language to which he might truly be said to have been hitherto a
stranger, and paint the glowing prospects of a golden harvest, the
triumph of a well-filled store, and the increasing and consequent
prosperity of the settlements.

His excellency this month thought fit to exercise the power vested in him
by act of parliament, and by his Majesty's commission under the great
seal, of remitting either wholly, or in part, the term for which felons
might be transported, by granting an absolute remission of the term for
which Elizabeth Perry had been sentenced. This woman came out in the
_Neptune_ in 1790, and had married James Ruse a settler. The good conduct
of the wife, and the industry of the husband, who had for some time
supported himself, his wife, a child, and two convicts, independent of
the public store, were the reasons assigned in the instrument which
restored her to her rights and privileges as a free woman, for extending
to her the hand of forgiveness.

This power, so pleasing to the feelings of its possessor, had hitherto
been very sparingly exercised; and those persons who had felt its
influence were not found to have been undeserving. I speak only of such
convicts as had been deemed proper objects of this favour by the governor
himself; the convicts, however, who came out in the _Guardian_ were
emancipated by the King's command, and of these by far the greater part
conducted themselves with propriety.

Preparing roofs for new barracks, bringing in bricks to the spot
appointed for their construction, and discharging the _Atlantic_ and the
_Britannia_, were the principal works in hand at Sydney during the month.
At the settlements beyond Parramatta (which had lately obtained and were
in future to be distinguished by the name of Toongabbie) the convicts
were employed in preparing the ground for the reception of next year's
crop of maize. At and near Parramatta, the chief business was erecting
two houses on allotments of land which belonged to Mr. Arndell the
assistant surgeon, and to John Irving (one of those persons whose
exemplary conduct and meritorious behaviour both in this country and on
the passage to it had been rewarded with unconditional freedom by the
governor), each of whom had been put in possession, the former of sixty
and the latter of thirty acres of land on the creek leading to
Parramatta; erecting chimneys for the different settlers at the ponds,
preparing roofs for various buildings, sawing ti