An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Volume 1: With Remarks on the Dispositions, Customs, Manners, Etc. of The; Native Inhabitants of That Country. to Which Are Added, Some; Particulars of New Zealand; Compiled, By Permission, From; The Mss. of Lieutenant-Governor King.Collins, David
History
An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Volume 1: With Remarks on the Dispositions, Customs, Manners, Etc. of The; Native Inhabitants of That Country. to Which Are Added, Some; Particulars of New Zealand; Compiled, By Permission, From; The Mss. of Lieutenant-Governor King.
Collins, David
New South Wales -- Description and travel
The instant effect of all this was, that the natives discontinued to
bring up fish; and Bal-loo-der-ry, whose canoe had been destroyed,
although he had been taught to believe that one of the six convicts had
been hanged for the offence, meeting a few days afterwards with a poor
wretch who had strayed from Parramatta as far as the Flats, he wounded
him in two places with a spear. This act of Ballooderry's was followed by
the governor's strictly forbidding him to appear again at any of the
settlements; the other natives, his friends, being alarmed, Parramatta
was seldom visited by any of them, and all commerce with them was
destroyed. How much greater claim to the appellation of savages had the
wretches who were the cause of this, than the native who was the
sufferer?
During this month some rain had fallen, which had encouraged the sowing
of the public grounds, and one hundred and sixteen bushels of wheat were
sown at Parramatta. Until these rains fell, the ground was so dry, hard,
and literally burnt up, that it was almost impossible to break it with a
hoe, and until this time there had been no hope or probability of the
grain vegetating.
In the beginning of the month, the stone-mason, with the people under his
direction, had begun working at the west point of the cove, where the
governor purposed constructing out of the rock a spot whereon to place
the guns belonging to the settlement, which was to wear the appearance of
a _work_. The flagstaff was to be placed in the same situation. The house
for the principal surgeon was got up and covered in during this month.
Among the convicts who died about this time, was ---- Frazer, a man who
came out in the first fleet, and who, since his landing, had been
employed as a blacksmith. He was an excellent workman, and was supposed
to have brought on an untimely end by hard drinking, as he seldom chose
to accept of any article but spirits in payment for work done in his
extra hours.
July.] To guard against a recurrence of the accident which happened to
our cattle soon after we had arrived, the governor had for some time past
employed a certain number of convicts at Parramatta in forming
inclosures; and at the commencement of this month not less than one
hundred and forty acres were thinned of the timber, surrounded by a
ditch, and guarded by a proper fence.
In addition to the quantity of ground sown with wheat, a large proportion
was cleared to be sown this season with Indian corn; and the country
about Parramatta, as well as the town itself, where eight huts were now
built, wore a very promising appearance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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