e about the latter end of this month at Toongabbie, where he was
detected in stealing Indian corn.

Richard Sutton was stabbed with a knife in the belly by one Abraham
Gordon, at the house of a female convict, on some quarrel respecting the
woman, and at a time when both were inflamed with liquor. In the struggle
Sutton was also dangerously cut in the arm; and when the surgeon came to
dress him, he found six inches of the omentum protruding at the wound in
his belly. Gordon was taken into custody.

Some people were taken up at Parramatta on suspicion of having murdered
one of the watchmen belonging to that settlement; the circumstances of
which affair one of them had been overheard relating to a fellow convict,
while both were under confinement for some other offence. A watchman
certainly had been missing for some time past; but after much inquiry and
investigation nothing appeared that could furnish matter for a criminal
prosecution against them.

A soldier, who had been sentenced by a court-martial to receive three
hundred lashes, on being led out to receive his punishment, attempted to
cut his throat, wounding himself under the ear with a knife. The
punishment was put off until the evening, when he declared that he was
the person who killed the watchman at Parramatta, which he effected by
shooting him; and that he would lead any one to the place where the body
lay. This, however, not preventing his receiving as much of his
punishment as he could bear, he afterwards declared that he knew nothing
of the murder, and had accused himself of perpetrating so horrid a crime
solely in the hope of deferring his punishment.

The natives, who now and then showed themselves about the distant
settlements, toward the latter end of the month wounded a convict who was
taking provisions from Parramatta to a settler at Prospect Hill. The
wound was not dangerous; but it occasioned the loss of the provisions
with which he was entrusted.

The rains of this month came too late to save the Indian corn of the
season, which now wore a most unpromising appearance. A grain had been
lately introduced into the settlement, and grown at Toongabbie, and other
places, which promised to answer very well for stock. It was the caffre
corn of Africa, and had every appearance of proving a useful grain.

An extraordinary appearance in the sky was observed by several people
between five and six o'clock in the evening of Friday the 12th of this
month.