260 Terra Incognita. [MARCH, 



it ; but, by some chance, it had never been filled up nor had grass ever 

 grown in it since it was made, eleven or twelve years before, by the head 

 of an old man, a gardener, who had there been robbed and murdered, and 

 whose murderer had fairly driven the scull half its depth into the ground 

 the indent had never been tilled up, as I have said, and grass had 

 never grown in it, at least for twenty-two years after it had been 

 made. The murderer was never discovered ; and a superstitious notion 

 prevailed, that, till the murder should be avenged, the mark would 

 remain. I have heard that, some years ago, a man who was about to 

 suffer the sentence of the law in England, for some robbery committed on 

 returning from transportation, had confessed himself guilty of that crime. 

 However, the indent still remained, and for aught I know does to the 

 present day. 



In four-arid-twenty hours from the time of our starting from Sydney, we 

 reached Parramatta a distance, perhaps, of sixteen or seventeen miles, 

 though now the road makes it but fifteen. I have since seen it trotted 

 over, from turnpike to turnpike (say fourteen miles), within the hour, 

 by a black mare not more than fifteen hands high, rode by a gentleman 

 not less than thirteen stone weight ! 



The township now called Parramatta, was at first named Rose-hill ; but 

 before he had transmitted his despatches to England, after the establishment 

 and naming of that place. Governor Phillip discovered that the native name of 

 the site of his new town was more appropriate than that which he had given 

 it. Parramatta is a compound word, signifying the " head of the river." 

 Port Jackson continues above Sydney, to form bays and coves, some of 

 which run inland considerably, and finish in creeks, but no one in what can 

 properly be called a river : it is navigable for craft of considerable burden 

 for eight or ten miles above Dawes' Point ; but, at that distance, it widens 

 very much, and becomes very shallow so as, at neap tides, to have but a 

 very narrow (navigable) channel even for boats, leaving immense beds of 

 mud uncovered. Mangroves cover the low banks, and, indeed, grow in the 

 salt mud, detached from the main land, and are not only insulated by the 

 flowing tide, but are bathed by it to one-third their height. Above " the 

 flats," the course is much narrowed, and its banks become alternately low 

 and lofty, till it has extended to about eighteen miles above Sydney, when 

 the bed is changed from mud to slaty rock, on which the ebb-tide fails 

 to leave a channel. On its left bank, ascending, is the town, at the " head 

 of the river/' Parra-matta. Above the bridge, connecting the town with 

 a suburb on the right bank, all character of a river is entirely lost, even 

 at high tide ; it becomes a mere creek, or rather a chain of ponds, without 

 current, and in dry summers, almost without water. 



The town is just a mile in length, from the wharf to the government- 

 house, by a street which runs nearly parallel to the river. I have said the 

 government-house confusing it, perhaps, with the real one at Sydney 

 for this is no more than a country residence of the governor's, though Sir 

 Thomas Brisbane lived there almost entirely. It is pleasantly situated on 

 a rising ground, in what is now a handsome park. 



The width of the town is about a quarter of a mile, and it is bounded 

 on two sides by a long hill, which runs, for its whole length, parallel to 

 George-street and the river, and, bending round, forms the acclivity on 

 which the government-house is seated. The plain on which the town is, 

 though very level, is sufficiently above the river to afford the means of 

 keeping it perfectly dry and well drained ; yet Parramatta is not con- 



