In May, the blessings of vaccination were introduced into the settlement, and all the young children were inoculated with success; but unfortunately, by some means as yet unaccounted for, the virtue has been lost, and the colony has been once more left without a protection from that most dreadful of all disorders, the small-pox; of the fatal consequences of which the natives have more than once afforded the most dreadful evidence, their loathsome carcases having been found, while this disorder was prevalent amongst them, lying about the beach, and on the rocks.  In fact, such is the terror of this disorder amongst these untutored sons of nature, that, on its appearance, they forsake those who are infected with it, leaving them to die, without a friend at hand, or assistance to smooth the aspect of death, and fly into the thickest of the woods.  Their superstition leads them to consider it as an infernal visitation; and its effects are such as to justify this idea, in some degree, for it seldom fails to desolate and depopulate whole districts, and strews the surface of the country with the unburied carcases of its wretched and deserted victims.

In September, the limits of Northumberland, and of Cornwall and Buckinghamshire, on Van Diemen’s Land, where a settlement had been made during the last year, were defined; and the lines of demarkation were fixed as follow:—­The line of demarkation between Cumberland and Northumberland is the parallel of 33. 2. south latitude; and the line of demarkation between Buckinghamshire and Cornwall, on Van Diemen’s Land, is the parallel of 42. south latitude.  On the 15th of the following month, Lieutenant-Governor Paterson sailed to make and command a settlement at Port Dalrymple; and, in the course of a short period, the colony had the satisfaction to hear of the foundation of two towns, Yorkton and Launceston, which are making their progress to perfection with considerable rapidity.

During the violence of a tempest in this month, a ship of five hundred tons, named the Lady Barlow, and belonging to Messrs. Campbell and Co. whilst lying in the Cove at her moorings, was completely overset by the irresistible fury of the gale; but, with some difficulty, she was raised again.  Considerable damage also resulted from this tremendous storm in the interior of the settlement, where trees were rooted up, and the forests were almost depopulated of their most ancient tenants.  Huts were blown down and houses unroofed, and the loss to numbers of the inhabitants was such as to afford a serious interruption to their prosperity.

In the month of May, 1805, Norfolk Island experienced a considerable influx of the sea, which, from the extraordinary nature of the occurrence, is worthy of mention.  The tide first ebbed to a great distance; when, suddenly, an unusual swell was seen coming in, which occasioned considerable alarm to the colony, to whom such a circumstance was entirely novel:  it rose to a great height, and retired to its channel.