The cattle that survived was purchased by the different officers of the colony, while the other part of the cargo, the spirits and canvas excepted, were taken by government. The amount of the whole purchased by government was £9603 5s 6d; for although a supply of provisions had been lately received from England, it was but a small one, and we were not yet in possession of that plenty which would have warranted our rejecting a cargo of provisions, particularly when brought on speculation. The hour of distress might again arrive, and occasions might occur that would excite a wish, perhaps in vain, for a cargo of provisions from Bengal. In addition to these reasons, it must be remarked, that the different articles which were purchased were of the best quality, and offered on reasonable terms.

By this ship we received information, that the Queen transport had arrived safe at Bombay; but it was much feared that the Admiral Barrington, which sailed in company with the Queen from this place on the 6th of January 1792, was lost, as no accounts had been received of her at any port in India, a considerable time after her arrival at Bombay from Batavia might reasonably have been expected. There arrived in the Chesterfield a person who had been a convict in this country, but who had been allowed to take his passage on board the Admiral Barrington. This man quitted the Admiral Barrington at Batavia, and got to the Cape in a Dutch ship, where meeting with Mr. Alt, he embarked with him, and by the accident which brought the Chesterfield hither returned to this colony. On his arrival here, he circulated a report, that several of the convicts who had got on board of these two ships had been landed by order of the masters at an island which they met with in their passage to Batavia, inhabited indeed, but by savages; and that those who remained experienced such inhuman treatment, that they were glad to run away from them at the first port where any civilised people were to be found. He was himself among this number, and now declared that he was ready to make oath to the truth of his relation if it should be required. If there was any truth in his account, and the masters of these ships did actually turn any people on shore in the manner already described, it was more than probable that an act of such apparent cruelty had been occasioned by some attempt of the convicts to take the ships from them; and the numbers which were supposed to have been on board (seventeen) rather justified the supposition. Captain Manning, of the Pitt, who had taken from this settlement twenty men and nine women, found them so useless and troublesome, that he was very glad to leave the greatest part of them at Batavia*, and now declared that he regretted ever having received them on board. When these circumstances should be made public, it was thought that the masters of ships would not be so desirous of recruiting their ships' companies from among the inhabitants of this colony.

[* At that grave of Europeans the Pitt lost eighteen of her people.]

The grain called dholl, which had been issued as part of the ration at the rate of three pints per man per week since the arrival of the Atlantic, was discontinued on the 25th, the whole of that article having been served out. It had been found useful for stock.

At Toongabbie the workmen were now employed in constructing a barn and granary upon a very extensive scale.

Among the females who died this month was one, a stout healthy young woman, of the name of Martha Todd, who came out in the Mary Ann, and fell a victim to a dysenteric complaint, which seized her after drinking too freely of the pernicious spirits which had been lately introduced into the colony. The same fate attended James Hatfield, a man who had been looked upon as a sober good character. He was on the point of obtaining a grant of land, and came from Parramatta to Sydney for the purpose of speaking about his allotment, when, unfortunately, he met with some of his friends, and partaking intemperately of the American rum, he was seized with a dysentery, which carried him off in a few days. In this way many others were affected after drinking, through want of a sufficient stamina to overcome the effect of the spirit.

March.] The repairs of the Chesterfield having been completed, she was on the point of proceeding to sea, when the lieutenant-governor proposed to the master for the sum of £120 to take on board a freight of provisions for Norfolk Island; which he consenting to, she was hauled alongside the ship from Bengal, and a certain proportion of grain was put into her; after which, such salt provisions and stores as were intended to be conveyed by her were sent from the colony, and on the 10th she sailed for Norfolk Island.

In lieu of the three pints of dholl, which were now discontinued, an additional pound of flour was served; the civil and military receiving eight pounds, and the convicts seven pounds of flour per week, from the 9th; and in order to make a little room in the store, and that the officers might be accommodated with a better kind of flour, they were permitted to receive from the commissary two casks of American flour each, which were to be deducted from their ration.

The ship from Bengal, which was manned with Lascars, had no sooner hauled into the cove, and opened a communication with the shore, than a practice commenced among the convicts of disposing of the slops and blankets which they had lately received to the Lascars, who, trembling with the cold even of this climate, very readily availed themselves of their propensity to part with them; which was so great, that it became necessary to punish with severity such offenders as were detected.

On Tuesday the 12th the signal was made at the South Head, and by the noon of the following day two Spanish ships anchored in the lower part of the harbour. An officer from one of them arriving at the settlement, we learned that they were the two ships of whose expected arrival information had been received from government in the year 1790; and to whom it was recommended that every attention should be paid. They were named the Descuvierta and Atrevida (the Discovery and the Intrepid); the former commanded by Don Alexandro Malaspina, with a broad pendant as the commander of the expedition, and the latter by Don Jose de Bustamante y Guerra. They had been three years and a half from Europe on a voyage of discovery and information; and were now arrived from Manilla, after a passage of ninety-six days; touching in their way hither at Dusky Bay in New Zealand, from which they had sailed about a fortnight.