i 4 o ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH COLONT [August, 



broken fpears, and the inftrument which they ufe for throwing the 

 fpear. They fpoke of the foil as fandy, and obferved that the ground 

 was covered with fhrubs refembling thofe found at Sydney. 



The convids in this fhip, on their landing, appeared to be aged and 

 infirm, the ftate in which they were faid to have been embarked. It 

 was not therefore to be wondered at, that they had buried twenty-five 

 on their paffage. Twenty were fick, and were immediately landed at 

 the hofpital. 



Fifty-five of the convids brought in this fhip, feleded from the 

 others as farmers and artificers, were fent up to Parramatta ; of the 

 remainder, thofe whofe health would permit them to go were put ort 

 board the Mary Ann, together with thirty-two convids of bad cha- 

 racter from among thofe who came out in the preceding year, and 

 eleven privates of the New South Wales corps. On the 8th, the 

 Mary Ann failed for Norfolk Ifland. 



At Parramatta, the only accommodation which the fhortnefs of the 

 notice admitted of being provided for the people who were on their 

 paffage was got up ; two tent huts, one hundred feet long, thatched 

 with grafs, were ereded ; and, independent of the rifk which the 

 occupiers might run from fire, they would afford good and com- 

 fortable fhelter from the weather. 



The Governor had now chofen fituations for his fettlers, and fixed 

 them on their different allotments. Twelve convids, whofe terms of 

 tranfportation had expired, he placed in a range of farms at the foot 

 of a full, named Profped Hill, about four miles weft from Parramatta ; 

 fifteen others were placed on allotments in a diftrid, named the Ponds, 

 from a range of frefh- water ponds being in their vicinity ; thefe were 

 fituated two miles in a diredion North-eaft of Parramatta. Between 

 every allotment, a fpace had been referved equal to the largeft grant on 

 either fide, purfuant to the inflrudions which the Governor had re- 

 ceived ; but it was foon found that this diftribution might be attended 

 with much. difad vantage to the fettler ; a thick wood of at leaft thirty 

 acres mull lie between every allotment ; and a circumftance foon hap- 

 pened 



