perforated by the stroke, not a man on
board received any material injury: such a singular instance is
almost without its parallel. At other periods, the tempestuous
gales which have been experienced surpass the conception of those
who have never witnessed the boisterous and tumultuous agitation
of nature. Hailstones, exceeding six inches in circumference,
have frequently fallen with such violence as to destroy the
windows of those habitations which had neglected the adoption of
measures of security, to kill the poultry, and lay level with the
earth the shrubs and the corn. In fact, storms of this
description never fail to occasion the most extensive
devastation, and to commit injuries to the settlers, which the
labour of months is scarcely sufficient to overcome.

An absurd notion had uniformly existed amongst the convicts
that it was possible, by penetrating into the interior, to
discover a country, where they might exist without labour, and
enjoy sweets hitherto unknown. This ridiculous opinion had
induced numbers, since the establishment of the colony, to desert
their employment, and to trust themselves in forests which were
unknown to them, and where they generally wandered until the
means of supporting further fatigue had failed them, and they
perished from want--until they became the victims of the natives
who fell in with them--or surrendered themselves to the parties
who were sent in pursuit of them. Such was commonly the
termination of these chimerical expeditions; yet these
consequences were unable to expunge the impression alluded to
from the minds of these obstinate people, and, in February, 1803,
fifteen convicts once again ventured into the woods from Castle
Hill, in search of this undiscovered country. Many of these
bigotted fugitives were subsequently re-taken, after enduring
every fatigue and privation which human nature is capable of
sustaining; after bearing the complicated hardships of want,
weariness, and pain; their feet blistered and bare, their hopes
destroyed, their perseverance completely worn out, and their
restless dispositions perfectly corrected into submission.

The art of printing had been gradually improving from the
period of its establishment, by the judicious care of Governor
Hunter, and its advantages became daily more and more obvious. On
the 5th of March, "The Sydney Gazette" was instituted
by authority, for the more ready communication of events through
the various settlemen