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rom any part of England or Scotland, than had at any time been derived from 300 of these people, with all the attention that could be paid to them. Had 200 families of decent labouring farmers been sent out as settlers a few years since, and had a few convicts to assist them been placed wholly under their direction and authority, the cultivation would have been much farther advanced; and, in point of provisions, those families would have been living in luxury. More grain than could be consumed would have been grown, instead of crops which in some years were barely sufficient to last until the following harvest. These people were brought to trial for a theft which they were stated to have committed, but of which there was not any positive proof, and they were acquitted. There was not any doubt of their having associated with and instructed the natives how to commit, with the least hazard to themselves, the various depredations which the settlers had sustained from them; yet there was no proof of this, at least no proof whereby they might have been capitally punished, nothing short of which would ever be sufficient to prevent this dangerous intercourse. After exciting some apprehensions for her safety, his Majesty's ship the _Reliance _anchored in the Cove on the 26th, from the Cape of Good Hope, having had a very stormy passage, with 26 cows, 3 bulls, and about 60 sheep on board, on government account. She had been extremely leaky all the voyage; and it must be remembered, that the other colonial ship, the _Supply_, arrived in a very infirm state.* [* At her departure from the Cape, it was generally conjectured that she would never reach the settlement; but her commander, Lieutenant William Kent, considered and felt the design of his voyage to be of so much importance to the colony, that he determined to run every risk; and fortunately, though with great difficulty, he succeeded.] A most unexpected and unaccountable desertion took place in the night after the arrival of the _Reliance_. Two boys belonging to that ship carried away a small two-oared boat, in which they intended to proceed to the southward, and there join the natives. Being pursued, they were brought back, and gave the above account of their scheme; to effect which, they had provided themselves with a boat-cloak to sleep in, a pair of pistols, a small quantity of gun-powder, and 50 cakes of portable soup. That any one who had been accustomed to the h
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