Information would have been at all times more readily procured from these people, had they not been constantly apprehensive of receiving ill-treatment not only from the parties concerned, but from others who were not; and although every assurance of protection was given by those who were authorised to hold it out, yet it was not found sufficient to do away the dread they were said to labour under.  Accident, or a quarrel among themselves, sometimes furnished information that was not otherwise to be procured; and in general to one or other of these causes was to be attributed every information that was received of any malpractices among them.

A person who had been employed under one of the superintendants at Parramatta, and in whom, from an uniformity of good conduct during his residence in this country, some trust was at times placed, was detected in giving corn to a settler from the public granary, to which he had occasional access.  The offence being fully proved, he was sentenced to receive three hundred lashes, and the person to whom he had given the corn two hundred lashes.  It was seen with great concern, that there were but few among them who were honest enough to resist any temptation that was placed in their way.

A convict who had absconded five weeks since was apprehended by some of the military at the head of one of the coves leading from Parramatta.  He had built himself a hut in the woods, and said when brought in, that he had preserved his existence by eating such fish as he was fortunate enough to catch, rock oysters, and wild berries; and that the natives had more than once pursued him when employed in these researches.  But very little credit was given to any account he gave, and it was generally supposed that he had lived by occasionally visiting and robbing the huts at Sydney and Parramatta.  He had taken to the woods to avoid a punishment which hung over him, and which he now received.

Early in the month eight settlers from the marines received their grants of land situated on the north side of the harbour near the Flats, and named by the governor the Field of Mars.

The convicts employed in cultivating and clearing public ground beyond Parramatta, having been landed in a weak and sickly state, wore in general a most miserable and emaciated appearance, and numbers of them died daily.  The reduced ration by no means contributed to their amendment; the wheat that was raised last year (four hundred and sixty-one bushels) after reserving a sufficiency for seed, was issued to them at a pound per man per week, and a pound of rice per week was issued to each male convict at Sydney.

On Tuesday the 14th the signal was made for a sail, and shortly after the Pitt, Captain Edward Manning, anchored in the cove from England.  She sailed the 17th of last July from Yarmouth Roads, and had rather a long passage, touching at St. Iago, Rio de Janeiro, and the Cape of Good Hope.  She had on board Francis Grose, esq the lieutenant-governor of the settlements, and major-commandant of the New South Wales corps, one company of which, together with the adjutant and surgeon’s mate, came out with him.