Boats were sent round to the Hawkesbury, for various articles wanted at Sydney.  From that part of the settlement, the timber most useful for boat and other buildings was occasionally received; shingles also of a good sort were brought round; and frequently the boats returned loaded with grain.  It has been shown, in the account of this colony already published, that the farms upon the fertile banks of that river were superior, in point of soil, to any near the principal settlement; and that, had they been in the hands of good and industrious characters, they would have produced abundant crops, and enriched their owners.  But every day’s experience evinced, that the people thus fortunately situated were, unluckily, some of the most profligate wretches in the colony; and their distance from the immediate seat of government added much to the inconvenience.  Such of these farms as were situated on the low grounds were often overflowed after very heavy falls of rain; but this circumstance was in no way injurious to the farmer, unless it happened when the grain was ripening.

Among other local arrangements which took place, and were extremely useful, must be reckoned the numbering of the houses of the towns of Sydney and Parramatta, and dividing them into portions; with a principal inhabitant at the head of each division, who was charged with the peace and good order of the district in which he lived.

The frame of the Log Prison at Sydney was got up in the course of this month, to the great annoyance of the worthless, who seemed to anticipate the lodging in it which they merited.

At Parramatta and Toongabbie a very few old stacks of wheat belonging to government were opened for the purpose of being thrashed out, when they were found to have been much injured by vermin.

In the course of this month, Bennillong, who had returned to all the habits of savage life, claimed the protection of the governor from the menaces of several of his countrymen, who, he with much agitation informed him, had assembled in a considerable body near the Brickfields*, to lie in wait for him; and where, if possible, they intended to kill him; he having, as they suspected, killed a man near Botany Bay.  This he positively denied having done, and the governor dispatched him to the place, guarded by some of the military, where he explained to his countrymen that he had not killed the man in question, or any man; and that the soldiers were sent with him, to convince them that the governor would not suffer him, his old friend and fellow voyager (it must be remembered that Bennillong returned from England with the governor in His Majesty’s ship Reliance), to be ill treated by them on any false pretence; and that he was determined to drive every native away from Sydney who should attempt it.  This threat had a good effect.  Many of them were much alarmed when they saw in what manner and by whom Bennillong was attended; and to be driven from a place whence they derived so many comforts, and so much shelter in bad weather, would have been severely felt by most of them.