The _Boddingtons_ and _Sugar Cane_ sail A mill erected Thefts committed Convicts emancipated Two persons killed by lightning The _Fairy_ arrives Farms sold Public works The _Francis_ returns from New Zealand The _Fairy_ sails Ration altered Transactions Harvest begun Criminal Court held A convict executed Provisions Mill at Parramatta Christmas Day Natives Convicts Boats Grants of land Settlers Public works Expenses how to be calculated Deaths in 1793 Prices of grain, stock, and labour October.] The _Boddingtons_ and _Sugar Cane_ being both bound for the same port in India (Bengal) the masters agreed to proceed together; and on the 13th, the _Sugar Cane_ having set up her rigging, and hurried through such refitting as was indispensably necessary, both ships left the harbour with a fair wind, purposing to follow in the _Atlantic's_ track. The master of the _Boddingtons_ was furnished by us with a copy of a chart made on board the _Pitt_ Indiaman, and brought hither by the _Britannia_, of a passage or channel found by that ship in the land named by Lieutenant Shortland New Georgia; which channel was placed in the latitude of 8 degrees 30 minutes S and in the longitude of 158 degrees 30 minutes E and named 'Manning's Straits,' from the commander of the _Pitt_. The master of the _Sugar Cane_, had he been left to sail alone, determined to have tried the passage to India by the way of the South Cape of this country, instead of proceeding to the northward, and seemed not to have any doubt of meeting with favourable winds after rounding the cape. By their proceeding together, however, it remained yet to be determined, whether a passage to India round the South Cape of this country was practicable, and whether it would be a safer and a shorter route than one through Endeavour or Torres Strait, the practicability of which was likewise undetermined as to any knowledge which was had of it in this colony. Seven persons whose terms of transportation had expired, were permitted to quit the colony in these ships, and the master of the _Sugar Cane_ had shipped Benjamin Williams, the last of the _Kitty's_ people who remained undisposed of. One free woman, the wife of a convict, took her passage in the _Sugar Cane_. Notwithstanding the facility with which passages from this place were procured (very little more being required by the masters than permission to receive them, and that the parties should find their own provisions) it was found after the departure of these ships that some convicts had, by being secreted on board, made their escape from the colony; and two men, whose terms as convicts had expired, were brought up from the _Sugar Cane_ the day she sailed, having got on board without permission; for which the lieutenant-governor directed them to be punished with fifty lashes each, and sent up to Toongabbie.