til the 17th. They
brought the information, that a Dutch fleet, consisting of ten sail of
ships of war, bound to the East Indies had been captured off the Cape of
Good Hope, by His Majesty's fleet, under Admiral Sir Geo. Keith
Elphinstone (now Lord Keith), which had followed them from England.

The useful regulation of numbering the different houses in the town of
Sydney, particularly those in the occupation of the convicts, was
followed up by another equally serviceable, which directed the
inhabitants of each of the four divisions of the town (for into that
number it was portioned off) to meet, and from among themselves elect
three of the most decent and respectable characters, who were to be
approved by the governor, and were to serve for the ensuing year as
watchmen, for the purpose of enforcing a proper attention to the good
order and tranquillity of their respective divisions. Many of the
soldiers being allowed to occupy houses for their families in the
vicinity of the barracks, the commanding officer was desired to appoint
his own watchmen for the military division of the town, and to order them
to report to him.

A few days previous to the arrival of the _Sylph_, the Colonial
schooner returned from Norfolk Island, and brought letters from the
_Reliance_, _Supply_, and _Britannia_, which ships left that
island on the 25th of the last month, and the day following her
arrival (the 14th) Richard Atkins, esq was directed to officiate as
judge-advocate of the colony, in the absence of the gentleman who had
filled that situation since the first establishment of the settlement,
and who had now proceeded to England in the _Britannia_.

This judicial appointment having taken place, a criminal court was held
on the 23rd, and continued sitting, by adjournment, until the 29th, when
sentence of death was passed upon eight prisoners who were capitally
convicted; one, of the wilful murder of the man whose body had been found
on the north shore the 16th of last month, and seven of robbing the
public store-houses at Sydney, and the settlement at the Hawkesbury. Two
others were found guilty of manslaughter.

Of these miserable people five were executed pursuant to the sentence of
the court. At Sydney*, Francis Morgan, for wilful murder, with Martin
McEwen (a soldier) and John Lawler (a convict), for robbing the public
stores. Matthew McNally and Thomas Doyle, convicts, suffered at
Parramatta, on the following day, for the same