mon herd, and whose
conduct was marked by attention to their labour, and obedience to the
orders they received.

On the 11th, the governor set off with a small party in boats, to examine
the different branches of Botany Bay, and, after an excursion of five
days, returned well satisfied that no part of that extensive bay was
adapted to the purpose of a settlement; thus fully confirming the reports
he had received from others, and the opinions he had
himself formed.

A convict having been found dead in the woods near the settlement, an
enquiry into the cause of his death was made by the provost-marshal; when
it appeared from the evidence of Mr. Balmain, one of the
assistant-surgeons who attended to open him, and of the people who lived
with the deceased, that he died through want of nourishment, and through
weakness occasioned by the heat of the sun. It appeared that he had not
for more than a week past eaten his allowance of provisions, the whole
being found in his box. It was proved by those who knew him, that he was
accustomed to deny himself even what was absolutely necessary to his
existence, abstaining from his provisions, and selling them for money,
which he was reserving, and had somewhere concealed, in order to purchase
his passage to England when his time should expire.

Mr. Reid, the carpenter of the _Supply_, now undertook the construction
of a boat-house on the east side, for the purpose of building, with the
timber of this country, a launch or hoy, capable of being employed in
conveying provisions to Rose Hill, and for other useful and necessary
purposes. The working convicts were employed on Saturdays, until ten
o'clock in the forenoon, in forming a landing-place on the east side of
the cove. At the point on the west side, a magazine was marked out, to be
constructed of stone, and large enough to contain fifty or sixty barrels
of powder.

Christmas Day was observed with proper ceremony. Mr. Johnson preached a
sermon adapted to the occasion, and the major part of the officers of the
settlement were afterward entertained at dinner by the governor.

It being remarked with concern, that the natives were becoming every day
more troublesome and hostile, several people having been wounded, and
others, who were necessarily employed in the woods, driven in and much
alarmed by them, the governor determined on endeavouring to seize and
bring into the settlement, one or two of those people, whose language it
was