among his convict subjects, and established a government gazette. In this age of newspapers it seems incredible that a number of officers and gentlemen should have been satisfied for so many years without something in the shape of a newspaper; but the colony was divided into slavedrivers and slaves, who were equally content to spend their time in feeding pigs and getting drunk. The reports of the natives led the governor to send out as scouts men employed as hunters, to collect fresh provisions for public use, and they discovered, feeding on rich pastures on the other side of the river Nepean, still known as Cow Pastures, a herd of sixty cattle, the produce of the five cows and two bulls lost in 1788. To realize this sight, so pleasant to the eyes of men condemned to perpetual rations of salt meat,rarely varied by fresh pork, the governor himself set out on an expedition, and tracked and viewed the herd with great delight. An old bull, fiercely and obstinately charging, was slaughtered in self defence; he proved to be of the humpy-shouldered Cape breed of the lost stock, which left no doubt of the identity of the herd, and dispelled the notion of indigenous cattle; the party made a delicious meal, and a few pounds were carried back thirty-eight miles, over a rough road, to Paramatta, the rest being left to the native dogs and hawks with deep regret, "as meat fresh or salt had long been a rarity with the poor sick in the hospital." Many an Australian within the last ten years, galloping through Cow Pastures to purchase the finest cat THE LOST HERD OF CATTLE. 43 tle at £2 a head, to boil down for tallow, has been reminded of the time when a bit of bull beef, that a well-bred dog would now reject, was a luxury to a governor and his suite! These wild cattle were preserved and increased greatly, dividing into "mobs," each under the charge of a victorious bull, until the general increase of stock diminished their value: many were consumed by surrounding small settlers, and the rest, being fierce and a nuisance, were destroyed by order of the government, when beef ceased to be a luxury. About the time these wild herds were discovered, three miserable cows of the Indian breed sold for £189, and two years afterwards two colonial ships were employed eight months in bringing 51 cows, 3 bulls, and 90 sheep from the Cape, at a cost exceeding the highest price ever paid for the finest short-horns. Governor Hunter, with the best intentions, and an excusable ignorance of the laws of political economy, more than once endeavored to fix the wages of labor, by a convention of employers, and mutual agreement not to outbid each other. Harvest wages were settled at 10s. a day; but we find, by frequent proclamations, that the rule of supply and demand prevailed, and laborers when much needed obtained "exorbitant terms," although a reward and indemnity were of fered to informers. At this period officers were allowed the use of ten prisoners for agricultural and three for domestic services, and so on in a diminishing scale to every description of settler down to the emancipist, who was allowed the use of one prisoner to assist in tilling his grant. All these servants were fed and clothed by the crown. In 1797 the first school building was erected for the benefit of three hundred children, and the chaplain, the Rev. Mr. Johnson, began to catechise them after the service on each Sunday. In 1800, Captain Hunter was superceded by Captain King. Under Governor King, the Female Orphan School was founded, and the first issue of copper coin took place. The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, the first Australian paper, was founded by a prisoner, George Howe, and published by authority in 1803. The insurrection of prisoners, two hundred and fifty strong, armed with muskets, broke out at Castlehill, on the 4th March, 1804, and was defeated in fifteen minutes by Major Johnstone, of the New South Wales corps, with twenty-four men. Sixty-seven insurgents fell on the field; ten were tried and five hung. A penal settlement was formed in Van Diemen's Land, by Captain Collins. In the first instance, he proceeded to Port Phillip, but unfortunately landed on the eastern arm, where there was a deficiency of water; and being, as most military men are, a bad colonist, he abandoned it and proceeded to the Derwent. He had made his way to the Yarra Yarra River, the probability is that Sydney would have become the second settlement; and, with the profusion of white slave labor then available applied on the fine agricultural land of Port Phillip, it is probable that by this time a population of five millions would have been established there. 1806 was signalized by the great flood on the River Hawkesbury, on the banks of which the principal grain cultivation of the colony was carried on. The Hawkesbury, in ordinary periods, winds in a strangely tortuous course through a deep valley, between the precipitous banks above which, on the occurrence of heavy rains, it rises as much as thirty feet in a very few hours. These floods are not periodical. Until 1806 none of importance had occurred; the people had settled down on the rich "interval" land, the deposit of former overflowings. Crops, houses, and many colonists, were all swept away in one night, without warning. Famine was the immediate result. The two-pound loaf rose to 5s.; wheat fetched 80s. a bushel, and every vegetable in proportion. A serious flood had occurred in 1801, but this far exceeded it. Indeed it is difficult to teach caution in such matters. A flood which occurred in the Maneroo district in May, 1851, turned into lakes twenty feet deep two townships carefully laid out by the government surveyor, besides destroying several farms, drowning a number of settlers, and a tribe of blacks. But this great flood on the Hawkesbury caused eventually a complete reärrangement of the cultivation and occupation of that district. Calamities, according to popular prejudice, seldom come single; it was certainly the case in New South Wales in 1806, for the clock tower fell, and Governor Bligh arrived. Captain King resigned his command on the 13th of March. CHAPTER III. GOVERNOR BLIGH-1806 TO 1809. BLIGH OF THE BOUNTY HIS BRUTALITY—M'ARTHUR -FOUNDER OF AUS TRALIAN WOOL TRADE- BLIGH ATTEMPTS TO CRUSH M'ARTHUR-REVOARREST OF GOVERNOR HE IS SUPERCEDED RESULTS OF THE LUTION CAPTAIN BLIGH appears to have received his appointment as governor of New South Wales as a reward for his gallant conduct in successfully conducting an open boat, with eighteen companions in misfortune, scantily provided with food and water, 3,618 miles, to the Island of Timor, without the loss of a single man, after being cast adrift by the mutineers of the Bounty. No man could be more unfit for such an office. But governors are appointed for the oddest reasons: sometimes because they are distinguished soldiers and sailors; sometimes because they have written a timely book or pamphlet; often because they are related to some great personage, and, being in debt, want an opportunity for saving money: but, no matter for what cause, or by what influence, a governor is appointed; the most important quality |