made acquainted with the
circumstance, immediately went to the spot with an armed party, where
some of them being heard among the bushes, they were fired at; it having
now become absolutely necessary to compel them to keep at a greater
distance from the settlement.

CHAPTER V

Settlement of Rose Hill
The _Golden Grove_ returns from Norfolk Island
The storeships sail for England
Transactions
James Daley tried and executed for housebreaking
Botany Bay examined by the governor
A convict found dead in the woods
Christmas Day
A native taken and brought up to the settlement
Weather
Climate
Report of deaths from the departure of the fleet from England to the
31st of December 1788

November.] The month of November commenced with the establishment of a
settlement at the head of the harbour. On the 2nd, his excellency the
governor went up to the Crescent, with the surveyor-general, two
officers, and a small party of marines, to choose the spot, and to mark
out the ground for a redoubt and other necessary buildings; and two days
after a party of ten convicts, being chiefly people who understood the
business of cultivation, were sent up to him, and a spot upon a rising
ground, which his excellency named Rose Hill, in compliment to G. Rose
Esq. one of the secretaries of the treasury, was ordered to be cleared
for the first habitations. The soil at this spot was of a stiff clayey
nature, free from that rock which every where covered the surface at
Sydney Cove, well clothed with timber, and unobstructed by underwood.

The party of convicts having, during the course of the month, been
gradually increased, the subaltern's command was augmented by a captain
with an additional number of private men; and it being found necessary
that the commanding officer should be vested with civil power and
authority sufficient to inflict corporal punishment on the convicts for
idleness and other petty offences, the governor constituted him a justice
of the peace for the county of Cumberland for that purpose.

10th. While this little settlement was establishing itself, the _Golden
Grove_ returned from Norfolk Island, having been absent five weeks and
four days. It brought letters from Lieutenant King, the commandant, who
wrote in very favourable terms of his young colony. His people continued
healthy, having fish and vegetables in abundance; by the former of which
he was enabled to save some of his salted provisions. He had also t