rk, 2 pounds. The peas were all
expended. Was this a ration for a labouring man? The two pounds of pork,
when boiled, from the length of time it had been in store. shrunk away to
nothing; and when divided among seven people for their day's sustenance,
barely afforded three or four morsels to each.

The inevitable consequences of this scarcity of provisions ensued; labour
stood nearly suspended for want of energy to proceed; and the
countenances of the people plainly bespoke the hardships they underwent.
The convicts, however, were employed for the public in the forenoons; and
such labour was obtained from them as their situation would allow. The
guard-house on the east side was finished and taken possession of during
the month.

There being many among the convicts who availed themselves of this
peculiar situation to commit thefts, it became necessary to punish with
severity all who were fully convicted before the court of criminal
jurisdiction. One convict was executed for breaking into a house, and
several others were sentenced to severe corporal punishments. Garden
robberies were the principal offences committed. These people had been
assembled by the governor, and informed that very severe punishment would
follow the conviction of persons guilty of robbing gardens, as a
necessary step toward preventing the continuance of such an evil; and he
strongly inculcated the absolute necessity that existed for every man to
cultivate his own garden, instead of robbing that of another. To the few
who, from never having been industrious, had not any ground sown or
planted with vegetables, he allotted a small but sufficient spot for
their use, and encouraged them in their labour by his presence and
directions; but they preferred any thing to honest industry. These
people, though the major part of them were, during the night, locked up
in the building lately occupied as a guardhouse, were ever on the watch
to commit depredations on the unwary during the hours in which they were
at large, and never suffered an opportunity to escape them. A female
convict, who came down from Rose Hill, was robbed of her week's
provisions; and as it was impossible to replace them from the public
store, she was left to subsist on what she could obtain from the bounty
(never more truly laudable than at this distressing juncture) of others
who commiserated her situation.

One male convict was executed; one female convict and one child died. The
female