being
now nearly thrashed out, some judgment was formed of its produce, and it
was found to have averaged between seventeen and eighteen bushels an
acre. A large quantity of wheat was also sown this season by individuals,
amounting to about one thousand three hundred and eighty-one bushels,
every encouragement having been given to them to sow their grounds with
that grain.

Several houses having been lately broken open, the criminal court of
judicature was assembled on the 15th, when Samuel Wright, a convict who
arrived in 1791, was tried for breaking into a hut in the day-time, and
stealing several articles of wearing apparel; of which offence being
found guilty, he received sentence of death, and was to have been
executed on the Monday following; but the court having recommended him to
mercy on account of his youth, being only sixteen years of age, the
lieutenant-governor as readily forgave as the court had recommended him;
but, that the prisoner might have all the benefit of so awful a
situation, the change in his fate was not imparted to him until the very
moment when he was about to ascend the ladder from which he was to be
plunged into eternity. He had appeared since his conviction as if devoid
of feeling; but on receiving this information, he fell on his knees in an
agony of joy and gratitude. The solemn scene appeared likewise to make a
forcible impression on all his fellow prisoners, who were present.

The weather of this winter having been colder than any that we had before
experienced, great exertions were made to clothe all the labouring
convicts; and for that purpose the work of the tailors had for some time
been confined to them. Every male convict received one cloth jacket, two
canvas frocks, one pair of shoes, and one leathern cap. The females also
had been clothed.

The vessel which had been received in frame by the _Pitt_ was now
completed, and, to avoid the labour which would have attended her being
launched in the usual manner, Mr. Raven, the master of the _Britannia_,
offered his own services and the assistance of his ship to lay her down
upon her bilge, and put her into the water on rollers. This mode having
been adopted, in the forenoon of Wednesday the 24th of this month she was
safely let down upon the rollers, and by dusk, with the assistance of the
_Britannia_, was hove down to low-water mark, whence, at a quarter before
eight o'clock, she floated with the tide, and was hauled safely alongs