p for a theft which, according to some intimation he had received,
was about to be alleged against him. He came out in the first fleet, had
served his term of transportation, had constantly worked as a labourer in
the bricklayers gang, and was in general considered as a harmless fellow.

From Parramatta two convicts were missing, and were said to be killed by
the natives.

CHAPTER XV

A party of Irish convicts abscond
The _Queen_ sails for Norfolk Island
Whale fishery
Ration altered
The _Supply_ sails for England
Live stock (public) in the colony
Ground in cultivation
Sick
Run of water decreasing
Two transports sail
Whale fishery given up
The _Queen_ arrives from Norfolk Island
The Marines embark in the _Gorgon_ for England
Ration further reduced
Transactions
Convicts who were in the _Guardian_ emancipated
Store finished
Deaths in 1791

November.] On the first day of this month, information was received from
Parramatta, that a body of twenty male convicts and one female, of those
lately arrived in the _Queen_ transport from Ireland, each taking a
week's provisions, and armed with tomahawks and knives, had absconded
from that settlement, with the chimerical idea of walking to China, or of
finding in this country a settlement wherein they would be received and
entertained without labour. It was generally supposed, however, that
this improbable tale was only a cover to the real design, which might be
to procure boats, and get on board the transports after they had left the
cove. An officer with a party was immediately sent out from Parramatta in
pursuit of them, who traced them as far down the harbour as Lane Cove,
whence he reached the settlement at Sydney, without seeing or hearing any
thing more of them. A few days afterward the people in a boat belonging
to the _Albemarle_ transport, which had been down the harbour to procure
wood on the north shore, met with the wretched female who had accompanied
the men. She had been separated from them for three days, and wandered by
herself, entirely ignorant of her situation, until she came to the water
side, where, fortunately, she soon after met the boat. Boats were sent
down the next day, and the woman's husband was found and brought up to
the settlement. They both gave the same absurd account of their design as
before related, and appeared to have suffered very considerably by
fatigue, hunger, and the heat of the weather. The man had lost his
compani