It was a pleasing circumstance to have in the woods of New Holland a thriving herd of wild cattle.  Many proposals were made to bring them into the settlement; but in the day of want, if these should be sacrificed, in what better condition would the colony be for having possessed a herd of cattle in the woods?—­a herd which, if suffered to remain undisturbed for some years, would, like the cattle of South America, always prove a market sufficient for the inhabitants of the country; and, perhaps, not only for their own consumption, but for exportation.  The governor saw it in this light, and determined to guard, as much as was in his power, against any attempts to destroy them.

On his return he found some very fine ground at the back of Prospect Hill.  The weather during this excursion was so intensely hot, that one day as the party passed through a part of the country which was on fire, a terrier dog died by the way.

Discharging the store-ship, some part of the cargo of which appeared to be injured by the weather she had met with, formed the principal labour of the month.  On account of the small number of working men which could be got together, the governor required two able men to be sent in for this purpose from each farm having ten, to be returned as soon as the provisions were stowed in the public store.

It having been the practice for some time past to shoot such hogs (pursuant to an order which their destructive qualities had rendered necessary in the lieutenant-governor’s time) as were found trespassing in gardens or cultivated grounds, and the loss of the animals being greatly felt by the owners, as well as detrimental to the increase of that kind of stock, the governor directed, that instead of firing at them when found trespassing, they should be taken to the provost-marshal, by whom (if the damage done, which was to be ascertained before a magistrate, was not paid for within twenty-four hours) they were to be delivered to the commissary as public property, and the damages paid as far as the value of the animal would admit.

A combination appearing among the labouring people to raise the price of reaping for a day, the governor, being as desirous to encourage industry as to check every attempt at imposition, thought it necessary, on comparing our’s with the price usually paid in England, to direct that ten shillings, and no more, should be demanded of, or given by any settler, under pain of losing the assistance of government, for reaping an acre of wheat.  It was much feared that this order would be but little attended to; and that some means would be devised on both sides to evade the letter of it.