We now had very strong gales at south-west, and at nine o'clock in the morning the Supply passed between Nepean Isle and Point Hunter. The gale continuing heavy from the south-west, I sent a person round to the lee side of the island on the 26th, to look for the Supply; but she could not be seen until day-light in the morning of the 30th, when she was perceived hull down to the southward, and working up to the island. By this time the new boat was in great forwardness, and my own workmen being able to finish it, I sent the carpenter of the Supply on board; and at four in the afternoon that vessel made sail for Port Jackson. Lieutenant Ball had orders to examine a shoal, which was seen by the master of the Golden Grove, on her return from this island in October last, in latitude 29 deg. 25' south, longitude 159 deg. 59' east of Greenwich: he was also to look for an island and shoal that were seen by Lieutenant Shortland, in the Alexander transport: the shoal, in latitude 29 deg. 20' south, longitude 158 deg. 40' east, and the island 28 deg. 10' south latitude, and 159 deg. 50' east longitude. Mr. Shortland named them Sir Charles Middleton's Island and Shoal, and imagined they were joined together. On the 1st of July, the new coble was finished, and her bottom payed: her dimensions were twenty-two feet long, by six feet six inches wide. This business being compleated, the sawyers and carpenters began to erect a house for Lieutenant Cresswell, of eighteen feet long, by 12 feet wide, with a back part nine feet square. The garden in Arthur's Vale being quite exposed and open, I employed six men to surround it with a wattled hedge. Edward Gaff, a convict, was punished with 100 lashes on the 6th, for stealing three quarts of wheat: indeed, scarcely a day passed without complaints being made of thefts, which were committed with such dexterity that it was impossible to detect them. That thefts in so small a society should so frequently happen was really astonishing; but when it is considered, that the greatest part of that society were hardened villains, the wonder will cease. Eleven acres of wheat were now up in Arthur's Vale, and had a very promising appearance: every vegetable in the gardens were also in a thriving state. Nothing material happened in the course of this month until the 28th, when a tree fell on John Bryant, a convict, which bruised his head so much that he died two hours afterwards. This man was one among the very few honest convicts which I had on the island. Two bushels of seed wheat, being the remaining part of what I had left, was sown this day, on the sides of Mount George, on two acres of ground. Most of the marines who came to the island with Lieutenant Cresswell, had now very comfortable huts and good gardens. In the month of August we had, in general, heavy gales of wind, chiefly at north-west and south-west, attended with rain. The general employment of the convicts was now as follows: