Indian corn had in general turned out very productive: some on the light sandy soil yielded fifty bushels of shelled corn per acre, and a patch of Caffre corn growing in the like soil, produced as much. This grain had been brought from the Cape of Good Hope, and was found to answer well for fattening of stock. No one having attempted to separate the farinaceous part of the grain from the husk, which was of an astringent quality, no judgment had been formed of its utility as a flour; but some who had ground it and mixed the whole together into a paste, pronounced it to be equal to any preparation of oatmeal.

An inflammation of the eyes was generally prevalent among all descriptions of people at this time. It raged at first among ehildren; but when it got into a house, scarcely any person in it escaped the complaint. It was accounted for by the variable weather which had prevailed.

CHAP. XVII.

Excursion into the Interior-Arrival of a Storeship-Full Ration ordered -Other Vessels arrive-Unfavourable reports at home respecting the Colony-Robbery-Murder of Captain Hill and his boat's crew at Tate's Island-Hardened Villany of some convicts-Excursion to the Western Mountains-Various Transactions-Natives-The Lieutenant-Governor leaves the Settlement-Recruits for the New South Wales Corps arrive-Captain Paterson assumes the CommandDeaths in 1794.

THE permission given to officers to hold lands had operated powerfully in favour of the colony, which was, in the opinion of most people, now making rapid strides toward that independence so long, and hitherto so vainly, wished for. These gentlemen were liberal in their employment of people; and such had been their exertions, that it appeared by a survey taken in the last month, that nine hundred and eighty-two acres had been cleared by them since that permission had

been received; and it further appeared, that there had been cleared since Governor Phillip's departure in December 1792, two thousand nine hundred and sixty-two acres. It must here be remembered, that the colony had been supplied with no other grain than that raised within itself from the 16th day of December 1793.

to run.

Some natives, who had observed the increasing number of the settlers on the banks of the Hawkesbury, and had learned that they were solicitous to discover other fresh-water rivers, for the purpose of forming settlements, assured them, that at no very great distance from Botany Bay, there was a river of fresh water which ran into the sea. As this was thought not to be improbable, two men of the military, who were deemed of sufficient judgment and discretion for the purpose, were sent out well armed and furnished with provisions for a week. They set off from the south shore, and were accompanied by a native, as a guide, who professed a knowledge of the country, and named the place where the fresh water would be found Great expectations were formed of this excursion, from the confidence with which the native repeatedly asserted the existence of a fresh water river. On the 20th, however, the party returned, with an account, that the native had very soon walked beyond his own knowledge of the country, and trusted to them to bring him safe back; that having penetrated about twenty miles to the southward of Botany Bay, they came to a large inlet of the sea, which formed a small harbour. The head of this they rounded, without discovering any river of fresh water near it. The country they described as high and rocky in the neighbourhood of the harbour, which, on afterwards looking into the chart, was supposed to be somewhere about Reed Point. The native returned with the soldiers, as cheerfully and as well pleased as if he had conducted them to the banks of the first river in the world.

An excursion of a different nature was at this time framing among some discontented Irish convicts, and was on the point of being carried into execution when discovered. Among those who had arrived in the last ships from Ireland, was a convict who had been an attorney in that kingdom, and who was weak enough to form the hazardous scheme, with several others, of seizing a long-boat, in which they were to endeavour to reach Batavia. A quantity of provisions, water-casks, sails, and other necessary articles, were provided, and were found, at the time of making the discovery, in the house of the principal. These people had much greater reason to rejoice at, than to regret, the discovery of their plot; for the wind, on the day succeeding the night in which they were to have gone off, blew a heavy gale; and, as there were no professed seamen in the party, it was next to impossible but that the boat must be lost. The greatest evil that attended these desertions was the lost of the boats which were taken off'; for the colony could not sustain much injury by the absence of a few wreaches who were too idle to labour, and must be constantly whispering their own discontents among the other convicts.

