From this recapitulation of some of the offences which had been committed on board of ships while riding in this cove (to which many others might have been added), let the masters of those which may hereafter be sent out, and who may have perused this account, be cautious who they receive on board during the day, let their pretext of business, or coming from an officer, be what it may; never should they be suffered to mix with their seamen, nor to see where the stores of the ship are placed; nor should a boat be ever permitted to come alongside during the night, and in that case the people should not be allowed to come into the ship.  The masters of ships were long since forbidden to receive any convict on board without a pass signed by the judge-advocate, who, from his official situation, was the best qualified to know the character of those who might apply; but the decks of ships were often filled with convicts, who went off with merely the sanction of the masters they lived with, although known perhaps at the time to be as suspicious characters as any in the settlement.

Among the Irish prisoners who arrived in the Marquis Cornwallis was one who professed to understand the business of a millwright, and who undertook with very little assistance to construct a mill at this place.  He appeared rough and uncouth in his manners; but our want of a mill was so great, that it was determined to try what his abilities were, and place some hired artificers under his direction.  A spot was chosen on the summit of the ground which forms the western side of the cove, and, saw-pits being dug for him, he began the work.

With a mill once erected competent to the grinding of all our wheat, a reduction in the ration of flour would not be felt.  So sensible of this advantage had the governor been, that he brought out with him the most material parts of a windmill, with a model, by which any millwright he might find here would be enabled to set up the different parts; and Thorp the millwright was employed in collecting and preparing the timber necessary for putting up this mill at Parramatta.

The weather was very variable during the month.  The cattle brought by Mr. Raven, though in Smithfield they would not all together have been worth fifty pounds, were sold by auction at enormous prices.  The mares went at one hundred pounds, one of the cows at eighty-four pounds, and the others at prices something inferior.

June.] His Majesty’s birthday was observed by the settlement with that attention which, as English subjects, we were proud to pay to it.  The Susan (with American colours flying), though provided with only six or eight guns, contrived to fire at one o’clock with the king’s ships, a well-timed salute of twenty-one guns in honour of the day.