repare for the reduction that would certainly take
place in the next season. He also permitted a certain quantity of wine
and spirits from the prize to be landed, for the immediate accommodation
of those who had their crops to secure, and to prevent the impositions to
which they were subject in being obliged to procure them from a second or
third hand.

On the 24th the _Reliance_ and _Francis_ schooner returned from
Norfolk Island, with the relief of the military, having been absent on
that service between seven and eight weeks.

About ten o'clock of the night of the same day, the log gaol at
Parramatta was wilfully and maliciously set on fire, and totally
consumed. The prisoners who were confined were with difficulty snatched
from the flames, but so miserably scorched, that one of them died in a
few days. This building was a hundred feet in length, remarkably strong,
and had been constructed with much labour and expense.

The rewards which had been formerly held out upon similar occasions were
now offered to any man or woman who would come forward with evidence
sufficient to convict such diabolical incendiaries before the court of
criminal judicature; and the inhabitants were called upon by that duty
which every man owed to society, as well as to his own individual
interest, to use every means in their power to discover the perpetrators
of such horrid mischief, which in its extent, involved the lives of their
fellow-creatures.

This was the second time such a circumstance had happened in the
settlement, a circumstance that even staggers credulity. What interest,
what motive could drive these wretches to such an action? The destruction
of the building, they must know, would be instantly followed by the
erection of another, at which they themselves must labour! Could it be
for the purpose of throwing obstacles in the way of government: that
government, which had ever been mild and not coercive, which had ever
stood forward to alleviate their miseries, and often extended the arm of
mercy, when their crimes cried aloud for that of punishment? and yet on
no other principle can it be accounted for.*

[* May the annalist whose business it may be to record in future
the transactions of the colony find a pleasanter field to travel
in, where his steps will not be every moment beset with murderers,
robbers, and incendiaries.]

The harvest was now begun, and constables were sent to the Hawkesbury
with directions to secure e