On the 24th of May, the inhabitants of this hitherto illomened country had the satisfaction of seeing the Indispensable, a store ship, anchor in the cove from England, with a cargo consisting principally of provisions for the colony. From her they understood that she was the first of six or seven ships which were all to bring out stores and provisions, and which, if no accident happened in the passage, might be expected to arrive in the course of two months. The supply of clothing and provisions intended to be conveyed by them, together with what had been received by the William, was calculated for the consumption of a twelvemonth. The quantity which had now arrived formed a supply of flour for twelve weeks, beef for four ditto, pork for four ditto, and of pease for fourteen ditto.

In consequence of the supplies received by the Indispensable, the full ration of flour was directed to be issued, and the Commissary was ordered not to receive for the present any more Indian corn that might be brought to sale.

The arrival of the Britannia on the 1st of June gave general satisfaction, as many doubts about her safety had been created by some accounts which the master of the Indispensable had heard at the Cape of Good Hope, of the Bay of Bengal being full of French privateers. They learned from Mr. Raven, that he had been forced to go to Batavia instead of Bengal, having beeu attacked in the Straits of Malacca by a fleet of piratical Proas, which engaged him for six hours, and from whom he might have found some difficulty to escape, had he not fortunately killed the Captain of one of them when in the act of making preparations for boarding him. At Batavia he was informed, that his passage to Bengal was, by the number of French privateers which infested the Bay, rendered very precarious; he therefore determined to load the Britannia at Batavia, and, after some necessary arrangements with the Governor-General and Council, purchased a cargo consisting of beef, pork, sugar and rice.

At Batavia Mr. Raven learned, that the Shah Hormuzear sailed from thence for Bombay three months before he arrived there; and the report given by a convict of a disaster which befel the boat and people from that ship, in the passage through the Straits between New South Wales and New Guinea, was confirmed at Batavia. As, however, Mr. Bampton had not since been heard of, it seemed more than probable that he had fallen a prize to some of the privateers which were to be met with in those seas.

On the 8th, the Speedy, a storeship commanded by Mr. Melville, arrived with stores and provisions from England: and on the 14th, the Halcyon, a ship from Rhode Island, loaded on speculation with provisions and spirits, anchored in the Cove.

Mr. Page, the master, had made his passage from Rhode Island in one hundred and fifteen days, and without touching at any port. This gentleman, who had before speculated in that country, had in his return from thence stopped at the Island of Tinian, which place he now represented as well

calculated to furnish a freight of cattle for the colony. Of the conduct of several convicts whom he had taken home with him he gave no favourable account, nor any hope that they were reformed by having paid the penalty of their former crimes.

Captain Page at first thought he had come to a bad market with his provisions at least; for the day was at last arrived when the colonists found themselves enabled to say that they were not in want of any casual supplies; but by the end of the month he declared himself satisfied with the voyage that he had made.

It may safely be pronounced, that the colony had never before worn so favourable an appearance as at this period: the public stores filled with wholesome provisions; five ships on the seas with additional supplies; and wheat enough in the ground to promise the realizing of many a golden dream; a rapidly increasing stock; a country gradually opening, and improving every where upon the beholders as it opened; with a spirit universally prevalent of cultivating it.

The ships which had lately arrived from England were fraught with the dismal and ill-founded accounts, which, through some evil design, continued to be insidiously propagated, of the wretched unprofitable soil of New South Wales. It was hoped, however, that when the present appearance and state of the colony should reach England, every attempt to mislead the public would cease, and such encouragement be held out as would induce individuals to settle in the country.

In the Halcyon had arrived an American gentleman (Mr. W. Megee) in character of supercargo. This person, on seeing the Toongabbe hills covered with a most promising crop of wheat, declared that he had never seen better in America, even at Rhode Island, the garden of that part of the world; and, on being shewn some Indian corn of the last year's growth, gave it as his opinion, that they wanted nothing but large