rning found to have divided the
strands of a rope with which it was fastened, and escaped. A drawing had
been made of it while in our hands, of which the annexed engraving is a
copy.

The _Martha_ schooner, having some time back sailed again to the
southward, returned on the 6th with a cargo of oil and seal skins. The
_Nautilus_ having left some of her people upon Cape Barren Island,
it appeared by their accounts, that the most productive time for the
seals among those islands was from November to May. They stated, that
they had much fine weather during the winter months, and met with very
little frost or severe cold. Cape Barren is in 40 degrees 26 minutes 20
seconds S latitude.

About this time many of the Irish prisoners lately arrived were afflicted
with dysenteric complaints, of which several died.

Much has been said of the little indulgence to which some of the settlers
were, from their own misconduct, entitled. An instance of misbehaviour
occurred in a description of these people from whom it could scarcely
have been expected. The settlers who were fixed on the banks of George's
river had formerly served in the marine detachment, and afterwards in the
New South Wales corps. By their entreaties having prevailed upon the
governor to supply them with some live stock, they were furnished each
with a ewe sheep, of which they were no sooner possessed than they sold
them. This coming to the governor's knowledge, he directed them to be
seized, and instantly returned into the flock belonging to government.
Such conduct on their part certainly precluded them from ever soliciting
similar assistance again.

Accounts of a most alarming nature were received toward the latter end of
the month from George's river and the Hawkesbury. The weather had,
unfortunately for the maize now ripe, been uncommonly bad for three
weeks, the wind blowing a heavy gale, accompanied with torrents of rain
that very soon swelled the river Hawkesbury, and the creeks in George's
river, beyond their banks; laying all the adjacent flat country, with the
corn on it, under water. Much damage, of course, followed the desolation
which this ill-timed flood spread over the cultivated grounds; and,
although fewer than could have been expected, some lives were lost.

The prospect of an abundant maize harvest was wholly destroyed, and every
other work was suspended for a while, to prepare the ground a second
time this season for wheat. The settlement was