ency inserted in the port orders, that all foreign
ships coming into this harbour should anchor in this bay, which he named
Neutral Bay, bringing Rock Island to bear SSE and the hospital on the
west side of Sydney Cove to bear SW by W.

Early in the month, and throughout its continuance, the people whose
business called them down the harbour daily reported, that they found,
either in excavations of the rock, or lying upon the beaches and points
of the different coves which they had been in, the bodies of many of the
wretched natives of this country. The cause of this mortality remained
unknown until a family was brought up, and the disorder pronounced to
have been the smallpox. It was not a desirable circumstance to introduce
a disorder into the colony which was raging with such fatal violence
among the natives of the country; but the saving the lives of any of
these people was an object of no small importance, as the knowledge of
our humanity, and the benefits which we might render them, would, it was
hoped, do away the evil impressions they had received of us. Two elderly
men, a boy, and a girl were brought up, and placed in a separate hut at
the hospital. The men were too far overcome by the disease to get the
better of it; but the children did well from the moment of their coming
among us. From the native who resided with us we understood that many
families had been swept off by this scourge, and that others, to avoid
it, had fled into the interior parts of the country. Whether it had ever
appeared among them before could not be discovered, either from him or
from the children; but it was certain that they gave it a name
(gal-gal-la); a circumstance which seemed to indicate a preacquaintance
with it.

The convicts, among other public works, were now employed in forming a
convenient road on the west side from the hospital and landing-place to
the storehouses; and in constructing a stable at Farm Cove, with some
convenient out-houses for stock.

May.] Of the native boy and girl who had been brought up in the last
month, on their recovery from the smallpox, the latter was taken to live
with the clergyman's wife, and the boy with Mr. White, the surgeon, to
whom, for his attention during the cure, he seemed to be much attached.

While the eruptions of this disorder continued upon the children, a
seaman belonging to the _Supply_, a native of North America, having been
to see them, was seized with it, and soon after die