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thinking how to act in obeying the Letter dat'd 2 January which says discharge two of the hired men & which shall they be, as they are all inclined to stay, are quiet and always readily obey, and so must I but as no mention is made of that in the succeeding Letters Decem'r & April I beg to wait your further orders on return of the next vessel. - then the winters wood will be near all secured and with carts and gondola transport it to the settlements, when the hay is all in stack - then if two is away, the two family must be in order for collecting wood & taking care of the stock through the winter & better able to manage a boat & assist each other about half of our gardins are planted with Indian corn and potatoes all the seed we had, and notwithstanding the cold season, they are up and appear lively, our potatoes last year was very small being verry dry the latter part of summer but all had plenty of turnips & cabbage till lately. gave a considerable quantity of them to the sick cattle, also 2 bb indian meal, to café my aking heart the last meal was the best I ever saw, expecting it was new ground, opened it all, in a fine day and spread on a Sail it then was in [word?] & [word?] heat, but with rakes was soon cool, repacked with a load of smooth stones from the NW bar about 5 gallons in each barrel equal. divided and I am confident would keep sweet in that order from this to Madra,& back again ----

I have been much divided in the nature of the sail on this Island experience makes manifest my weak and hefty sentiments at the commencement of the settlement as then I supposed that most all kinds of grain and garden vegetables would grow spontan'ly with a little manure - but without abundance of that all is sand to the surface positively within two years if neglected of manure not only that, the South and SE Winds are poison to all I have tryed, such as oats wheat barley indian corn English & Dutch grass, clover, potatoes, beans cucumbers, onions except where sheltered by hills or barricaded by and to shield the growth from those gales