WHITE'S JOURNAL OF A 
is great reafon to fear that feveral others will foon fliare the 
fame fate. This diforder has now rifen to a moft alarming 
height, without any poilibility of checking it until fome 
vegetables can be raifed; which, from the feafon of the 
year, cannot take place for many months. And even then 
I am appreheniive that there will not be a fufficiency pro- 
duced, fuch are the labour and difficulty which attend the 
clearing of the ground. It will fcarcely be credited, when I 
declare that I have known twelve men employed for five days, 
in grubbing up one tree ; and when this has been effedted, 
the timber (as already obferved) has been only fit for fire- 
wood ; fo that in confequence of the great labour in clearing 
of the ground, and the weak ftate of the people ; to which 
may be added the fcarcity of tools, moil of thofe we had being 
either worn out by the hardnefs of the timber, or loft in the 
woods among the grafs, through the careleffnefs of the 
convicts ; the profped before us is not of the moft pleafing 
kind. All the ftock that was landed, both public and 
private, feems, inftead of thriving, to fall off exceedingly. 
The number at firft was but inconfiderable, and even that 
number is at prefent much diminifhed. The fheep, in parti- 
cular, decreafer apidly, very few ^being now alive in the 
colony, 
