trusts that on this day there was not a single heavy heart in this part of his Majesty’s dominions.  His own house was the centre of conviviality to all who could be admitted to that society, nor was any thing neglected which in such a situation could mark a day of celebrity, consistently with propriety and good order.  Perhaps no birth-day was ever celebrated in more places, or more remote from each other, than that of his Majesty on this day.

It was now, it seems, first generally known, that the name of Cumberland County had been given by the Governor to this part of the territory.  This name had been fixed before the assembling of the first courts, for the sake of preserving regularity in the form of the public acts, in which it is usual to name the county.  The boundaries fixed for Cumberland County were, on the west, Carmarthen and Lansdown Hills:  on the north, the northern parts of Broken Bay; and to the southward, the southern parts of Botany Bay.  Thus including completely these three principal bays, and leaving the chief place of settlement at Sydney Cove nearly in the centre.

On the 22d of June was a slight shock of an earthquake, which did not last more than two or three seconds.  It was felt by most people in the camp, and by the Governor himself, who heard at the same time a noise from the southward, which he took at first for the report of guns fired at a great distance.

24 June 1788

On the 24th, a convict who had absconded on the 5th, having been guilty of a robbery, returned into the camp almost starved.  He had hoped to subsist in the woods, but found it impossible.  One of the natives gave him a fish, and then made signs for him to go away.  He said, that afterwards he joined a party of the natives, who would have burnt him, but that with some difficulty he made his escape; and he pretended to have seen the remains of a human body actually lying on a fire, but little credit can be given to reports from such a quarter.  He was of opinion that the natives were at this time in great distress for food, and said, that he had seen four of them dying in the woods, who made signs for something to eat, as if they were perishing through hunger.  It is certain that very little fish could be caught at this time, and the convict seemed desirous to suggest the notion that they supplied their necessities occasionally with human flesh; but there seems to be no good foundation for such an opinion.  This man was tried for his offence, pleaded guilty, and suffered with another criminal.

It was now sufficiently ascertained, that though the necessity of subsisting so long chiefly upon salt provisions, and of remaining encamped in very wet weather had produced the scurvy, and other disorders common in such circumstances, the climate itself wherein this new settlement is fixed is mild and salubrious.  Heavy rains had generally attended the changes of the moon during the winter months, but there had not