n, that a ship was coming in. The wind having blown
from the southward for some days before favoured the story, and, every
one who heard it believing it to be true, the town was soon in motion
notwithstanding the storm; for, although it was not so rare as it had
been to hear of a ship, yet there was always something cheering and
grateful, and perhaps ever will be, in entertaining the idea that our
society was perhaps about to be increased, and that we were on the point
of receiving intelligence from our connections, or information of what
was doing in that world from which we felt ourselves almost severed. On
this occasion, however, we were disappointed; for, on the return of a
boat which had been sent to the South Head, we were informed that the
signal had not been made, nor a ship seen to occasion it. But we had been
well trained in New South Wales to meet and endure disappointment!

On the night of this day, during the very heavy rain which fell, some
person or persons found means to take off, undiscovered by the sentinel
at the store on the east side, five hundred weight of sheet lead, which
had been landed from the _Daedalus_, and rolled to the storehouse door,
where, being an article not likely from its weight to become an easy
object of depredation, it was supposed to be perfectly safe. A very
diligent search was made, but without success; and it remained
undiscovered until the 27th, when a seaman belonging to the _Kitty_
transport, on the ebbing of a spring tide, perceived it lying on the
shore at low-water mark, opposite to the spot where the _Daedalus_ lay at
anchor. From this circumstance suspicion fell upon the people belonging
to that ship; but as any design they could have in stealing it was not
very obvious it was more probable that some of the convicts had dropped
it there for the purpose of secreting it till a future day, when it would
have been got up, and cast into shot for those who are allowed to kill
game.

About the end of the month the detachment of the New South Wales corps on
duty at Parramatta was relieved. The party that remained there was placed
under the command of Lieutenant Macarthur, the officer charged with the
direction of the civil duties of that settlement. The relief took place
by land, the party from Sydney marching up in about seven hours, and that
from Parramatta arriving at their quarters in Sydney in something more
than six. The computed distance by land is between seventeen an