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 Sullivan Bay, 31st December 1803.

General Orders.

Parole — Chatham. C. Sign — Sheerness.

The Lieut.-Governor is under the necessity of directing that the business of loading the Ocean be not suspended until that is completed. The people will therefore work the remainder of this day and Sunday. It has never been his wish to make that day any other than a day of devotion and rest, but circumstances compel him to employ it in labor. In this the whole are concerned, since the sooner we are enabled to leave this unpromising and unproductive country the sooner shall we be able to reap the advantages and enjoy the comforts of a more fertile spot, and, as the winter season will soon not be far distant, there will not be too much time before us wherein to erect more comfortable dwellings for every one than the thin canvass coverings which we are now under, and which are every day growing worse. Several people applying to him daily for shoes, he informs them that on the arrival of the whole at the new settlement shoes shall be served out to all those who have not lately been supplied with new ones, and advises them to take care of those they have now got, not wearing them until they are past mending, which some of them have done. He cannot but pity the delusion which some of the prisoners labour under, in thinking that they can exist when deprived of the assistance of Government. Their madness will be manifest to themselves when they shall feel, too late, that they have wrought their own ruin. After those who have absconded he shall make no further search, certain that they must soon return or perish by famine.

The detachment will not parade for Divine service to-morrow. They will not on that or any other day absent themselves from the camp without the permission of the officers of their companies. The court-martial which sat this morning is dissolved.

Detail for duty.

Sullivan Bay, 1st January 1804.

General Orders.

Parole—Prosperity. C. Sign—England.

Garrison Orders.

The troop will beat to-morrow at nine o'clock, at which time the guard will mount. The sentence of the court-martial which sat yesterday will be put in execution to-morrow morning at seven o'clock. A review of arms and necessaries to-morrow at troop beating, after which the Articles of War will be read. A garrison court-martial will assemble at the mess-room for the trial of such prisoners as may be brought before it at eleven o'clock in the morning. 1st Lieut. Sladden, president; 1st Lieut. Johnson, 2nd Lieut. Lord, members. The prisoners to be acquainted and evidences warned to attend.

Detail for duty.