d eighteen
miles.

On the 29th our colours were displayed at the fort, in grateful remembrance
of the restoration of monarchy in England.

Information was the same day received from Parramatta, that on the
evening of Saturday the 24th a settler of the name of Lisk, having been
drinking at the house of Charles Williams with Rose Burk (a woman with
whom he cohabited) until they were very much intoxicated, as he was
returning to his farm through the town of Parramatta, a dispute arose
between him and the woman, during which a gun that he had went off, and
the contents lodged in the woman's arm below the elbow, shattering the
bones in so dreadful a manner as to require immediate amputation; which
Mr. Arndell, being fortunately at home, directly performed. The unhappy
woman acquitted her companion of any intention to do her so shocking an
injury, and when the account reached Sydney she was in a favourable way.

In this accident Williams, it is true, had no further share than what he
might claim from their having intoxicated themselves at his house; but
that, however, established him more firmly in the opinion of those who
could judge of his conduct as a public nuisance.

The principal labour in hand at Sydney at this time was what the building
of the barracks occasioned; and at the other settlements the people were
chiefly employed in getting into the ground the grain for the ensuing
season, and in preparing for sowing the maize. This article of
subsistence having in the late season proved very unprofitable, the
average quantity being not more than six bushels per acre in the whole,
the lieutenant-governor determined to sow with wheat as much of the
public grounds as he could; and every settler who chose to apply was
permitted to draw as much wheat from the public granary as his ground
required, proper care being taken to insure its being applied solely to
that use. At Toongabbie no addition had been made to the public ground
since Governor Phillip's departure; but by a survey made at the latter
end of this month it appeared, that the officers to whom lands had been
granted, had cultivated and cleared two hundred and thirty-three acres,
and had cut down the timber from two hundred and nineteen more. All the
settlers of a different description had added something to their grounds;
and there were many who might be pronounced to be advancing fast toward
the comfortable situation of independent farmers.

The quantity of lan