244 ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH COLONY [January, 



however, the principal object with thefe people ; for with money they 

 could purchafe fpirits, or whatever elfe their paffions made them 

 covet, and the colony could furnifh. They had been feen to play at 

 their favourite games, cribbage and all-fours, for fix, eight, and ten 

 dollars each game ; and thole who were not expert at thefe, inftead of 

 pence, toffed up for dollars. Their meetings were fcenes of quar- 

 relling, fwearing, and every profanenefs that might be expected from 

 the diifolute manners of thofe who compofed them ; and to this im- 

 proper practice rauft undoubtedly be attributed mo ft of the vices that 

 exifted in the colony, as pilferings, garden-robberies, burglaries, pro- 

 fanation of the fabbath, and murder. 



About the middle of the month, one fmall cow and a Bengal fteer 

 (both private property) were killed, and iflued to the non-commif- 

 fioned officers and privates of two companies of the New South Wales 

 corps. This was but the third time that frefh beef had been tafted by 

 the colonifts of that country ; once, it may be remembered, in the 

 year 1788, and a fecond time when the Lieutenant-Governor and the 

 officers of the fettlement were entertained by the Spanifli captains. At 

 that time, however, had they not been informed that they were eating 

 beef, they would never have difcovered it by the flavour; and it certainly 

 happened to more than one Englishman that day, to eat his favourite 

 viand without recognifing the tafte. The Spanifh mode of roafting 

 beef or mutton was, firft to boil and then to brown the joint before 

 the fire. 



The beef that was killed was fold to the foldiers at eighteen-pence 

 per pound. The two animals together weighed three hundred and 

 feventy-two pounds. 



Accounts were received at Sydney of an uncommon ftorm of wind, 

 accompanied with rain, which had occurred at Parramatta. In its 

 violence it bordered on a hurricane, running in a vein, and in a di- 

 rection from the eaft to weft. The weft-end of the Governor's hut 

 was injured, the paling round fome farms which lay in its pafTage 

 were levelled, and a great deal of Indian corn was much damaged. 



1 It 



