injury:  such a singular instance is almost without its parallel.  At other periods, the tempestuous gales which have been experienced surpass the conception of those who have never witnessed the boisterous and tumultuous agitation of nature.  Hailstones, exceeding six inches in circumference, have frequently fallen with such violence as to destroy the windows of those habitations which had neglected the adoption of measures of security, to kill the poultry, and lay level with the earth the shrubs and the corn.  In fact, storms of this description never fail to occasion the most extensive devastation, and to commit injuries to the settlers, which the labour of months is scarcely sufficient to overcome.

An absurd notion had uniformly existed amongst the convicts that it was possible, by penetrating into the interior, to discover a country, where they might exist without labour, and enjoy sweets hitherto unknown.  This ridiculous opinion had induced numbers, since the establishment of the colony, to desert their employment, and to trust themselves in forests which were unknown to them, and where they generally wandered until the means of supporting further fatigue had failed them, and they perished from want—­until they became the victims of the natives who fell in with them—­or surrendered themselves to the parties who were sent in pursuit of them.  Such was commonly the termination of these chimerical expeditions; yet these consequences were unable to expunge the impression alluded to from the minds of these obstinate people, and, in February, 1803, fifteen convicts once again ventured into the woods from Castle Hill, in search of this undiscovered country.  Many of these bigotted fugitives were subsequently re-taken, after enduring every fatigue and privation which human nature is capable of sustaining; after bearing the complicated hardships of want, weariness, and pain; their feet blistered and bare, their hopes destroyed, their perseverance completely worn out, and their restless dispositions perfectly corrected into submission.

The art of printing had been gradually improving from the period of its establishment, by the judicious care of Governor Hunter, and its advantages became daily more and more obvious.  On the 5th of March, “The Sydney Gazette” was instituted by authority, for the more ready communication of events through the various settlements of the colony The utility and interest of such an establishment were speedily and universally acknowledged; and its commencement was soon succeeded by the publication of an almanack, and other works calculated to suit the general taste and increase the general stock of amusement.  The general orders were also issued through the medium of the press, and a vigilant eye was kept upon it, to prevent the appearance of any thing which could tend to shake those principles of morality and subordination, on the due preservation of which depended the individual happiness, and the public security of the settlement; and which could be in no danger of subversion, until the press should become prostituted to base designs—­a period much and sincerely to be deprecated by every real friend to the colony.