In this situation, every addition that could be made to
the ration was eagerly sought after. Wheat was paid to the industrious in
exchange for labour; and those who were allowed to subsist independent of
the public stores availed themselves of that indulgence to its fullest
extent. It might therefore have been expected, that every advantage was
taken of such a situation, and that no opportunity would be lost from
which any profit could be derived. As an instance of this, one Lane, a
person who had been a convict, and who was allowed to support himself how
he could, was detected in buying a kangaroo of a man employed by an
officer to shoot for him. The game-killer, with the assistance of six or
seven greyhounds, had killed three kangaroos, two of which he brought in;
the third he sold or lent to Lane, but said he had cut it up for his
dogs.

As most of the officers in the colony were allowed people to shoot for
them, it became necessary to make some example of the man who bought,
rather than of him who sold; for it was a maxim pretty generally adopted,
that the receiver was more culpable than the thief. The lieutenant-governor,
therefore, ordered Lane to be punished with one hundred lashes, placed upon
the commissary's books for provisions, and sent up to labour at Toongabbie.

About the middle of the month one small cow and a Bengal steer, both
private property, were killed, and issued to the non-commissioned
officers and privates of two companies of the New South Wales corps. This
was but the third time that fresh beef had been tasted by the colonists
of this country; once, it may be remembered, in the year 1788, and a
second time when the lieutenant-governor and the officers of the
settlement were entertained by the Spanish captains. At that time
however, had we not been informed that we were eating beef, we should
never have discovered it by the flavour; and it certainly happened to
more than one Englishman that day, to eat his favourite viand without
recognising the taste.*

[* We understood that the Spanish mode of roasting beef, or mutton, was,
first to boil and then to brown the joint before the fire.]

The beef that was killed at this time was deemed worth eighteen-pence per
pound, and at that price was sold to the soldiers. The two animals
together weighed three hundred and seventy-two pounds.

About this time accounts were received from Parramatta of an uncommon
storm of wind, accompanied with rain, having