The two last of the transports left us for England on the 19th of November, intending to make their passage by Cape Horn.  There now remained with us only the ‘Supply’.  Sequestered and cut off as we were from the rest of civilized nature, their absence carried the effect of desolation.  About this time a convict, of the name of Daly, was hanged, for a burglary:  this culprit, who was a notorious thief and impostor, was the author of a discovery of a gold mine, a few months before:  a composition resembling ore mingled with earth, which he pretended to have brought from it, he produced.  After a number of attendant circumstances, too ludicrous and contemptible to relate, which befell a party, who were sent under his guidance to explore this second Peru, he at last confessed, that he had broken up an old pair of buckles, and mixed the pieces with sand and stone; and on assaying the composition, the brass was detected.  The fate of this fellow I should not deem worth recording, did it not lead to the following observation, that the utmost circumspection is necessary to prevent imposition, in those who give accounts of what they see in unknown countries.  We found the convicts particularly happy in fertility of invention, and exaggerated descriptions.  Hence large fresh water rivers, valuable ores, and quarries of limestone, chalk, and marble, were daily proclaimed soon after we had landed.  At first we hearkened with avidity to such accounts; but perpetual disappointments taught us to listen with caution, and to believe from demonstration only.

Unabated animosity continued to prevail between the natives and us:  in addition to former losses, a soldier and several convicts suddenly disappeared, and were never afterwards heard of.  Three convicts were also wounded, and one killed by them, near Botany Bay:  similar to the vindictive spirit which Mr. Cook found to exist among their countrymen at Endeavour River, they more than once attempted to set fire to combustible matter, in order to annoy us.  Early on the morning of the 18th of December, word was brought that they were assembled in force, near the brick-kilns, which stand but a mile from the town of Sydney.  The terror of those who brought the first intelligence magnified the number to two thousand; a second messenger diminished it to four hundred.  A detachment, under the command of an officer was ordered to march immediately, and reconnoitre them.  The officer soon returned, and reported, that about fifty Indians had appeared at the brick-kilns; but upon the convicts, who were at work there, pointing their spades and shovels at them, in the manner of guns, they had fled into the woods.