ks to help us.
What was of great consequence, also, he understood the climate; for it
was some time before we could bring ourselves to remember that the
Australian spring is in October; and that Christmas is the hottest time
of the year; and that the periods of seed-time and harvest are the
opposite to those of the old country.

Jacob, besides being a good guide through the country, understood
felling trees, and splitting timber, and putting up huts--very valuable
arts in that country. He might have been a first-rate watchmaker or
jeweller, have known Hebrew or Greek, or been a good draughtsman, or
kept accounts in excellent style, or dressed to perfection, and been
able to leap with the most perfect grace and nimbleness over counters,
and yet have starved. Rough backwoodsmen, blacksmiths, carpenters, and
ploughmen have from the first been able to secure good wages in
Australia. Other men have succeeded by turning their hands to do
whatever might offer; but for such men as I have mentioned, the demand
remains as at first unabated.

Having got through the work requiring immediate attention, I resolved to
return to Sydney to bring up the remainder of our stores, and to procure
a few assigned servants. Such was the name given to convicts when made
over to the charge of private persons. The duty of the master was to
find them employment, to feed them according to a certain scale, and
more than that, the original intention of those who formed the plan was
that he should do his best to instruct and improve them. I am afraid
that not many took much trouble about that; but some few conscientious
masters did all they could, and the consequence was that very many poor
fellows who might have been utterly lost, had they been turned loose at
home, became reformed characters, and respectable members of society.

I took Dick Nailor and Mark with me to look after the dray, thinking
that the assigned men might know very little about the matter.

We had a prosperous journey into Sydney. The first thing I did was to
sell the horses, for which there was a great demand; and I consequently
got a high price for them, more than double what I gave. Instead I
bought four working oxen, ten milch cows, and a fine bull. There would
be time enough to procure horses when they became more plentiful.
Though useful, of course they were not absolute necessaries; and I hoped
from the stock I had now got, to become possessed in a few years of a