The 4th, being the anniversary of his Majesty’s birth-day, I caused it to be observed as a holiday.  The colours were hoisted at sun-rise; every person had a good dinner, of the produce of the island, and I gave the convicts some liquor to drink their sovereign’s health:  the evening concluded with bonfires, which, exclusive of the joy we felt at the return of his Majesty’s birth-day, and the celebrating it in this distant part of the globe, we with pleasure saw some large piles of wood burnt that had been along time collecting, and which were a great incumbrance to us.

At day-light in the morning of the 15th, the midshipman and four men went out in the boat to fish:  they were returning at nine o’clock, and in passing the point of the reef, the fine weather, and the absence of surf, threw them so much off their guard, that the boat shipped a sea which filled her, and washed John Batchelor, a marine, overboard:  the boat, with the rest of the men, drove in among the rocks to the westward of the landing-place, where they were saved with great difficulty, having received violent contusions.  The boat was got round to the crab and hove up; she was much damaged, and her repairs were likely to take up a considerable time, as I had only two men who could assist in this business.

The wheat which was sown on the north-east side of Mount George, the 15th of June, being all rotten in the ground, except 260 blades, which I transplanted and put together, that patch of ground was sown with barley on the 1st of July.  The wheat had a very bad appearance when put into the ground, being much heated and destroyed by the weevil.

The labourers were employed the greatest part of this month in clearing away and turning up some ground near my house, for a garden; its size about thirty rods.  The barley which was sown on the 1st came up on the 10th, and every thing at the plantation had a promising aspect.  On the 15th, the last cask of beef and pork were opened, which would serve forty-four days at full allowance; it therefore was my intention to put every person to half allowance on the 28th, should no provisions arise before that period.

On the 17th, we had a most tremendous gale of wind from the northward, accompanied by a deluge of rain.  The gales of wind were now very frequent from the south-west and north-west, but it seldom blew hard from the eastward.  These gales generally happen about the full and change of the moon, and continue three or four days.

We planted upwards of one thousand cabbages on the 23d, and every vegetable at the plantation was in a thriving state:  we had turneps, carrots, lettuces of three sorts, onions, leeks, parsley, cellery, five sorts of cabbages, corn sallad, artichokes, and beet in great forwardness; but there was reason to fear that the potatoes and yams were quite destroyed by the grub-worm.