400 ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH COLONY [January 



her (being fix months gone with child), if me accompanied herhuf- 

 band to Parramatta. The bodies of thefe two unfortunate women were 

 found a few days afterwards, when the wretched unfeeling hufband bu- 

 ried his wife and child within a very few feet of his own door. The 

 profligacy of this man, indeed, manifefted itfelf in a ftrange manner : 

 a. fhort time after he had thus buried his wife, he was feen fitting at 

 his door, with a bottle of rum in his hand,, and a&ually drinking one 

 glafsand pouring another on her grave until it was emptied., prefacing 

 -every libation, by declaring how well fhe had loved it during her life. 

 He appeared , to be in a ftate of infanity, as this anecdote certainly 

 teftifies ; but the melancholy fate of thofe two beings who ought to 

 have b^en fo dear to him, did not appear to have fat heavy on his 



heart. « • 



The Lieutenant-Governor's prefence being required at Sydney, the 



head-quarters of his regiment, and the feat of government, he de- 

 puted his truft at Parramatta to one of the captains of his corps, who 

 was at all times to refide there, that he might be ready to attend to' 

 the various applications from fettlers, and bufmefs which hourly oc- 

 curred. 



The Lieutenant-Governor propofing to open and cultivate "the ground 

 commonly known by the name of Kangooroo ground, fituate to the 

 weftward of the town of Sydney, between that fettlement and Parra- 

 matta, a gang of eonvicls was fent from the latter place for that pur- 

 pofe. The foil here was much better for agriculture than that imme- 

 diately adjacent to the town of Sydney, and the ground lay well 

 for cultivation ; but it had hitherto been neglected, from its being defi- 

 cient in that grand effentiai water, on which account Parramatta had 

 been preferred to it. The eligibility of cultivating it, was now, how- 

 ever, going to be tried ; and permiffion having been received by the 

 Bellona to grant lands to thofe officers who might defire it, provided 

 the fituations of the allotments were fuch as might be advantageous to 

 bona fi.de fettlers hereafter (if they ever fhould fall into fuch hands), fe- 

 veral officers chofe this as the fpot which they would cultivate ; and al- 

 lotments 



