establishing a whale-fishery upon this coast.
In one particular, however, they all agreed, which was, that the coast
abounded with fish; but the major part of them thought that the currents
and bad weather prevailing at this season of the year, and which appeared
to be also the season of the fish, would prevent any ships from meeting
with that success, of which on their setting out they themselves had had
such sanguine hopes. One of them thought that the others, in giving this
opinion, were premature, and that they were not sufficiently acquainted
with the weather on the coast to form any judgment of the advantage to be
derived from future attempts. They were determined, nevertheless, to give
it another trial, on the failure of which they meant to prosecute their
voyage to the coast of Peru. Having set up their rigging, they went out
again toward the latter end of the month.

About the middle of the month an alteration took place in the ration; two
pounds of flour were taken off, and one pint of peas and one pint of
oatmeal were issued in their stead; the full ration, which was first
served on the 27th of August last, having been continued not quite three
months.

The _Supply_ armed tender, having completed her repairs, sailed for
England on the 26th, her commander, Lieutenant Ball, purposing to make
his passage round Cape Horn, for which the season of the year was
favourable. Lieutenant John Creswell of the marines went in her, charged
with the governor's dispatches.

The services of this little vessel had endeared her, and her officers and
people, to this colony. The regret which we felt at parting with them
was, however, lessened by a knowledge that they were flying from a
country of want to one of abundance, where we all hoped that the services
they had performed would be rewarded by that attention and promotion to
which they naturally looked up, and had an indisputable claim.

At this time the public live stock in the settlement consisted of one
stallion aged, one mare, two young stallions, two colts, sixteen cows,
two calves, one ram, fifty ewes, six lambs, one boar, fourteen sows (old
and young), and twenty-two pigs.

The ground in cultivation at and about Parramatta amounted to three
hundred and fifty-one acres in maize, forty-four in wheat, six in barley,
one in oats, two in potatoes, four in vines, eighty-six in garden ground,
and seventeen in cultivation by the New South Wales corps. In addition to
thes