own to have amassed large sums of money for
people in their situations, were broken into; and in one instance they
succeeded. On the night of the 22nd the hut of Mary Burne, widow of a man
who had been employed as a game-killer, was robbed of dollars to the
amount of eleven pounds; with which the pillagers got off undiscovered.

On the 30th the _Britannia_ left the cove, dropping down below Bradley's
Point, preparatory to sailing on her intended voyage to Dusky Bay in New
Zealand; and while every one was remarking, that the cove (being left
without a ship) again looked solitary and uncomfortable, the signal was
made at the South Head, and at ten o'clock at night the _Atlantic_
anchored in the cove from Norfolk Island, where, we had the satisfaction
to learn, the large cargo which she had on board was landed in safety,
although at one time the ship was in great danger of running ashore at
Cascade Bay. We now learned that the expectations which had been formed
of the crops at Norfolk Island had been too sanguine; but their salt
provisions lasted very well. Governor King, however, wrote that the crops
then in the ground promised favourably, although he would not venture to
speak decidedly, as they were very much annoyed by the grub. This was an
enemy produced by the extreme richness of the soil; and it was remarked,
that as the land was opened and cleared, it was found to be exposed to
the blighting winds which infest the island.

The great havoc and destruction which the reduced ration had occasioned
among the birds frequenting Mount Pitt had so thinned their numbers, that
they were no longer to be depended upon as a resource. The convicts,
senseless and improvident, not only destroyed the bird, its young, and
its egg, but the hole in which it burrowed; a circumstance that ought
most cautiously to have been guarded against; as nothing appeared more
likely to make them forsake the island.

The stock in the settlement was plentiful, but, from being fed chiefly on
sow thistle during the general deficiency of hard food, the animals
looked ill, and were as badly tasted. The _Pitt_, however, took from the
island a great quantity of stock; barrow pigs and fowls, pumpkins and
other vegetables; for which Captain Manning and his officers paid the
owners with many articles of comfort to which they had long been
strangers.

The convicts in general wore a very unhealthy cadaverous appearance,
owing, it was supposed, not only to spa