No apology is necessary for detaining the reader so long upon these little details, since if the religious state and progress of an infant colony be not an interesting feature in its history, what can we hope to find in it that is deserving of the attention of a thoughtful and well-regulated mind? But we return now to the temporal affairs of New South Wales. The year 1792, which began with reduced rations of provisions, was a time of great suffering and scarcity in the colony, nor was it until the latter part of the year that any relief for the wants of the settlers arrived. Meanwhile the mortality that took place was very alarming, and notwithstanding the sickness that prevailed, there was no abatement in wickedness and crime. At one time during this year no less than fifty-three persons were missing, many of whom never returned, having perished, no doubt, miserably in the woods, while seeking for a new settlement, or endeavouring to find their way to China! An execution for theft took place in January, and the unhappy man declared that hunger had tempted him to commit the crime for which he suffered. Many instances of profligacy among the convicts occurred, but one stands forth distinguished by especial wickedness. A woman had been trusted to carry to the bakehouse the allowance of flour belonging to two others; and after having run in debt for flour taken up on their account, she mixed a quantity of pounded stone, in the proportion of two-thirds of grit to one of flour, with the meal belonging to the other women.[101] Fortunately, the deceit was found out before the flour was mixed with other meal at the bakehouse, and the culprit was sentenced to wear an iron collar for six months. In April, a convict was killed by a blow from the limb of a tree, which fell on his head as he passed under it, and fractured his skull. He died on the spot, having earned from those who knew him the character of being so great a reprobate, that he was scarcely ever known to speak without an oath, or without calling on his Maker to witness the truth of the lie he was about to utter. Are these poor creatures, if may be again asked, to be cast out from their own country, and left (as they too often have been,) to their own evil devices and to Satan's temptations, without involving the nation that has thus treated them in a load of guilt too fearful to contemplate? [101] A similar scheme was to have been practised by some Irish convict women, who were to have taken their part in a proposed mutiny on board the _Marquis Cornwallis_ during the passage out, by mixing pulverized glass with the flour of which the seamen made their puddings! See Collins, p. 324.