\ 



.4 > Atu 



*7^9-] OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 6 ; 



over the identical foot on which Mr. Shortland had fixed the latitudes 

 and longitudes of his ifiand and fhoal, without feeing either, and 

 therefore concluded that they had not been placed far enough to the 

 northward. 



From Norfolk Ifiand Lieutenant King wrote, that he had cleared 

 feventeen acres of ground upon the public account, all of which were 

 either fown or ready for fowing ; that caterpillars had done much da- 

 mage to fome wheat which had juft come up; and that he was erect- 

 ing a ftore-houfe capable of containing a large quantity of (lores and 

 provifions, befides having made a vifible road from Sydney Bay to 

 Cafcade Bay. The pine trees, of the utility of which fuch fanguine 

 hopes had been entertained, were found to be unfit for large mads 

 and yards, being fhakey or rotten at thirty or forty feet from the 

 butt ; the wood was fo brittle that it w r ould not make a good oar, and 

 fo porous that the water foaked through the planks of a boat which 

 had been built of it. Mr. King alfo lamented their ignorance of the 

 proper mode of preparing the flax plant, which rendered it ufelefs to 

 them. A fingle pod of cotton had been found on the ifiand, and a 

 tree had been difcovered, the bark of which was ftrong, and of a tex- 

 ture like cotton. A fpecies of bird had alfo been nvet with which bur- 

 rowed in the ground, and had been feen in fuch numbers about the 

 fummit of Mount Pitt, the higheft hill in the ifiand, that they were 

 contemplated as a refource in any future feafon of diftrefs, mould they 

 be found to vifit the ifiand at Hated periods, and to depofit their eggs 

 on it. Mr. King fpoke well of the general behaviour of the fubjects 

 of his little government fmce the detection of their late fcheme to 

 overturn it. 



From the frequent commiffion of offences in this fettlement and at 

 Rofe Hill, a favourable report could not be given of the conduct of 

 the convicts ; it appeared abfolutely neceflary to devife fome plan 

 which might put a flop to their nightly enormities ; and the fir 11 at- 

 tempt toward a police was commenced, by eftablilhing a night-watch. 

 The following are the heads of the plan : 



k 2 The 



/ 



