ve been so
sudden and violent, that ships, loosely moored, have driven at their
anchors in the cove.

On Saturday the 7th a change took place in the ration; this was, the
discontinuing of the three pints of peas which were served to the civil
and military, and the three pints of gram which were served to the
convicts, and giving them instead an equal quantity of wheat.

Notwithstanding every supply of flour which had been purchased, or
received into the store from England, it was at length entirely
exhausted; the civil and military receiving the last on Monday the 9th.
This total deprivation of so valuable, so essential an article in the
food of man happened, fortunately, at a season when its place could in
some measure be supplied immediately, the harvest having been all safely
got in at Toongabbie by the beginning of this month. About the middle of
it, eight hundred bushels were threshed out, and on Monday the 16th the
civil and military received each seven pounds of wheat coarsely ground at
the mill at Parramatta. This mill, from the brittleness of the timber
with which it was constructed, was found to be unequal to the consumption
of the settlements. The cogs frequently broke, and hence it was not of
any very great utility. To remedy this inconvenience, a convict
blacksmith undertook to produce one iron hand-mill each week, for which
he was to be paid at the rate of two guineas; and by his means several
mills were distributed in the settlements.

The salt meat being the next article which threatened a speedy
expenditure, on Saturday the 28th one pound was taken from the weekly
allowance of beef; and but a small quantity of Indian corn remaining in
store, the male convicts received eight pounds of new wheat, whole; and
only three pounds of Indian corn, or paddy, were served.

On Christmas day, the Reverend Mr. Johnson preached to between thirty and
forty persons only, though on a provision day some four or five hundred
heads were seen waiting round the storehouse doors. The evening produced
a watchhouse full of prisoners; several were afterwards punished, among
whom were some servants for stealing liquor from an officer.

The passion for liquor was so predominant among the people, that it
operated like a mania, there being nothing which they would not risk to
obtain it: and while spirits were to be had, those who did any extra
labour refused to be paid in money, or any other article than spirits,
which were now,