as one step toward this, all suspicious characters were to be
secured and locked up during the night. People were to be employed to
kill, for the public, the animals that the country afforded; and every
step was to be taken that could save a pound of the salt provisions in
store, It was proposed to take all the hogs in the settlement as public
property; but as it was absolutely necessary to keep some breeding sows,
and the stock being small and very poor, that idea was abandoned.

In pursuance of these resolutions, the few convicts who had been employed
to shoot for individuals were given up for the public benefit; and a
fishery was established at Botany Bay, under the inspection of one of the
midshipmen of the _Sirius_. But this plan, not being found to answer, was
soon relinquished. The quantity of fish that was from time to time taken
was very inconsiderable, and the labour of transporting it by land from
thence was greater than the advantage which was expected to be derived
from it. The boats were therefore recalled, and employed with rather more
success at Sydney.

It was well known, that the integrity of the people employed in fishing
could not be depended upon; the officers of the settlement therefore
voluntarily took upon themselves the unpleasant task of superintending
them; and it became a general duty, which every one cheerfully performed.
The fishing-boat never went out without an officer, either by night or by
day.

On the 7th, about four hundred weight of fish being brought up, it was
issued agreeable to the order; and could the like quantity have been
brought in daily, some saving might have been made at the store, which
would have repaid the labour that was employed to obtain it. But the
quantity taken during this month, after the 7th, was not often much more
than equal to supplying the people employed in the boats with one pound
of fish per man, which was allowed them in addition to their ration. The
small boats, the property of individuals, were therefore returned to
their owners, and the people who had been employed in them, together with
the seamen of the _Sirius_ now here, were placed in the large boats
belonging to the settlement.

Neither was much advantage obtained by employing people to shoot for the
public. At the end of the month only three small kangaroos had been
brought in. The convicts who were employed on this service, three in
number, were considered as good marksmen, and were allowed