ach person so employed half a pint
of spirits _per diem_ for sixteen days. Liquor given to them in this way
operated as a benefit and a comfort to them: it was the intemperate use
of spirits, procured at the expense of their clothing or their provisions,
which was to be guarded against, and which operated as a serious evil.

For want of sufficient store-room, it was found necessary to stow a great
part of the wet provisions and flour arrived by the _Bellona_ in tiers
before the provision-store. Care was taken to shelter them from the sun
and from the weather; and when the pile was completed, it was, until the
eye was accustomed to the sight, an object of novelty and wonder; it
never having occurred to us since we first built a store, to have more
provisions than our stores could contain.

Gray, who had recovered from his last punishment, being now again urged
to discover what he had done with the drummer's money, trifled until he
was again punished, and then declared he had buried it in the man's
garden; but being taken to the spot he could not find it, and in fact did
not seem to know where to look for it. It was supposed, that, being in
liquor when he committed the robbery, he was ignorant how he had disposed
of the property, or that it had fallen into the hands of some person too
dishonest to give it to the right owner. He was afterwards sent to the
hospital, whence he made his escape into the woods.

On the evening of Sunday the 24th the signal was made at the South Head,
a short time before dark, but too late to be observed at the settlement;
at nine o'clock, however, information was received by the boat belonging
to the South Head, that a ship from Calcutta was at anchor in the lower
part of the harbour. In the morning she worked up, and anchored just
without the cove. She proved to be the _Shah Hormuzear_, of about four
hundred tons burden, commanded by Mr. Matthew Wright Bampton, from
Calcutta, who had embarked some property on a private speculation for
this country. Mr. Bampton, in September last, had sailed from Bombay,
with a cargo of provisions and stock for this settlement; but when near
the Line, his ship springing a leak, he was obliged to return, and got to
Bengal, where, with the sanction of Lord Cornwallis, he took on board a
fresh cargo for the colony. At Bengal he had met with Captain Manning,
who sailed from hence in the _Pitt_ in April last, and who mentioned to
him such articles as he thought wer