An excursion of another nature was at this time framing among some discontented Irish convicts, and was on the point of being carried into execution when discovered.  Among those who came out in the last ships from Ireland was a convict who had been an attorney in that kingdom, and who was weak enough to form the hazardous scheme with several others of seizing a long-boat, in which they were to endeavour to reach Batavia.  A quantity of provisions, water-casks, sails, and other necessary articles, were provided, and were found, at the time of making the discovery, in the house of the principal.  These people had much greater reason to rejoice at, than to regret, the discovery of their plot; for the wind, on the day succeeding the night in which they were to have gone off, blew a heavy gale; and, as there were no professed seamen in the party, it was more than probable that the boat would have been lost.  The greatest evil that attended these desertions was the loss of the boats which were taken off, for the colony could not sustain much injury by the absence of a few wretches who were too idle to labour, and who must be constantly whispering their own discontents among the other convicts.

On the 24th of this month we had the satisfaction of seeing the Indispensable, a storeship, anchor in the cove from England, with a cargo consisting principally of provisions for the colony.  We understood that she was the first of six or seven ships which were all to bring out stores and provisions, and which, if no accident happened in the passage, might be expected to arrive in the course of two months.  The supply of clothing and provisions intended to be conveyed by them, together with what had been received by the William, was calculated for the consumption of a twelvemonth.  The quantity which now arrived in the Indispensable formed a supply of flour for twelve weeks, beef for four ditto, pork for four ditto, and of peas for fourteen ditto.  She sailed from Spithead the 26th of last December, touched at Teneriffe and at the Cape of Good Hope, from which place she sailed on the 30th of March last, and made the South Cape of this country the 17th of this month.  Between the Cape of Good Hope and this port, the master stated that he found the weather in general very rough, and the prevailing winds to have blown from WNW to SW.

At the Cape of Good Hope Mr. Wilkinson met with the Chesterfield, which sailed hence in April 1793 with the Shah Hormuzear; and one of her people, who had been formerly a convict in this country, wishing to return to it, we now collected from him some information respecting Mr. Bampton’s voyage.  He told us, that the two ships were six months in their passage hence to Timor, owing to the difficulty which they met with in the navigation of the straits between New Holland and New Guinea.  On one of the islands in these straits they lost a boat, which had been sent on shore to trade with the natives.  In this boat