As there are only twelve convicts who are carpenters, as many as could be procured from the ships have been hired to work on the hospital and storehouses. The people were healthy when landed, but the scurvy has for some time appeared amongst them, and now rages in a most extraordinary manner. Only sixteen carpenters could be hired from the ships, and several of the convict carpenters were sick. It was now the middle of February; the rains began to fall very heavy, and pointed the necessity of hutting the people; convicts were therefore appointed to assist the detachment in this work.
The great labour in clearing the ground will not permit more than eight acres to be sown this year with wheat and barley. At the same time the immense number of ants and field mice will render our crops very uncertain.
Part of the live stock brought from the Cape, small as it was, has been lost, and our resource in fish is also uncertain. Some days great quantities are caught, but never sufficient to save any part of the provisions; and at times fish are scarce.
Your Lordship will, I presume, see the necessity of a regular supply of provisions for four or five years, and of clothing, shoes and frocks in the greatest proportion. The necessary implements for husbandry and for clearing the ground brought out will, with difficulty, be made to serve the time that is necessary for sending out a fresh supply.
The labour of the convicts shall be as is directed, for the public stock, but it is necessary to permit a part of the convicts to work for the officers, who, in our present situation, would otherwise find it impossible to clear a sufficient quantity of ground to raise what is absolutely necessary to support the little stock they have; and I am to request that your Lordship will be pleased to direct me to what extent that indulgence may be granted the officers of the garrison.
The _Sirius_ shall be sent to the northward to barter for stock, and which shall be employed solely for the purposes of increasing the breed of such cattle as she may procure. The _Supply_ is in no ways calculated for this service, as in the least sea her decks are full of water.
The beginning of May the rainy season was once more supposed to be set in, but after a week we had fine weather.