On the 5th of the month the Bellona was discharged from government employ.  Twenty-one days were allowed for the delivery of her cargo; but, by taking off the people from the brick carts, and from some other works, she was cleared within the time.  This ship was of four hundred and fifty-four tons burden, and was paid by government at the rate of four pounds four shillings per ton per month.  A clause was inserted in the charter-party, forbidding the master to receive any person from the colony, without the express consent and order of the governor.  The governor was also empowered to take her up for the purposes of the colony should he want her; but as the Daedalus was expected, and the Kitty was already here, both in the service of government, it was not necessary to detain her, and she sailed on the 19th for Canton.

The master having been permitted to receive on board two convicts (the number he requested) whose terms of transportation had expired, consented to his ship being smoked, when four people were found secreted on board, two of whom had not yet served the full periods of their sentences.

To prevent this ship’s coming on demurrage while her cargo was delivering, the convicts worked in their own hours, as well as those allotted to the public, under a promise of having the extra time allowed them at a future day.  While this labour was in hand, the building of the barracks stood still for want of materials; it therefore became necessary, when the brick carts could again be manned, to lose no time in bringing in a sufficient number of bricks to employ the bricklayers.  This having performed, they claimed their extra time, which now amounted to sixteen days.  As it would have proved very inconvenient to have allowed them to remain unemployed for that number of days, the lieutenant-governor directed the commissary to issue to each person so employed half a pint of spirits per diem for sixteen days.  Liquor given to them in this way operated as a benefit and a comfort to them:  it was the intemperate use of spirits, procured at the expense of their clothing or their provisions, which was to be guarded against, and which operated as a serious evil.

For want of sufficient store-room, it was found necessary to stow a great part of the wet provisions and flour arrived by the Bellona in tiers before the provision-store.  Care was taken to shelter them from the sun and from the weather; and when the pile was completed, it was, until the eye was accustomed to the sight, an object of novelty and wonder; it never having occurred to us since we first built a store, to have more provisions than our stores could contain.

Gray, who had recovered from his last punishment, being now again urged to discover what he had done with the drummer’s money, trifled until he was again punished, and then declared he had buried it in the man’s garden; but being taken to the spot he could not find it, and in fact did not seem to know where to look for it.  It was supposed, that, being in liquor when he committed the robbery, he was ignorant how he had disposed of the property, or that it had fallen into the hands of some person too dishonest to give it to the right owner.  He was afterwards sent to the hospital, whence he made his escape into the woods.