At Sydney the ship's company of the _Supply_ were actively and usefully employed in constructing a half-moon battery on the east point of the cove, where stood the house built by Governor Phillip for Bennillong, in those days when it was thought an object of some moment to soothe and conciliate the friendship of that savage. There was but little variation in the weather, except that on the 25th there was a violent burst of thunder, attended with partial whirlwinds, by which several buildings were much damaged. December.] At the departure of the ship _Marquis Cornwallis_ for Bengal, which was on the 3rd of this month, several convicts were taken from the settlement without permission. This evil could alone be checked by severe prosecutions and penalties. The harvest which was begun in the last, was completed in this month. In the abundance that was expected, every one was disappointed; for, owing to a most tedious and unfortunate drought during ten months, the wheat did not turn out more than one-third of what, from the quantity of ground sown with that grain, there was a reasonable expectation of its producing, had the season been moderately favourable. This was the more seriously felt, as at one time a hope was entertained of reaping grain sufficient to supply the colony with bread for two years. The conclusion of the harvest was productive of a slight disturbance among the Irish convicts at Toongabbie. Having, each man and woman who had been employed, received a small quantity of spirits and water, which had been ordered them, it produced at first cheerfulness and play, but terminated in riot and ill-humour; a circumstance not uncommon with that class of people. They were, however, easily separated and sent to their respective huts. On the 19th, the _Francis_ schooner arrived from Norfolk Island, where all were in good health. Lieutenant Shortland, who had received directions to search for Sir Charles Middleton Island and shoal, on his return produced his journal and a chart of the various traverses which he had made in quest of the island, and compared them with those made formerly by Lieutenant (now Captain) Ball in his Majesty's armed brig _Supply_, who had been sent by Governor Phillip expressly on the same pursuit. The extensive range taken by those two officers in the search, and their not having met with even any indications of land near that situation, left little reason to believe in the existence of the island. That of the shoal was not so doubtful; and, although Mr. Shortland did not fall in with it, yet, as a shoal had been seen by two or three different persons near the spot in which that reef was laid down, there was much reason to believe that a dangerous bank or shoal did somewhere thereabout exist; but its exact situation in point of latitude and longitude had not yet been correctly fixed, nor was its extent supposed to be so great as was at first believed.