Public labour was scarcely anywhere performed in this month, owing to the extreme badness of the weather which prevailed.  The rain and wind were so violent for some days after the arrival of the Providence, that neither that ship nor the Endeavour had much communication with the shore.  Accounts were received from the Hawkesbury, that several farms on the creeks were under water; and the person who brought the account was nearly drowned in his way over a plain named the Race-Ground.  Paling could no where stand the force of the storm.  Several chimnies and much plaster fell, and every house was wet.  At Parramatta much damage was done; and at Toongabbie (a circumstance most acutely felt) a very large barn and threshing-floor were destroyed.  The schooner had been loading with corn at the river, and, though she left the store on the 11th, did not reach Sydney until the 20th, having met with much bad weather.  During the storm, the column at the South Head fell in.  This, however, could be more readily repaired than the barn and the threshing-floor at Toongabbie, which were serious losses, and had cost government a much larger sum than the beacon.

Several of the cattle lately arrived perished in this bad weather.

To eke out the salt meat that was reserved for the military, two Cape cows, which would not breed, were killed and served out to them during this month.

September.] After an absence of eleven weeks, the Fancy arrived on the 3rd from Norfolk Island.  Her passage thither was made in six days; but on her return she ran within one hundred and thirty miles of this port in three or four days; yet afterwards met with contrary and heavy gales of wind which kept her out a month.  On the 28th of last month she was off the south head of Broken Bay in a heavy gale of wind, and was, by being close in with the land in thick weather, in extreme danger.  Of a large quantity of stock (the property of Mr. Balmain, who left Norfolk Island to take upon him the charge of the general hospital here), but a very small quantity remained alive after the gale.

The most favourable accounts were received from that settlement.  Plenty reigned throughout.  Every barn was full.  Four thousand pounds of fresh pork having been cured, the lieutenant-governor had forty tons of salt provisions to spare, which he offered to this colony.  The wharf and crane at Cascade were rather improved than simply repaired, and an overshot water-mill had been erected at the trifling expence of three ewe sheep to the constructor, which ground and dressed eighteen bushels of flour in a day.

William Hogg, a prisoner well known and approved at this place for his abilities as a silversmith, and an actor in the walk of low comedy, put an end to his existence in a very deliberate manner a few days before the Fancy sailed.  Spirits being in circulation after her arrival, he went to the ‘Grog-shop’ as long as he had money; but, finding that he had no credit, he could no longer endure the loss of character which he thought attached to it; and though he did not ’make his quietus with a bare bodkin,’ yet he found a convenient rope that put him out of the world.