ssed with a thread
spun from the bark of a tree; and a web from that bark was crossed, in
the specimen sent home, by a thread of wool. All these were made under
many difficulties; but they answered the purpose of showing what might be
done, with proper tools, at a future period. There was not any doubt, but
that the flax plant would considerably improve by cultivation; and the
manufacture of woollens promised to be of great benefit to the
settlement, whenever a sufficiency of the raw materials was collected.
Necessity has been long known as the parent of resources, and the poverty
of the public stores in the article of clothing had prompted these
experiments of the wool, the flax, and the bark.

The discovery of the vast strata of coal must be reckoned among the new
lights thrown upon the resources of the colony. The facility that this
presents in working the iron ore* with which the settlement abounded,
must prove of infinite utility whenever a dock-yard shall be established
here; and the time may come, when the productions of the country may not
be confined within its own sphere.

[* Some of this iron ore, which has been smelted in England, has been
reported to be equal, if not superior, to Swedish iron.]

In addition to other public works already in hand, the governor directed
a piece of ground, consisting of about seventy acres, and three-miles
distant from Sydney, to be inclosed for the use of the stock in that
district.

The foundation of the walls of a government house at Parramatta was laid,
and the sowing the public wheat grounds begun; but, through want of
labouring people, less was sown this than in the last year.

The weather had been in general moderate and seasonable.

CHAPTER XVIII

The _Buffalo_ arrives from England, and brings cattle from the Cape
A marine settler killed
Natives
A criminal court held
Taylor executed
Lowe punished
A highway robbery
Provisions in store
Ration altered
June, two whalers come in from sea
Ideas of a whale-fishery
Tempestuous weather
Effects
The _Albion_ whaler arrives from England
Her passage
July, a missionary murdered
The murderers tried and executed
Orders published
State of the farms
The _Hillsborough_ arrives from England
Mortality on board
Public works

May.] On the third day of this month his Majesty's ship _Buffalo_
arrived from England, but last from the Cape of Good Hope, whence she
brought sixty-six head of cattle, which, consider