red. By the next Saturday, a quantity
of wheat sufficient for one serving having been passed through the large
mill at Parramatta, the convicts received their ration of that article
ground coarse.

The lumber yard near Sydney being completed, the convict millwright
Wilkinson was preparing his new mill with as much expedition as he could
use; and John Baughan, an ingenious man, formerly a convict, had
undertaken to build another mill upon a construction somewhat different
from that of Wilkinson's, in which he was assisted by some artificers of
the regiment. Both these mills were to be erected on the open spot of
ground formerly used as a parade by the marine battalion.

Short as was the quantity of flour in store, we did not, however, despair
of being able to issue some meal of this season's growth before it could
be entirely expended. About the middle of the month, the wheat that was
sown in April last, about ninety acres, being perfectly ripe, the harvest
commenced, and from that quantity of ground it was calculated that
upwards of twenty-two bushels an acre would be received. Most of the
settlers had also begun to reap; and they, as well as others who had
grown that grain, were informed, that 'Wheat properly dried and cleaned
would be received at Sydney by the commissary at ten shillings the
bushel; but that none could be purchased from any other persons than
those who had grown it on their own farms; neither could any be taken
into the stores at Parramatta.'

The precaution of receiving wheat only from those persons who had raised
it on their own farms was intended to prevent the petty and rascally
traffic which would otherwise have been carried on between free people
off the stores and persons who might employ them to sell the fruits of
their depredations on the public and other grounds.

December.] Early in this month a criminal court was assembled, at which
Charles Williams, a boy of fourteen years of age, and John Bevan, a
notorious offender, though also very young, were tried for breaking into
a house at Toongabbie; but, for want of evidence, were acquitted. John
Crow was also tried for the burglary in the hut at Parramatta, out of
which he had stolen a quantity of wearing apparel and provisions; and,
being clearly convicted, he received sentence of death.

An idea very generally prevailed among the ignorant part of the convicts,
that the lieutenant-governor was not authorised to cause a sentence of
death t