It being at this time much wished to get four or five hundred acres of the ground belonging to government in a state to be sown the next season with wheat, the governor went up to Parramatta, to settle some necessary concerns there, and to endeavour, if possible, to get strength sufficient for that purpose. While here, he had the satisfaction of knowing that the stock of large cattle belonging to government were in excellent condition, having been sent to Toongabbie, where they had met with better food and more care than elsewhere. The preservation of these animals was an object of the greatest importance, as, independent of the large sums of money with which they had been purchased, their utility as a stock both for present labour, and future consumption, was incalculable. Several of the settlers having last year had occasion, from the failure of the preceding crop, to borrow seed for sowing their ground again with wheat, an order was issued on the 21st, reminding those settlers who had received this assistance from government, that it was expected they would, out of their first crops, pay this debt, and take up the receipts which they had given. That if any evasion should be attempted, or any delay made in the payment, such steps as the law pointed out would be taken against them, and the defaulters marked as undeserving of the aid of government on any future occasion; and, what was calculated to meet a trick which some of them had played, they were finally informed, that if any among them, in contemplation of getting rid of the debt, had sold their farms since receiving the grain from government, the land would still be considered as the debtor, and the purchaser responsible for the payment. The savage inhabitants of the country, instead of losing any part of their native ferocity of manners by an intercourse with the Europeans among whom they dwelt, seemed rather to delight in exhibiting themselves as monsters of the greatest cruelty, devoid of reason, and guided solely by the impulse of the worst passions.