eliance_ were sent 100 casks of salt provisions, and 1200 bushels
of wheat, an article to which the soil and temperature of the island was
not favourable.

As the governor had received several petitions and complaints from the
settlers there, he caused the following order to be printed and sent
thither for their information:

From the nature of the difficulties of which the settlers upon Norfolk
island have complained, difficulties which have not until very lately
been known to have an existence, the governor is led to suspect, that the
same rage for traffic, and an intemperate indulgence in some of those
destructive gratifications which have so effectually ruined many of the
most forward and promising settlers in New South Wales, have reached
Norfolk Island.

His Excellency, from an earnest desire to promote the prosperity of the
island, and the true happiness of its inhabitants, has, since his arrival
in this country, availed himself of every opportunity of forwarding for
their accommodation a share of such little comforts, as accidental ships
may have brought hither. But he is sorry to observe, that, instead of
those attentions being felt as an advantage, they appear only to operate
as an incitement to more extensive dealings; a circumstance which he
foresees must end in the ruin of many of the settlers, for whose welfare
he is extremely anxious. He therefore urges them not to be led away from
their real interest, by speculative ideas, or a desire of indulging in
dangerous gratifications, squandering the whole produce of their hard
labour in trifles, or in scenes of dissipation which must eventually end
in their complete ruin. He desires that they will persevere with patience
in the management of their farms, and the rearing of stock; and assures
them, that he has taken such steps as he hopes will incline the
government to consider the inconveniences which are sustained in this
distant part of the world, and induce them to adopt such measures as will
procure the colonists, before long, every European article that they may
have occasion for at a very moderate expense; and by that means put an
effectual stop to the impositions under which the industrious settlers
have too long laboured.

Toward the latter end of the month, the settlers at the northern farms
were much annoyed by the natives, who came down in a body, and burnt
several of their houses. This was the more unfortunate, as those farms
appeared to have had