ain fallow for a
season, they being reported to be worn out. Other ground, which had been
prepared, was now sown; a spot called the Ninety Acres, and the hills
between Parramatta and Toongabbie.

On the 15th, a criminal court was assembled for the trial of John
Anderson and Joseph Marshall, settlers; and John Hyams, Joseph Dunstill,
Richard Watson, and Morgan Bryan, convicts; for a rape committed on the
body of one Mary Hartley, at the Hawkesbury. The court was obliged to
acquit the prisoners, owing to glaring contradiction in the witnesses, no
two of them, though several were examined, agreeing in the same point.
But as such a crime could not be passed with impunity, they were
recommitted, and on the 22nd tried for an assault, of which being very
clearly convicted, the two settlers and Morgan Bryan were sentenced to
receive each five hundred lashes, and the others three hundred each; of
which sentence they received one half, and were forgiven the remainder.
This was a most infamous transaction; and, though the sufferer was of bad
character, would have well warranted the infliction of capital punishment
on one of the offenders, if the witnesses had not prevaricated in their
testimony. They appeared to have cast off all the feelings of civilised
humanity, adopting as closely as they could follow them the manners of
the savage inhabitants of the country. One prisoner, John Rayner, was
also tried for a burglary, and being convicted received sentence of death.

On the 29th, a liberal allowance of slops was issued to the male and
female convicts in the different settlements, among which were some soap
to the men, and some thread, tape, and soap to the women.

A shed for the purpose of receiving their Indian corn was this month
begun by the settlers at the river, they and their servants bringing in
the materials, and government supplying the carpenters, tools, nails, etc.

The farmers now every where began putting their wheat into the ground,
except at the river, where they had scarcely made any preparations,
consuming their time and substance in drinking and rioting; and trusting
to the extreme fertility of the soil, which they declared would produce
an ample crop at any time without much labour. So silly and thoughtless
were these people, who were thus unworthily placed on the banks of a
river which, from its fertility and the effect of its inundations, might
not improperly be termed the _Nile_ of New South Wales.

May.