Previous to commencing any farther account of the subject, which I am about to treat, such a retrospection of the circumstances and situation of the settlement, at theconclusion of my former Narrative, as shall lay its state before the reader, seemsnecessary, in order to connect the present with the past.The departure of the first fleet of ships for Europe, on the 14th of July, 1788, had beenlong impatiently expected; and had filled us with anxiety, to communicate to our friendsan account of our situation; describing the progress of improvement, and the probabilityof success, or failure, in our enterprise. That men should judge very oppositely on sodoubtful and precarious an event, will hardly surprise.Such relations could contain little besides the sanguineness of hope, and theenumeration of hardships and difficulties, which former accounts had not led us toexpect. Since our disembarkation in the preceding January, the efforts of every one hadbeen unremittingly exerted, to deposit the public stores in a state of shelter and security, and to erect habitations for ourselves. We were eager to escape from tents, where afold of canvas, only, interposed to check the vertic beams of the sun in summer, and thechilling blasts of the south in winter. A markee pitched, in our finest season, on anEnglish lawn; or a transient view of those gay camps, near the metropolis, which somany remember, naturally draws forth careless and unmeaning exclamations of rapture, which attach ideas of pleasure only, to this part of a soldier's life. But an encampmentamidst the rocks and wilds of a new country, aggravated by the miseries of bad diet, and incessant toil, will find few admir