HISTORICAL REVIEW OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 5- 



King. Industry and order took the place of drunkenness and crime. The convicts, 

 restrained from unceasing indulgence in drink, strove hard to earn their freedom by 

 attention to discipline and good conduct ; while the settlers, no longer compelled to take 

 spirits in payment for their produce, were enabled to extend and improve their farming 

 operations. Schools, churches, and other useful institutions were established by the 



MACARTHUKS HOMESTEAD, CAMDEN. 



Government ; children were educated, 

 Divine Service was attended, and 

 the blessings of social life made themselves 

 felt among all classes. Trade and industry 

 began to spread their branches in every direc- 

 tion, and legitimate commerce was fostered and 

 encouraged. Captain John Macarthur had dis- 

 covered a source of immense wealth in the 



growth of fine wool ; his Hocks of sheep were now attracting general attention, and 

 the most prominent mill-owners of England had begun to look forward to shipments of 

 Australian wool. Coal had been found in 1796 at Newcastle and at Bulli. The banks 

 of the Hawkesbury and the Nepean had revealed their richness to the settlers, whom 

 neither sudden floods nor savage blacks deterred from taking up the land. Sydney 

 Cove was full of shipping from all parts of the world ; vessels were fitted out for 

 sealing and whaling voyages in adjacent waters ; trade was opened up with New Zealand 

 and the South Sea Islands. So great was the industrial activity that when the French 

 ships Lc Gtographc and Lc Xatnralistc, commanded by Baudin, and sent out on a 

 voyage of discovery, dropped anchor in Sydney Cove on the 2Oth of June, 1802, the 

 Frenchmen regarded with astonishment the size and progress of the place; and Peron, 

 one of the naturalists attached to the expedition, recorded in his journal with expressions 



