wenty-five miles up from Botany Bay, was, in many parts of its branches,
exceedingly picturesque; and navigable, for small craft, for at least
twenty miles up. Some of its creeks or branches reached within a small
distance of Prospect Hill. Between this river and Parramatta, the
governor, on his return, travelled through a thick bushy wood, covering
an excellent soil.

Erecting the granary, completing the wind-mill, and repairing the public
roads, formed the principal works in hand during this month, in which the
weather had been most uncomfortably hot, accompanied with some severe
thunder storms; in one of which both the flagstaff at the South Head, and
that at the entrance of the Cove, on Point Maskelyne, were shivered to
pieces by the lightning. The vast blazes of fire which were seen in every
direction, and which were freshened by every blast of wind, added much to
the suffocating heat that prevailed.

CHAPTER III

The wind-mill tried
A civil court assembled
Difficulty respecting the convicts from Ireland
The natives
Some buildings begun
Weather March
Number of men not victualled by the Commissary, who had been convicts
An extraordinary theft
Court of criminal judicature twice held
One man suffers death
Price of labour fixed
The natives attack the settlers
Public works
Weather

February.] The wind-mill being nearly finished at the commencement of
this month, it was tried with only two of its sails; when it ground,
with one pair of stones, a bushel of wheat in ten minutes, and,
considering the immense weight of the wood-work, its motion was found
to be easy and convenient.

It might not have been expected, that occasions for convening the court
of civil judicature could frequently have occurred in an infant
settlement such as this; or that, when assembled, it could have had
business to occupy it above a day; yet one of these courts assembled on
the first, and continued sitting by adjournments until the fourteenth,
for the decision of many civil concerns. Among these was the recovery of
debts, several of which had been contracted very improperly, and which
were likely to involve many in ruin.

It appeared, that, to obtain spirituous liquors, these people, the
settlers, had incurred debts to so great an amount, as to preclude the
most distant hope of liquidating them, except by selling their farms.
Thus all their former industry must be sacrificed to discharge debts
which were contracted for