The Thermometer
Has Never Risen Beyond 84, Nor Fallen Lower Than 35, In General It Stood
In The Beginning Of February At Between 78 And 74 At Noon.
Nor is
the temperature of the air less healthy than pleasant.
Those dreadful putrid
fevers by which new countries are so often ravaged, are unknown to us:
and excepting a slight diarrhoea, which prevailed soon after we had landed,
and was fatal in very few instances, we are strangers to epidemic diseases.
On the whole, (thunder storms in the hot months excepted) I know not
any climate equal to this I write in. Ere we had been a fortnight on shore
we experienced some storms of thunder accompanied with rain, than which
nothing can be conceived more violent and tremendous, and their repetition
for several days, joined to the damage they did, by killing several
of our sheep, led us to draw presages of an unpleasant nature. Happily,
however, for many months we have escaped any similar visitations.
CHAPTER XVI.
The Progress made in the Settlement; and the Situation of Affairs
at the Time of the Ship, which conveys this Account, sailing for England.
For the purpose of expediting the public work, the male convicts have been
divided into gangs, over each of which a person, selected from among
themselves, is placed. It is to be regretted that Government did not take
this matter into consideration before we left England, and appoint proper
persons with reasonable salaries to execute the office of overseers;
as the consequence of our present imperfect plan is such, as to defeat
in a great measure the purposes for which the prisoners were sent out.
The female convicts have hitherto lived in a state of total idleness;
except a few who are kept at work in making pegs for tiles, and picking up
shells for burning into lime.
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