particular
notice. On Friday the 18th, Eleanor McCave, the wife of Charles Williams,
the settler, was drowned, together with an infant child, and a woman of
the name of Green. These unfortunate people had been drinking and
revelling with Williams the husband and others at Sydney, and were
proceeding to Parramatta in a small boat, in which was a bag of rice
belonging to Green. The boat heeling considerably, and some water getting
at the bag, by a movement of Green's to save her rice the boat overset
near Breakfast Point, and the two women and the child were drowned. If
assistance could have been obtained upon the spot, the child might have
been saved; for it was forced from the wretched mother's grasp just
before she finally sunk, and brought on shore by the father; but for want
of medical aid it expired. The parents of this child were noted in the
colony for the general immorality of their conduct; they had been rioting
and fighting with each other the moment before they got into the boat;
and it was said, that the woman had imprecated every evil to befal her
and the infant she carried about her (for she was six months gone with
child) if she accompanied her husband to Parramatta. The bodies of these
two unfortunate women were found a few days afterwards, when the wretched
and rascally Williams buried his wife and child within a very few feet of
his own door. The profligacy of this man indeed manifested itself in a
strange manner: a short time after he had thus buried his wife, he was
seen sitting at his door, with a bottle of rum in his hand, and actually
drinking one glass and pouring another on her grave until it was emptied,
prefacing every libation by declaring how well she had loved it during
her life. He appeared to be in a state not far from insanity, as this
anecdote certainly testifies; but the melancholy event had not had any
other effect upon his mind.

The _Kitty_ transport being ready for sea, on Sunday the 20th two
subalterns, three sergeants, three corporals, one drummer, and sixty
privates, of the New South Wales corps, were embarked, for the purpose of
relieving the detachment from that corps now on duty at Norfolk Island
under the command of a captain, who received orders to return to this
settlement.

On board of this ship were also embarked, Mr. Clarke, the deputy-commissary
for Norfolk Island; Mr. Peate, the master carpenter, who came out in the
_Royal Admiral_; two coopers; two tailors; two offi