September.] A temporary church, formed out of the materials of two old huts, was opened at Parramatta by the Rev. Mr. Marsden on the first Sunday in this month.  Decent places of worship were now to be seen at the two principal settlements.  At the time when we were visited by the Spanish ships Mr. Johnson preached wherever he could find a shady spot.  The priest belonging to the commodore’s ship, observing that we had not any church built, lifted up his eyes with astonishment, and declared, that had the place been settled by his nation, a house for God would have been erected before any house for man.

The ships being now on the point of sailing, the Britannia for England, and the Relianc and Supply for the Cape of Good Hope, the following appointments were notified in the public orders:  viz Captain George Johnston, of the New South Wales corps, was appointed aid-de-camp to the governor.  The Rev. Mr. Johnson and William Balmain Esq were nominated the acting magistrates in the district of the town of Sydney.  Mr. James Williamson (a gentleman who came from England with the governor) was to do the duty of commissary in the absence of Mr. Palmer, who was returning to England on leave.  Mr. Thomas Smyth was appointed provost-marshal, in the room of Mr. Henry Brewer, by warrant bearing date the day after his decease.  Mr. Thomas Moore, carpenter of the ship Britannia, was appointed master boat-builder in the room of Mr. Daniel Payne.  William Stephenson was placed under the commissary as a store-keeper, in the room of Mr. Thomas Smyth; and George Barrington, whose conduct, still uniform and upright, recommended him to the notice of the governor, was, after receiving an absolute pardon under the seal of the territory, appointed a superintendant of convicts, with a salary of fifty pounds per annum, in the room of Mr. Thomas Clark, returning to England.*

[* Mr. Richard Atkins had some time before been nominated by the secretary of state to do the duty of judge-advocate, whenever Captain Collins should return to England.]

On the 20th, his Majesty’s ship Supply sailed for Norfolk Island and the Cape of Good Hope, having on board part of the military relief intended for that settlement, and part of a thousand bushels of wheat which had been written for from thence.

On the following day the ships Indispensable and Grand Turk sailed for Canton.  The American had not succeeded in his speculation so well as he had expected; the market was over-stocked with goods, and by the governor’s regulations he was compelled to take away, with many other articles, his ground-tier full of spirits, which he hoped to have sold here.

The invalids and passengers who were returning to England in the Britannia being embarked, that ship, the Reliance, and the Francis schooner, hauled out of the cove preparatory to their departure.

As a proof that stock was not falling in its value, Mr. Palmer, the commissary, sold two Cape cows and one steer for L189 sterling.  The stock in the colony at this time was of considerable extent and value, as will appear by the following account of it, which was taken for the purpose of being transmitted to government: