3 . 9 8 ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH COLONY [October, 



were the people, that it was fcarcely poffible to obtain fufficient proof 

 to convict the offender. 



From the acceffion of numbers to the public gangs, the different 

 works in hand at Sydney and Parramatta went rapidly on ; among 

 thefe, was the erection of a granary, fe verity- two feet in length, and 

 twenty-two in breadth. Boats were like wife fent round to the Hawkef- 

 bury for various articles, fuch as timber, fhingles, and grain. It has 

 been fhewn, in the preceding account of this colony, that the farms 

 upon the fertile banks of that river were fuperior, in point of foil, to 

 any near the principal fettle ment ; and that, had they been in the 

 hands of good and induftrious characters, they would have produced 

 abundant crops, and enriched their owners. But every day's expe- 

 rience evinced, that the people thus fortunately fituated were, un- 

 luckily, fome of the moil profligate wretches in the colony ; and their 

 diftance from the immediate feat of Government added much to 

 the inconvenience. Such of thefe farms as were fituated on the low 

 grounds w r ere often found overflowed after very heavy falls of rain ; 

 but this circumftance was no way injurious to the farmer, unlefs it 

 happened when the grain was ripening. 



Among other local arrangements which took place, and were ex- 

 tremely ufeful, muff be reckoned the numbering of the houfes of the 

 towns of Sydney and Parramatta, and dividing them into portions; 

 with a principal inhabitant at the head of each divifion, who was 

 charged with the peace and good order of the diftrict in which he 

 lived. 



Ben-nil-long, who had returned to all the habits of favage life, 

 claimed the protection of the Governor from the menaces of 

 feveral of his countrymen, who, he with much agitation informed 

 him, had affembled in a confiderable body near the brick fields, to 

 lie in wait for him ; and where, if poffible, they meant to kill him, 

 he having, as they fufpected, killed a man near Botany Bay. This 

 he pofitively denied having done, and the Governor difpatched him 

 to the place, guarded by fome of the military, where he explained to 



*7 his 



