During this year, the governor for the
first time exercised a power which had only recently been given him, and
several convicts were, on account of their good behaviour, released from
their state of bondage, on condition of their not returning to England
before the term of their sentences had expired. Various allotments of
land were also given to those whose terms had already expired, and who
signified their willingness to become settlers in this new country. At
the close of the year 1791, nearly four years from the first landing of
the British in Port Jackson, the public live stock consisted of one aged
stallion, one mare, two young stallions, two colts, sixteen cows, two
calves, one ram, fifty ewes, six lambs, one boar, fourteen sows, and
twenty-two pigs. The cultivated ground at Paramatta amounted to three
hundred acres in maize, forty-four in wheat, six in barley, one in oats,
four in vines, eighty-six in garden-ground, and seventeen in cultivation
by the soldiers of the New South Wales Corps. Thus humble were the
beginnings, even after some time, of that wealth in flocks and herds
for which our Australian colonies are now so justly celebrated.

Very little, meanwhile, is recorded of the chaplain, Mr. Johnson, or his
doings, but that little is to his credit. He was, it appears, in the
habit of relieving from his own private bounty the convicts who were
most in need; and some of them spread abroad a report that this was done
from funds raised by subscription in the mother country; and upon the
strength of this notion, in the spirit which the poorer classes in
England too often exhibit, they chose to claim relief as though it were
their _just right_. This false notion was publicly contradicted, and Mr.
Johnson thought it necessary that the convicts should know that it was
to his bounty alone that they were indebted for these gifts, and that,
consequently, the partakers of them were to be of his own selection.
Another instance of the kindness of Mr. Johnson, and of the evil return
it met with, has also been recorded, and though it occurred some years
afterwards, in 1797, it may be noticed here. It happened that among the
convicts there was found one who had been this gentleman's schoolfellow,
and the chaplain, feeling compassion for his fallen condition, had taken
him into his service, and treated him with the utmost confidence and
indulgence. Soon afterwards, it was rumoured that this man had taken
an impression of th