izes, in August 1782. He lay five years
in prison and on board the 'Dunkirk' hulk at Plymouth, and then was sent
to this country. When his term of punishment expired, in August 1789, he
claimed his freedom, and was permitted by the governor, on promising to
settle in the country, to take in December following, an uncleaned piece of
ground, with an assurance that if he would cultivate it, it should not be
taken from him. Some assistance was given him, to fell the timber, and he
accordingly began. His present account to me was as follows.

I was bred a husbandman, near Launcester in Cornwall. I cleared my land as
well as I could, with the help afforded me. The exact limit of what ground
I am to have, I do not yet know; but a certain direction has been pointed
out to me, in which I may proceed as fast as I can cultivate. I have now
an acre and a half in bearded wheat, half an acre in maize, and a small
kitchen garden. On my wheat land I sowed three bushels of seed, the produce
of this country, broad cast. I expect to reap about twelve or thirteen
bushels. I know nothing of the cultivation of maize, and cannot therefore
guess so well at what I am likely to gather. I sowed part of my wheat
in May, and part in June. That sown in May has thrived best. My maize I
planted in the latter end of August, and the beginning of September. My
land I prepared thus: having burnt the fallen timber off the ground, I dug
in the ashes, and then hoed it up, never doing more than eight, or perhaps
nine, rods in a day, by which means, it was not like the government farm,
just scratched over, but properly done. Then I clod-moulded it, and dug in
the grass and weeds. This I think almost equal to ploughing. I then let it
lie as long as I could, exposed to air and sun; and just before I sowed my
seed, turned it all up afresh. When I shall have reaped my crop, I purpose
to hoe it again, and harrow it fine, and then sow it with turnip-seed,
which will mellow and prepare it for next year. My straw, I mean to bury in
pits, and throw in with it every thing which I think will rot and turn
to manure. I have no person to help me, at present, but my wife, whom I
married in this country; she is industrious. The governor, for some time,
gave me the help of a convict man, but he is taken away. Both my wife
and myself receive our provisions regularly at the store, like all other
people. My opinion of the soil of my farm, is, that it is middling, neither
good or