plied them from his own case, or stock which
he had for present use in his tent or in his house, and afterwards repaid
himself from the store; and that being ill with the scurvy for several
months after his arrival, he did not use any salt provisions, which gave
him a considerable credit for such articles at the store: from all which
circumstances the convicts who accused him might, as they were unknown to
them, be induced to imagine that he was taking up more than his ration
from time to time.

With Mr. Clark's ample and public acquittal from this accusation, a
commendation equally public was given to the convicts, who, noticing the
apparent over-draught of spirits and provisions, and ignorant at the same
time of the causes which occasioned it, had taken measures to have it
explained.

From the peculiarity of our situation, there was a sort of sacredness
about our store; and its preservation pure and undefiled was deemed as
necessary as the chastity of Caesar's wife. With us, it would not bear
even suspicion.

In the course of this month the harvest was got in; the ground in
cultivation at Rose Hill produced upwards of two hundred bushels of
wheat, about thirty-five bushels of barley, and a small quantity of oats
and Indian corn; all of which was intended to be reserved for feed. At
Sydney, the spot of ground called the Governor's Farm had been sown only
with barley, and produced about twenty-five bushels.

A knowledge of the interior parts of this extensive country was anxiously
desired by every one; but the difficulty of attaining it, and the various
employments in which we had all been necessarily engaged, had hitherto
prevented any material researches being made. The governor had penetrated
to the westward as far as Richmond Hill, perhaps between fifty and sixty
miles inland; but beyond that distance all was a blank. Early in this
month Lieutenant Dawes with a small party, taking with them just as much
provisions as they could conveniently carry, set off on an attempt to
reach the western mountains by and from the banks of the fresh water
river, first seen, some time since, by Captain Tench, and supposed to be
a branch of the Hawkesbury. From this excursion he returned on the ninth
day, without accomplishing his design, meeting with nothing, after
quitting the river, but ravines that were nearly inaccessible. He had,
notwithstanding the danger and difficulty of getting on through such a
country, reached within