1794-3 



OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



261 



actions of the month of December, by the name of Midjer Rool. He 

 had been put to death while afleep in the night by fome people who 

 were inimical to his tribe ; and the natives who witnefled the per- 

 formance of the iaft rite allured the inhabitants, that when the mur- 

 derers fhould be difcovered feveral fevere contefts would enfue. It 

 was at this time that the rencounter between Collins and Wyatt 

 took place; and lome other points of honour which remained un- 

 fettled, were then determined, not without much bloodfhed, though 

 no one was killed. 



Near four hundred acres were in the courfe of April fown with 

 wheat on the public account, the price of which article was at the 

 time twenty millings a bufhel. The crops of Indian corn had in ge- 

 neral turned out very productive : fome on the light fandy foil yielded 

 fifty bumels of fhelled corn per acre, and a patch of Caffre corn 

 growing in the like foil, produced as much. This grain had been 

 brought from the Cape of Good Hope, and was found to anfwer well 

 for fattening of ftock. No one having attempted to feparate the 

 farinaceous part of the grain from the hulk, which was of an aiiringent 

 quality, no judgment had been formed of its utility as a flour ; but 

 fome who had ground it and mixed the whole together into a paite 

 pronounced it to be equal to any preparation of oatmeal 



The convict's grinding machine, a walking mill on a larger con- 

 duction than that which had failed at Parramatta, was fet in motion ; 

 but it was found from the variety and number of the wheels, that 

 fomething was conftantly wrong about it. Finding, after a fair trial, 

 that it was imperfect, it was relinquished, and one on a different con- 

 flruction, and made by a different perfon, was preferred. 



An inflammation of the eyes was generally prevalent among all de- 

 fcriptions of people at this time. It raged at firft among children ; 

 but when it got into a houfe, fcarcely any perfon in it efcaped the 

 complaint. It was accounted for by the variable weather which had 

 prevailed. 



The- 



