The surf ran very high on the 14th, until three o’clock in the afternoon, when Lieutenant Cresswell landed with his detachment and part of their baggage; but nothing else could be received on shore until the 17th, when part of the provisions and stores were landed.  As another boat was now become necessary for the use of the settlement, I wrote to Lieutenant Ball, requesting him to send his carpenter on shore to build a coble, that being the most convenient sort of boat for going out and coming into this place.  The carpenter landed in the afternoon, and immediately got to work in building a boat.

During the 18th, all the provisions were received on shore, except sixteen casks of flour; but the surf increasing very much in the evening, I made a signal for the Supply to hoist the coble in.  The sea ran so very high, that no boat could land until the 21st, when we received the remainder of the provisions and stores; after which, the boats were employed in carrying off water for the Supply, and planks for Port Jackson.

Two pecks of wheat were drilled into an acre of ground in Arthur’s Vale, on the 24th; and on the next day, one acre and a quarter was sown with half a bushel of wheat at a broad cast.

We now had very strong gales at south-west, and at nine o’clock in the morning the Supply passed between Nepean Isle and Point Hunter.  The gale continuing heavy from the south-west, I sent a person round to the lee side of the island on the 26th, to look for the Supply; but she could not be seen until day-light in the morning of the 30th, when she was perceived hull down to the southward, and working up to the island.  By this time the new boat was in great forwardness, and my own workmen being able to finish it, I sent the carpenter of the Supply on board; and at four in the afternoon that vessel made sail for Port Jackson.

Lieutenant Ball had orders to examine a shoal, which was seen by the master of the Golden Grove, on her return from this island in October last, in latitude 29 deg. 25’ south, longitude 159 deg. 59’ east of Greenwich:  he was also to look for an island and shoal that were seen by Lieutenant Shortland, in the Alexander transport:  the shoal, in latitude 29 deg. 20’ south, longitude 158 deg. 40’ east, and the island 28 deg. 10’ south latitude, and 159 deg. 50’ east longitude.  Mr. Shortland named them Sir Charles Middleton’s Island and Shoal, and imagined they were joined together.

On the 1st of July, the new coble was finished, and her bottom payed:  her dimensions were twenty-two feet long, by six feet six inches wide.  This business being compleated, the sawyers and carpenters began to erect a house for Lieutenant Cresswell, of eighteen feet long, by 12 feet wide, with a back part nine feet square.  The garden in Arthur’s Vale being quite exposed and open, I employed six men to surround it with a wattled hedge.

Edward Gaff, a convict, was punished with 100 lashes on the 6th, for stealing three quarts of wheat:  indeed, scarcely a day passed without complaints being made of thefts, which were committed with such dexterity that it was impossible to detect them.  That thefts in so small a society should so frequently happen was really astonishing; but when it is considered, that the greatest part of that society were hardened villains, the wonder will cease.