a 4 2 ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH COLONY [January, 



proved a male, was fold for fifteen pounds. A mare, although aged 

 and defe&ive, had been fold for forty pounds. It muft be remarked, 

 however, that in thefe fales ftock itfelf was generally the currency of 

 the country, one kind of animals being commonly exchanged for 

 another. 



Labour was alfo proportionally high : where money was paid, it 

 was taken at the reputed value ; but where articles were given in lieu 

 of labour, they were charged according to the prices ftated. 



The mafters of merchantmen, who generally made it their bufinefs, 

 immediately on their arrival, to learn the prices of commodities in the 

 colony, finding them fo extravagantly high as before related, thought 

 it not their concern to reduce them to any thing like a fair equitable 

 value ; but, by afking themfelves what muft be confidered a high 

 price, after every proper allowance for rifk, infurance, and lofs, kept 

 up the extravagant nominal value which every thing bore in the 

 colony. 



A report that had been fpread fome months before, of a watchman 

 belonging to the townfliip of Parramatta having been murdered, never 

 having been confirmed, either by finding the body among the ftalks 

 of Indian corn, as was expe&ed, or by any one fubfequent circum- 

 ftance, it was hoped that the ftory had been fabricated, and that mur- 

 der was a crime which had not hitherto ftained the annals of the 

 colony. In proportion, indeed, as the numbers increafed, and the in- 

 habitants began to poffefs thofe comforts or neceffaries which might 

 prove temptations to the idle and the vicious, that high and horrid 

 offence muft, in common with others of the fame tendency, be expected 

 to exift ; but at that moment all thought their perfons fecure, though 

 their property was frequently invaded. On the 5th of January 

 1794, however, an elderly convict, employed to go out with the cattle 

 at Parramatta, was moft barbaroufly murdered. The cattle, having loft 

 their conductor, remained that night in the woods ; and when they 

 were found, the abfence of their keeper excited an apprehenfion that 

 fome accident had befallen him. His body was not difcovered, how- 

 ever, 



