eve, would not suffer the want of animal food, so long as
they could take their dogs and guns, and kill a cow or calf at
their option. These wild cattle were the progeny of a few tame
ones, which strayed away from the settlement shortly after the
period of its foundation, and were not discovered till about
fifteen years afterwards, when they had multiplied to several
thousands. On their discovery they immediately attracted the
attention of his majesty's ministers, and orders were dispatched
from this country, prohibiting the governor and his successors
from granting away the land, on which they had fixed themselves.
This they soon overspread, and on the occasion of the severe
droughts that were experienced in the colony in the years 1813,
1814, and 1815, great numbers of them perished from the want of
water and pasturage. Where thousands then existed, there are
scarcely hundreds to be found at present, and these chiefly
consist of bulls. A cow or calf can very rarely be met with.
There can consequently be very little doubt that they have
disappeared in the manner I have conjectured, and that their
numbers have been thus considerably reduced by the depredations
of the poorer settlers, which it was for a long time thought
beyond the power of the colonial courts to restrain; since,
although it was notorious that these wild cattle were originally
purchased by the crown, still the cattle of individuals had
subsequently, at various times, intermixed with them, and
prevented that identification of property, which the late judge
advocate considered essential to the conviction of the offenders.
His opinion, however, has been overruled by his successor, and
several persons have been lately tried for and found guilty of
this offence; and although they were not punished capitally for
it, there can be no doubt that their conviction will greatly
diminish such depredations for the future. Not that I consider
the preservation of these wild herds will be attended with any
advantages to the colony. On the contrary, it is my belief, that
their total destruction ought to be effected; since the increase
of them is of mere negative importance, compared with the
positive disadvantage that attends their occupation of one of the
most fertile districts in the colony, which it is to be hoped
will be soon covered with numerous flocks of fine wooled sheep,
for the pasture of which the greater part of it is so admirably
adapted. This tract of land