NEW SOUTH WALES. 163 



George Collins was secured, but M'Manus 

 escaped. The hut they were found in, M'as by- 

 order pulled down as a warning for others, to be 

 cautious how they harboured such persons. 

 The Governor having reason to suspect, that 

 the settlers were many of them much involved, 

 and that their crops for some time were pledged 

 to discharge those incumbrances. He ordered 

 an inquiry to be made, when it proved, that in 

 the districts of the Ponds, the Field of Mars, 

 Eastern Farms, Prospect- Hill, and Mulgrave- 

 Place, near the Hawkesbury, the several settlers 

 owed 50981. Many of them were idle, drunken 

 fellows, who gave themselves up to every vice. 

 One man of a different description, had fortu- 

 nately resisted many temptations to sell a sheep 

 given him by Governor Phillip, Mas now master 

 of 22 male and females, without buying a single 

 one ; he was an industrious man, and very at- 

 tentive to his business, and thus reaped the 

 certain reward of his exertions. On the 19th 

 of June, the house of William Miller, a baker, 

 was robbed of articles to the value of above 501. 

 principally the property of other persons ; but 

 most of the things stolen, were next morning 

 found in a situation, evidently chosen that they 

 might be discovered. Mr. Bass and two others 

 went on an excursion to view the mountains 

 and country around them, and having in their 

 route passed over some very rich ground, they 

 reached the highest summit, and there saw at an 

 immense distance a large range of mountains. 

 On the 20th, the Governor and a party went 



