(to whose care it is intrusted) to
make observations on a comet which is shortly expected to appear in the
southern hemisphere. The latitude of the observatory, from the result of
more than three hundred observations, is fixed at 33 deg 52 min 30 sec
south, and the longitude at 151 deg 16 min 30 sec east of Greenwich. The
latitude of the south head which forms the entrance of the harbour, 33
deg 51 min, and that of the north head opposite to it at 33 deg 49 min
45 sec south.

Since landing here our military force has suffered a diminution of only
three persons, a serjeant and two privates. Of the convicts fifty-four
have perished, including the executions. Amidst the causes of this
mortality, excessive toil and a scarcity of food are not to be numbered,
as the reader will easily conceive, when informed, that they have
the same allowance of provisions as every officer and soldier in the
garrison; and are indulged by being exempted from labour every Saturday
afternoon and Sunday. On the latter of those days they are expected
to attend divine service, which is performed either within one of the
storehouses, or under a great tree in the open air, until a church can
be built.

Amidst our public labours, that no fortified post, or place of security,
is yet begun, may be a matter of surprise. Were an emergency in the
night to happen, it is not easy to say what might not take place before
troops, scattered about in an extensive encampment, could be formed, so
as to act. An event that happened a few evenings since may, perhaps, be
the means of forwarding this necessary work. In the dead of night the
centinels on the eastern side of the cove were alarmed by the voices
of the Indians, talking near their posts. The soldiers on this occasion
acted with their usual firmness, and without creating a disturbance,
acquainted the officer of the guard with the circumstance, who
immediately took every precaution to prevent an attack, and at the same
time gave orders that no molestation, while they continued peaceable,
should be offered them. From the darkness of the night, and the distance
they kept at, it was not easy to ascertain their number, but from the
sound of the voices and other circumstances, it was calculated at near
thirty. To their intentions in honouring us with this visit (the only
one we have had from them in the last five months) we are strangers,
though most probably it was either with a view to pilfer, or to
ascertain i