The continuance of the dry weather gave our colonists reason to fear that their crops would suffer more this year than they did the last:  it was now the season for putting the maize into the ground, which was so extremely dry that there was little probability of its vegetating, if sown, before some rain fell:  the sun also began to have great power, and several ponds, adjoining to which Governor Phillip had placed several settlers, were losing their water very fast.

It has already been observed, that on some particular days, the winds were heated to such a degree as to be almost insupportable, which had always been imputed to the country round the settlement being fired by the natives.  Early in the morning of the 31st of August, the wind was northerly, and heated as though it came from the mouth of an oven, though no fires could then be seen; however, as the day advanced, smoke appeared over the hills, and in the evening, a considerable tract of country was seen to be on fire; some natives were likewise burning the ground on the north side of the harbour, opposite the settlement:  this firing of the country, which the natives constantly do when the weather is dry, renders any observation made by the thermometer very uncertain.  But if the 31st of August was an unpleasant day, the evening made ample amends, for it began to rain, and continued raining until the next day at noon.

Although few of the convicts were sick when they were first landed from the transports, yet many of them were extremely weak from long confinement, and a few days carried numbers of them to the hospital.  The surgeon’s returns, on the first of September, were two hundred and eighty-five convicts under medical treatment:  several soldiers and seamen were likewise in the hospital with a fever of a bad sort, which was supposed to be brought on board by the convicts.

On the 4th of September, the Salamander sailed for Norfolk-Island, with one hundred and sixty male convicts, some stores, and provisions:  two non-commissioned officers, and eleven privates of the New South Wales corps went as a guard.

The Mary-Ann transport returned from Norfolk-Island on the 8th, having landed all the stores, provisions, and convicts safe; but they had lost a boat in going off from the island:  the sailors, however, were all saved.

A number of emu’s had been seen lately, and this appears to be the season in which they breed, as a nest was found near some fresh water, at the head of the harbour, containing fourteen eggs.  The nest was composed of fern, but it had more the appearance of a quantity of fern collected for a person to sit on, than a nest.  Soon after taking these eggs, an old emu was seen near Prospect-Hill with some young ones; several of the settlers chased them, and the young birds were taken:  they did not appear to be more than a week old, and great pains were taken to rear them, but they died, after being in Governor Phillip’s possession near five weeks.  Thirteen of these old birds were seen together in the course of this month, but it was a considerable time since an emu had been shot.