It might have been supposed, that the fatal consequences of endeavouring to seek a place in the woods of this country where they might live without labour had been sufficiently felt by the convicts who arrived here in the Queen transport from Ireland, to deter others from rushing into the same error, as they would, doubtless, acquaint the new comers with the ill success which attended their schemes of that nature.  Several of those, however, who came out in the Boddingtons went off into the woods soon after their landing; and a small party, composed of some desperate characters, about the same time stole a boat from Mr. Schaffer, the settler, with which, as they were not heard of for some days after, it was supposed they had either got out of the harbour, or were lying concealed until, being joined by those who had taken to the woods, they could procure a larger and a safer conveyance from the country.

A slight change took place in the ration this month; the sugar being expended, molasses was ordered to be served in lieu of that article, in the proportion of a pint of molasses to a pound of sugar.

On Sunday the 15th died James Nation, a soldier in the New South Wales corps, into which he had entered from the marine detachment.  He sunk under an inflammatory complaint brought on by hard drinking.  With this person Martha Todd cohabited at the time of her decease, which, as before related, was occasioned by the same circumstance, and which, together with her death, Nation had been frequently heard to say was the cause of much unhappiness to him.

On Tuesday the 17th the signal was made at the South Head, and about six o’clock in the evening the Sugar Cane transport anchored in the cove from Cork, whence she sailed the 13th of last April, having on board one hundred and ten male and fifty female convicts, with a sergeant’s party of the New South Wales corps as a guard.  Nothing had happened on board her until the 25th of May, when information was given to Mr. David Wake Bell, the agent on the part of Government, that a mutiny was intended by the convicts, and that they had proceeded so far as to saw off some of their irons.  Insinuations were at the same time thrown out, of the probability of their being joined by certain of the sailors and of the guard.  The agent, after making the necessary inquiry, thought it indispensable to the safety of the ship to cause an instant example to be made, and ordered one of the convicts who was found out of irons to be executed that night.  Others he punished the next morning; and by these measures, as might well be expected, threw such a damp on the spirits of the rest, that he heard no more during the voyage of attempts or intentions to take the ship.

Since the arrival of the Boddingtons many circumstances respecting the intended mutiny in that ship had been disclosed by the convicts themselves which were not before known.  They did not hesitate to say, that all the officers were to have been murdered, the first* mate and the agent excepted, who were to be preserved alive for the purpose of conducting the ship to a port, when they likewise were to be put to death.