[Page 7]
Portion'd out into Divisions, the Hours Numbered & their Inhabitants registerd, this measure has put a Stop to private Robbings in the Night, which was so Common, that when I arriv'd we were Scarsely a Night without Alarms, & the Cries of Murder; I had a Specimen of this Nocturnal Robbing a few Nights after I came on Shore, for My House was Robbd with two Centinals before it. We are now perfectly free from such Alams, & Blackguards who us'd to travel from place to place, and who had their Correspondents & assoiciates in every District of the Colony for the purpose of Planting or Concealing stolen goods, cannot now travel so much at their Ease, the Country Constables annoy them much, for they must Shew a passort from the place of their residence, under the hand of a Magistrate, otherwise they are Secur'd.
We are at present so Weak in Public labourers that if Free people of those whose off the Store, happen to fall under the lash of the Law, we frequently Convert Corporal punishm': into Public laber for a certain time, according to the Magnitude of the Offence; by this means, we sometimes have the Work of Carpenter or a Blacksmith for the Public without Wages, who might otherwise have been hird by an Individual, this you will allow Sir is turning the Crimes of such People to the Public advantage & the Criminal feels the punishment much more severe.
Were I Sir Joseph to enumerate the various difficultys which have stood in the way of the Public Concern of the Colony and which I trust I am daily getting the better of, the woud