236 ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH COLONY [December; 



than fpirits, which were now, from their fcarcity, fold at fix (hillings 

 per bottle. A fettler of the name of Webb, having procured a fmali 

 fllll from England, found it more advantageous to draw an ardent 

 jdiabolical fpirit from his wheat, than to fend it to the ftore and receive 

 ten {hillings per bufhel from the Commiflary. From one bufhel of 

 wheat he obtained nearly five quarts of fpirit, which he fold, or paid 

 tti exchange for labour, at five and fix millings per quart. 



M'Donaid, a fettler at th« Field of Mars, made a different and a better 

 \ife of the produce of his farm. Having a mill, he ground and dreffed 

 his wheat, and fold it to a baker at Sydney at fourpence per pound, 

 procuring forty-four pounds of good flour from a bufhel of wheat, 

 which was taken at fifty-nine pounds. This perfon alfo killed a 

 wether fheep (the produce of what had been given to him by Go- 

 vernor Phillip), and fold it at two {hillings per pound, each quarter 

 weighing about fifteen pounds. 



The town of Sydney had this year increafed confiderably ; nofc 

 fewer than one hundred and fixty huts, befide five barracks, having 

 been added fince the departure of Governor Phillip. Some of thefe 

 were large, and to each of them upwards of fourteen hundred bricks 

 were allowed for a chimney and floor. Thefe huts extended fo as 

 nearly to unite that diftricl: with the town. 



About the latter end of the month a large party of the natives at- 

 tacked fome fet.tlers who were returning from Parramatta to Toongabbe, 

 and took from them all the provifions which they had juft received 

 from the {lore. By flying immediately into the woods, they eluded 

 all purfuit and fearch. They were of the hunter's or woodman's tribe, 

 people who feldom came among the Englifti, and who confequently 

 were little known* 



The natives who lived about Sydney appeared to place the utmoft 

 confidence in its inhabitants, choofing a clear fpot between the town, 

 and the brick-field for the performance of any of their rites and cere- 

 monks 'y and for three evenings the town had been amufed with one 

 of their fpedtacles,^ which might properly have been denominated a 



tragedy* 



