Several people died at Parramatta, some of whom were at labour, apparently in health, and dead in twenty-four hours. An extraordinary circumstance attended, though it was not the cause of the death of one poor creature: while dragging with others at a brick cart he was seized with a fainting fit, and when he recovered was laid down under a cart which stood in the road, that he might be in the shade. Being weak and ill, he fell asleep. On waking, and feeling something tight about his neck, he put up his hand, when, to his amazement and horror, he grasped the folds of a large snake which had twined itself round his neck. In endeavouring to disengage it, the animal bit him by the lip, which became instantly tumid. Two men, passing by, took off the snake and threw it on the ground, when it erected itself and flew at one of them; but they soon killed it. The man who had fainted at the cart died the next morning, not, however, from any effect of the bite of the snake, but from a general debility. At Parramatta the public bakehouse was broken into, and robbed of a large quantity of flour and biscuit. The robber had made his way down the chimney of the house, and, though a man and woman slept in the place, carried off his booty undiscovered. The convicts having assembled there at the latter end of the last month in an improper and tumultuous manner, the governor now thought proper to issue a proclamation, directing that 'in case of any riot or disturbance among the convicts, every one who was seen out of his hut would (if such riot or disturbance should happen in the night, or during the hours of rest from labour, or if he were absent from his labour during the hours of work) be deemed to be aiding and assisting the rioters, and be punished accordingly.' The convicts were strictly forbidden ever to assemble in numbers under any pretence of stating a complaint, or for any other cause whatever, all complaints being to be made through the medium of the superintendants or overseers. A disobedience to this proclamation was to be punished with the utmost severity; and any person who, knowing of any intended riot or tumultuous and unlawful assembly among the convicts, did not take the first opportunity of informing either the commanding officer of the military or one of the superintendants thereof, would be deemed and punished as a principal in such riot. An instance of the profligacy of the convicts which occurred at this time is deserving of notice: a woman who had been entrusted to carry the allowance of flour belonging to two other women to the bakehouse, where she had run in debt for bread which she had taken up on their account, mixed with it a quantity of pounded stone, in the proportion of two-thirds of grit, to one of flour. Fortunately, she was detected before it had been mixed with other flour at the bakehouse, and was ordered to wear an iron collar for six months as a punishment.