He had been always addicted to the use of spirituous liquors; but he now applied himself more closely to them, to drown the recollection of his disgrace.  In this vice he continued until the 3rd of May last, on which day he came to Sydney in a state of insanity.  He went to the house of a friend in the town, determined, as it seemed, to destroy himself, for he there drank, unknown to the people of the house, as fast as he could swallow, nearly half a gallon of Cape brandy.  He fell directly upon the floor of the room he was in (which happened to be of brick); where the people, thinking nothing worse than intoxication ailed him, suffered him to lie for ten or twelve hours; in consequence he was seized with a violent inflammation which broke out on the arm, and that part of the body which lay next the ground; to this, after suppuration had taken place, and several operations had been performed to extract the pus, a mortification succeeded, and at last carried him off on the 3rd of July.  A few hours before his death he requested to see the ludge-advocate, to whom he declared, that it had been told him that he had been suspected of having improperly and tyrannically abused the confidence which he had enjoyed under Governor Phillip; but that he could safely declare as he was shortly to appear before the last tribunal, that nothing lay on his conscience which could make his last moments in this life painful.  At his own request he was interred in the burying ground at Parramatta.  He had been advancing his means pretty rapidly; for, after his decease, his stock of goats, consisting of eighty-six males and females, sold by public auction for three hundred and fifty-seven pounds fifteen shillings.  He left a widow (formerly Catharine Hounson) who had for several years been deranged in her intellects.

In addition to the superintendant, there died in this month a woman, Jane Forbes, the wife of Butler, a settler at Prospect Hill, who fell into the fire while preparing their breakfast, and received such injury that she shortly after expired.

August.] From the scantiness of salted provisions, the article salt was become as scarce.  There came out in the Surprise, as a settler, a person of the name of Boston.  Among other useful knowledge* which we were given to understand he possessed, he at this time offered his skill in making salt from sea-water.  As it was much wanted, his offers were accepted, and, an eligible spot at Bennillong’s Point (as the east point of the cove had long been named) being chosen, he began his operations, for which he had seven men allowed him, whose labour, however, only produced three or four bushels of salt in more than as many weeks.

[* Having been sent out by government to supply us with salted fish, he had some time before offered to procure and salt fish for the settlement; but he required boats and men, and more assistance than it was possible to supply.  He proposed to try Broken Bay.]