The preservation of our stock was an object of so much consequence to the colony, that it became indispensably necessary to protect it by every means in our power.  Had any lenity been extended to this offender on account of his good conduct in a particular situation, it might have been the cause of many depredations being made upon the stock, which it was hoped his punishment would prevent.

On the 28th a pair of shoes were served to each convict.  The female convicts were employed in making the slops for the men, which had been now sent out unmade.  Each woman who could work at her needle had materials for two shirts given her at a time, and while so employed was not to be taken for any other labour.

The storehouse which was begun in July was finished this month, and was got up and covered in without any rain.  Its dimensions were one hundred feet by twenty-two.

At Rose Hill the convicts were employed in constructing the new town which had been marked out, building the huts, and forming the principal street.  The governor, who personally directed all these works, caused a spot of ground for a capacious garden to be allotted for the use of the New South Wales corps, contiguous to the spot whereon his excellency meant to erect the barracks for that corps.

In addition to the flagstaff which had been erected on the South Head of the harbour, the governor determined to construct a column, of a height sufficient to be seen from some distance at sea, and the stonemasons were sent down to quarry stone upon the spot for the building.

The body of one of the unfortunate people who were drowned at the latter end of July last with Mr. Ferguson was found about the close of this month, washed on shore in Rose Bay, and very much disfigured.  The whale which occasioned this accident, we were informed, had never found its way out of the harbour, but, getting on shore in Manly Bay, was killed by the natives, and was the cause of numbers of them being at this time assembled to partake of the repasts which it afforded them.

CHAPTER XI

Governor Phillip wounded by a native
Intercourse opened with the natives
Great haul of fish
Convicts abscond with a boat
Works
Want of rain
Natives
Supply returns from Batavia
Transactions there
Criminal Courts
James Bloodworth emancipated
Oars found in the woods
A convict brought back in the Supply
A boat with five people lost
Public works
A convict wounded by a native
Armed parties sent out to avenge him
A Dutch vessel arrives with supplies from Batavia
Decrease by sickness and casualties in 1790

September.] Since the escape of Bennillong the native in May last, nothing had been heard of him, nor had any thing worthy of notice occurred among the other natives.  In the beginning of this month, however, they were brought forward again by a circumstance which seemed at first to threaten the colony with a loss that must have been for some time severely felt; but which was succeeded by an opening of that amicable intercourse with these people which the governor had always laboured to establish, and which was at last purchased by a most unpleasant accident to himself, and at the risk of his life.