e begun, wheat and Indian corn
attained an equal value, and were sold at 1_l._ 8_s._ or 1_l._ 10_s._
per bushel. Even eleven years afterwards, when a similar overflow,
though not equal to "_the great flood_," occurred, prices were raised
enormously, and but for an importation of wheat from Van Diemen's Land,
they would have been very little short of those in the year 1806.
Governor Bligh appears to have done all that a governor could do to
lessen the distress that prevailed, by ordering a number of the cattle
belonging to government to be slaughtered and divided among the
sufferers, and by encouraging, to the utmost extent of his power, the
cultivation of a large breadth of land in wheat for the ensuing season.
By these means, under Divine Providence, the colony again became able to
supply itself with daily bread; a capability of which, like many other
blessings, nations scarcely know the value and importance, until they
are deprived, or deprive themselves of it.[121]

[119] One of the vain attempts of the present age is that of
entirely preventing the various fluctuations to which, from accidents,
bad seasons, &c., the price of bread is subject. It did appear as though
a certain average of moderate prices was established in England; but,
recently, the system has been again altered, and time must show how it
works. Certainly the changes in the value of corn in New South Wales
have formerly been violent enough, supposing the following statement to
be correct: "I have nine years been a landholder in this colony, and
seven years have cultivated my own farm. In this time I have twice given
wheat to my pigs, because I did not know what else to do with it; twice
I have known wheat selling at fifteen shillings per bushel, and once at
twenty shillings!"--ATKINSON _on the Encouragement of Distilling and
Brewing in New South Wales_, p. 3, ed. 1829.

[120] It is said that the natives foresaw the approach of this
calamity, and advised the colonists of it, but their warning was not
regarded.--_See Barrington's History of New South Wales_, p. 310.

[121] For the particulars here related of the floods of the river
Hawkesbury, see Lang's New South Wales, vol. i. pp. 98-101; and also
Wentworth's Australasia, vol. i. p. 67 and 448-9. The latter writer
speaks of wheat and maize being sold at 5_l._ or 6_l._ per bushel, but
that seems to be a mistake.

From whatever cause it might arise,--whether