It was hoped and believed, that this uncommon inundation would, in the end, prove highly beneficial to the grounds so overflowed, causing them for a season or more to produce with such abundance as to recover the loss which the sufferers had sustained. In a few days this extraordinary collection of water had found its way to the sea, and, the river regaining its usual level, the settlers set about new cropping their grounds; for which purpose they made application for seed wheat, that certainly could not be refused; their other application, for bedding and clothing, it was not so easy to comply with, from the poverty of the public stores in these articles. This fertile spot had, in some seasons, produced from fifteen to twenty thousand bushels of wheat, and might justly be termed the granary of New South Wales. To relieve the inhabitants in some degree from the contemplation of these distresses, the _Rebecca_, a whaler, came into the Cove from the Cape of Good Hope, bringing authentic accounts of Lord Nelson's memorable and brilliant victory over the French fleet at the mouth of the Nile. This decisive battle was announced to the settlement in a public order, and by a discharge of all the artillery in the colony. The master of the _Rebecca_, having brought out a few articles for sale, chartered the _Nautilus_ to take them to Norfolk island, thinking to find a better market for them there than at this place, where the late unsuccessful harvest had neither filled the granary of the public nor the pocket of the settler. She sailed with this cargo in the course of a few days. On the 9th, the _Britannia_ whaler came in from sea, to repair some damages which she had sustained in bad weather. She had been rather successful in her fishery, having procured twenty-five tons of spermaceti oil since her departure; and the master reported, that, had the weather been more moderate, he should have been enabled to have more than half filled his ship. The criminal court was only once assembled during this month; when one man was condemned to death for a burglary, and another* transported for fourteen years to Norfolk Island. [* This man, Isaac Nichols, an overseer, had been accused of receiving stolen goods; but from some circumstances which occurred on the trial, the sentence was respited until his Majesty's pleasure could be taken.] The civil court was also assembled for the decision of private causes, in which it was engaged during a week.