a man's arm to twenty-eight
feet in circumference; but they were either so very crooked, so
rent, or so very rotten in the heart, that we could scarcely get
one sound or serviceable in a dozen; and what in our situation
was a very great misfortune, we had not as yet found one piece of
timber that would float in water. The wood is so exceedingly
heavy, that when a large tree was cut down, in order to clear a
piece of ground, it would sometimes take a party of men three or
four days to dispose of it, or move it from the place.

We arrived in this country in the end of January, 1788; the
weather was then very fine, though warm; the sea and land breezes
pretty regular, and Farenheit's thermometer was from 72 deg. to
80 deg..

In February, the weather was sultry, with lightning, thunder,
and heavy rain; this sort of weather continued for a fortnight,
with few and very short intervals of fair weather; a flash of
lightning fell one night near the camp, and struck a tree near to
the post of a centinel, who was much hurt by it; the tree was
greatly rent, and there being at the foot of it a pen in which
were a sew pigs and sheep, they were all killed. Towards the
latter end of the month the weather was more settled, little
thunder, lightning, or rain, and the thermometer from 65 deg. to
77 deg..

In the middle of this month, Lieutenant King of the Sirius, a
master's mate, and surgeon's mate, with four other men from the
ship, together with a few men and women convicts, embarked on
board the Supply armed tender, and she sailed with them for
Norfolk Island. In the passage thither, they fell in with a small
island which had not before been discovered; it lies in latitude
31 deg. 36' south, and about 140 leagues to the eastward of this
coast; lieutenant Ball named it Lord Howe's Island. After having
landed the party intended to remain on Norfolk Island, with their
provisions and stores, Mr. Ball, in his return to Port Jackson,
called at Lord Howe's Island, in order to examine it more
particularly. He found anchorage on the west side of it, but the
bottom was coral rock. He landed, with his boat, within a reef,
and caught a number of excellent turtle upon a sandy beach: this
island also abounded with a variety of birds, which were so
unaccustomed to being disturbed, that the seamen came near enough
to knock down as many as they wanted with sticks.

In March, the weather was variable, sometimes strong gales
from the southward