ad met with in the woods. Being
fearful of severe punishment for some of his late offences, he reported,
on being brought in, that he had fallen in with our cattle which had been
so long lost; that they were increased by two calves; that they seemed to
be under the care of eight or ten natives, who attended them closely
while they grazed; and that, on his attempting to drive the cattle before
him, he was wounded by another party of the natives. The circumstance of
his being wounded was the only part of his story that met with any
credit, and that could not well be contradicted, as he had several spear
wounds about him in different parts of his body; but every thing else was
looked upon as a fabrication (and that not well contrived) to avert the
lash which he knew hung over him. He was well known to have as small a
share of veracity as of honesty. His wounds however requiring care and
rest, he was secured, and placed under the surgeon's care at the
hospital.

Information was also received at this time from Rose Hill, that a convict
who had been employed to strike the sting ray, with another, on the
flats, having gone on shore, engaged in some quarrel with the natives,
who took all his clothes from him, severely wounded, and would inevitably
have killed him, but for the humane, friendly, and disinterested
interference of one of their own women, who happened to be present. This
accident, and many others of the same nature, could not have happened,
had the orders which he had received, not to land upon any account, been
attended to.

The bricklayers, having finished the judge-advocate's house, were
employed in building a dispensary on the west side contiguous to the
hospital, the medicines and chirurgical instruments being much exposed to
damps in the place where they had hitherto been necessarily kept.

Garden robberies were frequent, notwithstanding the utmost care and
vigilance were exerted to prevent them. A rainy tempestuous night always
afforded a cloak for the thief, and was generally followed in the morning
by some one complaining of his or her garden having been stripped of all
its produce.

February.] The first signal from the flagstaff at the South Head was
displayed on the 10th of February; and though every imagination first
turned toward the expected stranger, yet happening about the time at
which the _Supply_ was expected from Norfolk Island, conjecture soon
fixed on the right object; and the temporary sus