races were
seen of the cattle in any of the places where they had been accustomed to
range, nor did they meet with any white people; but the natives persisted
in asserting their having seen some of them among them, and added that
some of the calves had been run down by them. This was not impossible;
and the idea was somewhat strengthened, by their finding some short
spears pointed with the leg bone of the kangaroo, which were supposed to
be designed for stabbing the calves when caught. Although it was the
opinion of these people, that the cattle had quitted the part of the
country in which they had been so long known to graze, there was yet much
reason to believe that this was not the case; for, on visiting them, they
were not always to be found in one spot.

It will be sufficient to state the following circumstance, to show the
unpleasant and distressing situation of the principal officer of the
settlement, by the construction that was put on his endeavours to rectify
every abuse that the inhabitants might labour under.

An infamous and seditious anonymous paper was dropped in the streets, in
which the governor and every officer in the colony were most scurrilously
abused and libelled, and accused of practising extortions in the way of
trade. This would not have been misplaced, had the abuse been confined
to the description of persons who really deserved it, and truth had been
attended to, which would have afforded them ample materials. But,
although it must have been evident to every one who had sense to see it,
that the governor, from the hour of his arrival, had used his utmost
endeavours to put an end to the practice of so much imposition; yet this
libeller inferred, from his not succeeding, that he was become one in the
number of retail traders who disgraced the settlement.

A reward was immediately offered for the discovery of the offender; but,
as might have been expected, without success.

The three persons who had been sent out with the Irishmen, that were so
desirous of discovering a country wherein they might live more at their
ease, returned on the 9th, so much exhausted with fatigue that two of
them were scarcely able to move when they arrived. Wilson, who was the
third, having been longer in the habit of travelling through the woods,
kept up their spirits, and thereby enabled them to reach Prospect Hill
about sunset; where, from long abstinence, having had nothing to support
them for several days, exce