convicts also to be assigned to them free of expence; and that those convicts should be supplied with two years' rations and one year's clothing."

Among the great difficulties with which this infant estabe lishment had to struggle, not the least was that of procuring cattle. Of those which were embarked in England and other places for the colony, a very small proportion only arrived; for of 15 bulls and 119 cows, which had been embarked for Botany Bay, only 3 bulls and 28 cows were landed at the settlement. It was not until the arrival of the Endeavour, Capt. Bampton, in 1795, that the mode of conveying cattle to the colony without material loss was discovered. In that vessel, out of one hundred and thirty head which he embarked at Bombay, one cow only died on the passage, and that, too, on the day before his arrival. The mode of managing them during the voyage Mr. Collins describes very minutely, in the hope that it may be adopted by other ships that have a similar cargo.

• On visiting the ship, the sight was truly gratifying; the cattle were ranged on each side of the gun-deck, fore and aft, and not confined in separate stalls; but so conveniently stowed, that they were a support to each other. They were well provided with mats, and were constantly cleaned; and when the ship tacked, the cattle which were to leeward were regularly laid with their heads to windward, by people (twenty in number) particularly appointed to look after them, independent of any duty in the ship. The grain which was their food was, together with their water, regularly given to them, and the deck they stood on was well aired, by scuttles in the sides, and by wind sails *.?

The scarcity of cattle naturally raised their price. Even after this last importation, an English cow in calf sold for 80l. Notwithstanding the various obstacles which industry had met in the cultivation of this settlement, it yet made considerable advances; for in October 1793, the value of land had so risen, that one settler sold his allotment of 30 acres for as many pounds; and one farm with the house, &c. sold for tool. The value of ground, indeed, was considerably enhanced by government agreeing to purchase the redundance of the produce of the settlers at fixed prices. Wheat properly dried and cleansed was received from the settlers, at Sydney, by the commissary, at 10s. per bushel. Some cultivators, however, had devised another mode of disposing of their corn. One of them, whose situation was near Parramatta, having obtained a small still

• * These circumstances are mentioned so particularly, in the hope that they may prove useful hints to any persons intending, or who may be in future employed, to convey cattle from India, or any other part of the world, to New South Wales."

from England, found it more advantageous to draw an ardent diabolical spirit from his wheat, than to send it to the stores. From one bushel of wheat he obtained nearly five quarts of spirit, which he sold or paid in exchange for labour, at the rate of five or six shillings per quart. A better use was made of grain by another settler; who, having a mill, ground it, and procured 44lb. of good flour from a bushel of wheat taken at 59lb. This flour he sold at 4d. per lb.

By a return of the number of persons in New South Wales and Norfolk Island in April 1794, it appeared that there were in all 4414, including women and children; the annual expence of whom, to the mother-country, Mr. Collins estimates at 161,1011. Rapid strides, however, were at that time making towards independence, if not towards an ability of repaying to England a part of what the settlement had cost her. Already the colony lived on grain of its own growth, and an increase of live stock was become almost certain. There were now 4665 acres of ground cleared for cultivation; more than half of which had been effected by those who had become settlers, in the course of fifteen months.

To this spirit of improvement, a temporary check was given in September 1794, by government refusing to pay the settlers for wheat proposed to be delivered to the commissary, at the rate formerly fixed, of ros. per bushel. This stoppage however was but of short duration, and arose from the lieutenantgovernor entertaining a doubt whether, there being a good stock of grain already in the stores, it would be right to continue the purchase from the settlers. Immediately on the arrival of Gov. Hunter, he paid for the corn: but, in the interval, some settlers resigned their farms.

Though several quarrels had occurred between the natives and individuals among the colonists, yet it was supposed that our people were in general the aggressors. The governor had taken much pains to inspire the natives with confidence, and had in great measure succeeded. To theft they were naturally and irresistibly inclined: but they seemed unconscious of the crime, and were seldom deterred by detection from mixing with the colonists. At a settlement which had early been formed at a river called the Hawkesbury, (and at which, cultivation having gone on well, there was, in course, much grain to stimulate to depredation,) the natives assumed a more formidable appearance.

At that settlement,' says Mr. Collins, 'an open war seemed about this time to have commenced between the natives and the settlers; and word was received over-land, that two people were killed by them; one a settler of the name of Wilson, and the other a free

man, one William Thorp, who had been left behind from the Britannia, and had hired himself to this Wilson as a labourer. The natives appeared in large bodies, men, women, and children, provided with blankets and nets to carry off the corn, of which they appeared as fond as the natives who lived among us, and seemed determined to take it whenever and wherever they could meet with opportunities. In their attacks they conducted themselves with much art; but where that failed they had recourse to force; and on the least ap pearance of resistance made use of their spears or clubs. To check at once, if possible, these dangerous depredators, Captain Paterson directed a party of the corps to be sent from Parramatta, with instructions to destroy as many as they could meet with of the wood tribe (Be-dia-gal); and, in the hope of striking terror, to erect gibbets in different places, whereon the bodies of all they might kill were to be hung. It was reported, that several of these people were killed in consequence of this order; but none of their bodies being found, (perhaps if any were killed they were carried off by their companions,) the number could not be ascertained. Some prisoners however were taken, and sent to Sydney; one man, (apparently a cripple,) five women, and some children. One of the women, with a child at her breast, had been shot through the shoulder, and the same shot had wounded the babe. They were immediately placed in a hut near our hospital, and every care taken of them that humanity suggested. The man was said, instead of being a cripple, to have been very active about the farms, and instrumental in some of the murders which had been committed. In a short time he found means to escape, and by swimming reached the north shore in safety; whence, no doubt, he got back to his friends. Captain Paterson hoped, by detaining the prisoners and treating them well, that some good effect might result; but finding, after some time, that coercion, not attention, was more likely to answer his ends, he sent the women back. While they were with us, the wounded child died, and one of the women was delivered of a boy, which died immediately. On our withdrawing the party, the natives attacked a farm nearly opposite Richmond Hill, belonging to one William Rowe, and put him and a very fine child to death; the wife, after receiving several wounds, crawled down the bank, and concealed herself among some reeds half immersed in the river, where she remained a considerable time without assistance: being at length found, this poor creature, after having seen her husband and her child slaughtered before her eyes, was brought into the hospital at Parramatta, where she recovered, though slowly, of her wounds."

