pay a
visit. The late robberies at the clergyman's and at Captain Townson's
were among the most striking instances.

It was on these occasions generally conjectured, that the domestics of
the house must aid and assist in the theft; for the perpetrator of it
always seemed to know where to lay his hand on the article for which he
thus risked his neck; and we never found them make an attempt on the
house of a poor individual.

On Wednesday the 11th, to the great satisfaction of the settlement at
large, the _Britannia_ storeship arrived safe from Calcutta and Madras,
entering this port for the fifth time with a valuable cargo on board.

She was now freighted with salted provisions, and a small quantity of
rice on account of government, procured by order of the presidencies of
Calcutta and Madras. On private account, the different officers of the
civil and military departments received the various commissions which
they had been allowed to put into the ship; and one young mare, five
cows, and one cow-calf, of the Bengal breed, were brought for sale.

On board of this ship arrived two officers of the Bengal army, Lieutenant
Campbell and Mr. Phillips, a surgeon of the military establishment for
the purpose of raising two hundred recruits from among those people who
had served their respective terms of transportation. They were to be
regularly enlisted and attested, and were to receive bounty-money; and a
provisional engagement was made with Mr. Raven, to convey them to India,
if no other service should offer for his ship.

On the first view of this scheme it appeared very plausible, and we
imagined that the execution of it would be attended with much good to the
settlement, by ridding it of many of those wretches whom we had too much
reason to deem our greatest nuisances: but when we found that the
recruiting officer was instructed to be nice as to the characters of
those he should enlist, and to entertain none that were of known bad
morals, we perceived that the settlement would derive less benefit from
it than was at first expected. There was also some reason to suppose,
that several settlers would abandon their farms, and, leaving their
families a burden to the store, embrace the change which was offered them
by enlisting as East India soldiers. It was far better for us, if any
were capable of bearing arms and becoming soldiers, to arm them in
defence of their own lives and possessions, and, by embodying them from
time