ain Hill, to whom he was
attached, in the month of March last, came back by this conveyance to his
friends and relations at Port Jackson. During his residence on the
island, which Mr. Monroe said he quitted reluctantly, he seemed to have
gained some smattering of our language, certain words of which he
occasionally blended with his own.

Some prisoners having been sent from Norfolk Island, the criminal court
was assembled on the 15th for the trial of one of them for a capital
offence committed there; but for want of sufficient evidence he was
acquitted. Great inconvenience was experienced from having to send
prisoners from that island with all the necessary witnesses. In the case
just mentioned the prosecutor was a settler, who being obliged to leave
his farm for the time, the business of which was necessarily suspended
until he could return, was ruined: and one of the witnesses was in nearly
the same situation. But as the courts in New South Wales would always be
the superior courts, it was not easy to discover a remedy for these
inconveniences.'

A seaman of one of the transports having been clearly proved to have
wantonly sunk a canoe belonging to a native, who had been paddling round
the ship, and at last ventured on board, he was ordered to be punished,
and to give the native a complete suit of wearing apparel, as a
satisfaction for the injury he had done him, as well as to induce him to
abandon any design of revenge which he might have formed. The corporal
punishment was however afterwards remitted, and the seaman ordered to
remain on board his ship while she should continue in this port.

Some of the soldiers who came out in the _William and Ann_ transport
having exhibited complaints against the master, whom they accused of
assaulting and severely beating them during the passage, the affair was
investigated before three magistrates, and a fine laid upon the master,
which he paid.

On Wednesday the 21st his Majesty's ship _Gorgon_ of forty-four guns,
commanded by Captain John Parker, anchored within the heads of the
harbour, reaching the settlement the following morning, and anchoring
where his Majesty's late ship _Sirius_ used to moor.

The _Gorgon_ sailed from England on the 15th of March last, touching on
her passage at the islands of Teneriffe and St. Iago, and at the Cape of
Good Hope, where she remained six weeks, taking in three bulls,
twenty-three cows, sixty-eight sheep, eleven hogs, two hundred frui