To this pernicious practice of drinking to excess, more of the crimes
which disgraced the colony were to be ascribed than to any other cause;
and more lives where lost through this than through any other
circumstance; for the settlement had ever been free from epidemical or
fatal diseases. How much then was the importation of spirits to be
lamented! How much was it to be regretted, that it had become the
interest of any set of people to vend them!
Several robberies which at this time had been committed were to be
imputed to the same source.
A new enemy to agriculture made its appearance in this month. A
destructive grub-worm was discovered in several parts of the cultivated
ground; and at the Hawkesbury a caterpillar had commenced its ravages
wherever it found any young grain just shooting out of the earth. This
occasioned some delay in sowing the government ground.
It having been for several days reported, that the crews of two boats,
which had been permitted to go to Hunter's River for a load of coals, had
been cut off by the natives, the governor ordered his whale boat to be
well armed, and to proceed thither in quest of the boats and their crews;
sending in her Henry Hacking, a person on whom he could depend.
Pages:
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366