ectually checked the sensations of pity which are naturally excited by
the view of human sufferings.

A civil court also was assembled this month, by which some writs and some
probates of wills were granted.

At the Hawkesbury, where the settlers were consuming their subsistence in
drunkenness, a very excellent barrack was erecting for the use of the
commandant, on a spot which had been selected sufficiently high to
preclude any danger of the building being affected by a flood.

In this and the preceding month many people, adults as well as children,
were again afflicted with inflammations in the eyes. Having been visited
by this disorder in the month of April 1794, about which time we had the
same variable weather as was now experienced, we attributed its
appearance among us at this time to the same cause. The medical gentlemen
could not account for it on any other principle. One man, Sergeant-major
Jones of the New South Wales corps, died.

May.] Sixty of the women received by the _Indispensable_ were sent up to
Parramatta, there to be employed in such labour as was suited to their
sex and strength. The remainder were landed at this place.

On the 4th the governor notified in public orders his appointment of Mr.
D'Arcy Wentworth to the situation of assistant-surgeon to the settlement,
in the room of Mr. Samuel Leeds, the gentleman who came out with Governor
Hunter, he being permitted to return to England for the recovery of his
health.

Daily experience proved, that those people whose sentences of
transportation had expired were greater evils than the convicts
themselves. It was at this time impossible to spare the labour of a
single man from the public work. Of course, no man was allowed to remove
himself from that situation without permission. But, notwithstanding this
had been declared in public orders, many were known to withdraw
themselves from labour and the provision-store on the day of their
servitude ceasing. On their being apprehended, punished for a breach of
the order, and ordered again to labour, they seized the first opportunity
of running away, taking either to the woods to subsist by depredations,
or to the shelter which the Hawkesbury settlers afforded to every
vagabond that asked it.

By these people we were well convinced every theft was committed. Their
information was good; they never attempted a house that was not an object
of plunder; and wherever there was any property they were sure to