i 9 6 ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH COLONY [December,, 



were in a few minutes deftroyed : the ere&ing of the hut and out- 

 houfes had coft 15I. a fhort time before.^ We are prepared for the 

 fmile which will follow the detail of this lofs ; a houfe, with out-houfes 

 which cofi fifteen pounds, and thirty bumels of wheat ! to be deemed 

 cf fufficient confequence to find a place in the hiftory of a country. 

 Recollect, however, gentle reader, that country was not Great Bri- 

 tain ; it was the infant, the diftreffed fettlement of Port Jackfon ; and 

 circumftances are great or fmall only by comparifon. The man who 

 loft his few pounds, his little all in New South Wales, deplored k as 

 much as he who in a happier land had loft his thoufands. This poor 

 man was made a beggar by his calamity ; and the man of wealth could 

 not have fuffered more. 



There died between the ift of January and 31ft of December,. 

 1792, two of the civil department, fix foldiers, four hundred and 

 eighteen male convids, eighteen female convi&s, and twenty-nine 

 children ; one male convicT; was executed; and three were loft in the 

 woods : making on the whole a decreafe of four hundred and eighty- 

 two perfons. 



The price of ftock, grain, and other articles, remained much the 

 fame as at the clofe of the former year; that of fifti and vegetables varied 

 from day to day - fpirits in exchange were efti mated at from twelve to 

 twenty millings per gallon; porter was fold from nine to ten pounds 

 per hogfhead, or from one milling to one milling and three-pence per 

 quart. 



It did not appear that the fettlers had brought any new wheat or 

 other grain to market. 



Divine fervice was now performed at fix o'clock in the morning. 

 For want of a building dedicated to thatpurpofe, many inconveniences 

 were fuffered, as well by the clergyman as by thofe who attended him. 

 The Lieutenant-Governor, therefore, did not require the ceremony to 

 be performed more than once a day ; and that the health of the con- 

 vids might not be injured from the heat of the fun, which at that fea- 

 fon of the year was exceffive, he directed the church call to be beat 



at 