Among the inhabitants of this colony in October 1795, were Mr. Muir the democratic Scottish advocate, and Messrs. Jos. Gerald, Palmer, Skirving, and Margarot, all sentenced to reside here for sedition. Of Mr. Gerald, the author says,

• In this gentleman we saw, that not even elegant manners, (evidently caught from good company,) great abilities, and a happy mode of placing them in the best point of view, the gifts of nature matured by education, could (because he misapplied them) save him from

from landing an exile, to call him by no worse a name, on a barbarous shore, where the few who were civilized must pity, while they admired him. He arrived in a very weak and impaired state of health.'

Mr. Gerald did not recover the shock which his constitution had suffered.

At three in the morning of the 16th (March) he breathed his last. A consumption which accompanied him from England, and which all his wishes and efforts to shake off could not overcome, at length brought him to that period when, perhaps, his strong enlightened mind must have perceived how full of vanity and vexation of spirit were the busiest concerns of this world; and into what a narrow limit was now to be thrust that frame which but of late trod firmly in the walk of life, elate and glowing with youthful hope, glorying in being a martyr to the cause which he termed that of Freedom, and considering as an honour that exile which brought him to an untimely grave *. He was followed in three days after by another victim to mistaken opinions, Mr. William Skirving. A dysentery was the apparent cause of his death, but his heart was broken. In the hope of receiving remittances from England, which might enable him to procced with spirit and success in farming, of which he appeared to have a thorough knowledge, he had purchased from different persons, who had ground to sell, about one hundred acres of land adjacent to the town of Sydney. He soon found that a farm near the sea-coast was of no great value. His attention and his efforts to cultivate the ground were of no avail. Remittances he received none; he contracted some little debts, and found himself neglected by that party for whom he had sacrificed the dearest connexions in life, a wife and family; and finally yielded to the pressure of this accumulated weight. Among us, he was a pious, honest, worthy character. In this settlement his political principles never manifested themselves; but all his solicitude seemed to be, to evince himself the friend of human nature. Requiescat in pace!'

Mr. Muir, it is generally known, escaped from the settlement. The author thus speaks of his departure:

• On the morning of the 18th the Otter sailed for the north-west coast of America. In her went Mr. Thomas Muir (one of the persons sent out in the Surprise for sedition) and several other convicts whose sentences of transportation were not expired. Mr. Muir conceived that in withdrawing (though clandestinely) from this country, he was only asserting his freedom; and meant, if he should arrive in safety, to enjoy what he deemed himself to have regained of it in America, until the time should come when he might return to his own country with credit and comfort. He purposed practising at the American bar as an advocate; a point of information which he left

* He was buried in the garden of a little spot of ground which he had purchased at Farm Cove. Mr. F. Palmer, we understood, had written his epitaph at large.'

behind him in a letter. In this country he chiefly passed his time in literary ease and retirement, living out of the town at a little spot of ground which he had purchased for the purpose of seclusion.'

Besides these gentlemen, whose characters were so public, there was another person in the settlement who had obtained equal or greater celebrity, viz, George Barrington *, of pickpocket notoriety. He came out in September 1791, and on his arrival the governor employed him at a small settlement at Toongabbe, in a situation which was likely to attract the envy and hatred of the convicts in proportion as he might be vigilant and inflexible. He was first placed as a subordinate and next as a principal watchman; in which offices he was diligent, sober, and impartial, and rendered himself so eminently serviceable, that the governor resolved to draw him from the line of convicts; and, with the instrument of his emancipation, he received a grant of thirty acres of land in an eligible situation near Parramatta. He was afterward made a peaceofficer, and thus' not only received a reward for past good conduct, but an incitement to continue it; and through the governor's liberality, he found himself, though not so absolutely free as to return to England at his own pleasure, yet enjoying the immunities of a free-man, a settler, a civil-officer, in whose integrity much confidence was placed.'

Towards the close of 1796, the colony had acquired a degree of strength which seemed to ensure its future prosperity. Not only the necessary edifices were raised for the habitations of its people, but some for the purposes of religion, amusement, &c. A play-house had been erected at the expence of some persons who performed in it for their own emolument, and who admitted auditors at one shilling each. A convenient church had been built; a printing-press had been set up; the civil court was open for the recovery of debts by action, and for proving wills; licences had been issued to regulate the sale of spirits; and passage-boats were established for the convenience of communication between the different settlements. In the houses of individuals, were to be found most of the comforts and not a few of the luxuries of life; and, in a word, the former years of famine, toil, and difficulty, were now exchanged for those of plenty, ease, and pleasure.

The quantity of ground at this time in cultivation was 5419 acres; of which 2547 were occupied by settlers. The

* When Mr. B. received sentence, a gentleman pleasantly observed that "government had determined to cure that person's malady, by sending him to a place where there were no pockets to pick."