84 HISTORY OF 



with necessaries for the hospital. Distant as. 

 the period must be when these could arrive, 

 they were the only ones to be depended on. 

 She sailed on the 17th of April, and could not 

 be expected to ixturn in less than six months. 

 What tender anxiety must every one have felt 

 when this vessel sailed ; every hope rested on 

 its success, and as the mast-head became invi- 

 sible, a prayer for her safety must have burst 

 from every heart, and a tear thrill from each 

 eye on losing the object of its attention. 



Notwithstanding the distressed state of the 

 colony, care was taken to reserve 300 bushels of 

 wheat for seed, and the Governor with his usual 

 consideration of the public good, gave up 300 

 weight of flour, which was his own property, 

 and received only the same ration for himself 

 as the soldier or the convict. Thus the hut of 

 the convict and the goverment-house knew 

 alike the miseries of want. But though distress 

 reigned universally, it was not possible to pre- 

 vent thefts. A female convict coming from 

 Rose-hill was robbed of seven days' ration, and 

 as the state of the store would not afford her 

 loss to be made good, she was left to the charity 

 of the rest, who had themselves by far too little 

 to empower them to work. An old man, who 

 came to the store for his day's allowance, ex- 

 hausted with hunger and weakened by age, was 

 carried to the hospital, where he died the next 

 day ; his stomach was opened and proved 

 empty, and it appeared, on inquiry, that having 

 nothing to cook his little provision in, he was 



