient that some steps should be taken to put a stop to an evil so
destructive of the happiness and comfort of the industrious inhabitants.
Caesar was still in the woods, with several other vagabonds, all of whom
were reported, by people who saw them from time to time, to be armed; and
as he had sent us word, that he neither would come in, nor suffer himself
to be taken alive, it became necessary to secure him. Notice was
therefore given, that whoever should secure and bring him in with his
arms should receive as a reward five gallons of spirits. The settlers,
and those people who were occasionally supplied with ammunition by the
officers, were informed, that if they should be hereafter discovered to
have so abused the confidence placed in them, as to supply those common
plunderers with any part of this ammunition, they would be deemed
accomplices in the robberies committed by them, and steps would be taken
to bring them to punishment as accessories.

To relieve the mind from the contemplation of circumstances so irksome to
humanity, on the 23rd the _Ceres_ store-ship arrived from England. It was
impossible that a ship could ever reach this distant part of his
Majesty's dominions, from England, or from any other part of the world,
without bringing a change to our ideas, and a variety to our amusements.
The introduction of a stranger among us had ever been an object of some
moment; for every civility was considered to be due to him who had left
the civilized world to visit us. The personal interest he might have in
the visit we for a while forgot; and from our solicitude to hear news he
was invited to our houses and treated at our tables. If he afterwards
found himself neglected, it was not to be wondered at; his intelligence
was exhausted, and he had sunk into the mere tradesman.

This ship, whose master's name was Hedley, had on board stores and
provisions for the settlement. She sailed from England on the 5th of
Augu