of a small vessel, which contained what
was drawn off to serve the officers and men belonging to the
Sirius; and was kept in my tent, as I had not a more secure place
to put it in. In the afternoon, I assembled the settlement, and
punished the thief with three dozen lashes; causing him to be led
by a halter to the place of punishment: I also stopped the
deficiency of rum out of his allowance.

Though there was reason to hope that this example would deter
others from committing crimes of the like nature, yet it had not
the desired effect; for on the 20th, a convict boy was detected
stealing the surgeon's allowance of rum, out of his tent. This
boy was only fifteen years old, and was transported for seven
years. I ordered him to be punished with an hundred lashes, which
I hoped would have a good effect.

We now had two formidable enemies to encounter in the rat and
grub-worm, both which were very numerous and destructive: some
wheat had been sown in the garden ground on the 11th, and the
next morning there was not a grain of it left, being all eat up
by the rats; and the few potatoes and other vegetables, which
escaped the bad effects of the southerly wind, were all eat up by
the grub-worm. I have before observed, that on our first
discovering the rats to be numerous, I ordered the empty casks to
be converted into traps, and for some time they were very
successful, thirty or forty rats being caught for several nights
together: these were killed, and scattered about the garden, to
deter the rest from coming to the place; but they soon grew too
cunning to be caught in the traps, and too bold to be intimidated
by their dead companions. I next caused some glass to be pounded
very fine, and mixed with oatmeal, which being distributed about
the garden, killed vast numbers of them.

To prevent the bad effects of the grub-worm, I tried ashes,
lye of ashes, and urine, but to no purpose, so that the women
were kept constantly employed in picking them off the few plants
we had left.

Out of six ewes which I brought to the island, five died with
the scab, notwithstanding every possible care was taken of them;
and one of my sows was poisoned, by eating something noxious in
the woods. The remainder of my small stock was likely to do very
well: it consisted of two ewes, three sows, two boars, four hens,
one cock, three ducks, one drake, and one goat.

The sugar-cane, two Rio Janeiro banana trees, and two orange
trees, which I b