h
had more than ever at this time been manifest, determining the governor
to enforce the most rigid discipline, he resolved on constructing a
strong and capacious Log Prison at each of the towns of Sydney and
Parramatta. It being absolutely necessary that these should be erected as
expeditiously as possible, the safety of the inhabitants and security of
their property, rendering any delay extremely dangerous, and the public
gangs being very weak, he called upon every officer, settler, and
housekeeper within the above-mentioned districts, to furnish a certain
number of logs for this purpose, which were to be delivered at Sydney, or
Parramatta, as might be most convenient to each person's residence; and
he had, in a very short time, the satisfaction of seeing the materials
which were required brought in much faster than the carpenters could put
them together.

Among other crimes committed by these people, must be mentioned a variety
of impositions which were practised to deceive the commissary in the
issue of provisions. To detect these, an order was given about the end of
the month, which directed that every person belonging to each different
mess should attend personally at the store on the next serving-day. The
convicts had always been divided into messes, containing a certain number
of persons; one of whom out of each mess was to attend at the store, and
receive provisions for the whole number belonging to it.

On the day appointed, it appeared that many were victualled both at
Sydney and Parramatta, and several other impositions were detected and
abolished.

In a settlement which was still in a great measure dependant upon the
mother country for food, it might have been supposed that these people
would have endeavoured by their own industry to have increased, rather
than by robbery and fraud to have lessened, the means of their support:
but far too many of them were most incorrigibly flagitious. The most
notorious of these were formed into a gaol gang, which was composed of
such a set of hardened and worthless characters, that, although Saturday
was always given up to the convicts for their own private avocations, as
well as to enable them to appear clean and decent on Sunday at church,
this gang was ordered, as an additional punishment, to work on the
Saturday morning in repairing the roads and bridges near the town.

At the close of this month the stone tower of the Wind Mill, and the
stone foundation of the Lo