Page:Diary of ten years.djvu/141

 123 the hens are beginning to lay, so that I am getting out of all danger of starvation. My plough is at work for the first time, and answers remarkably well. I paid two pounds for two pair of shoes this day; one pair for James, the other for myself. My Bluchers were completely worn out, and I have not had a dry foot for some time. I paid £17 12s. 6d. for forty-seven gallons of rum, and £18 for a cask of wine.

A native has wounded a soldier on the Murray River with a spear, in a very treacherous way; but the man is recovering. It is said that the natives have had a severe retaliation, five being killed and many wounded.

18th.—The air is already fragrant with many flowers and shrubs coming into bloom; what will it not be when we have (as unquestionably we shall have) groves of oranges, limes, almonds, peaches, apples, &c.! We only want the plants; but sailors are careless of them on their passage hither, and a very small quantity of salt water kills them.

27th.—This has been a day of very active occupation with me. I first brought home my two cows from Mr. Tanner's, and my thirty-three sheep from another neighbour; then ploughed, sowed, and harrowed-in two acres of wheat, and sold a sow for £5, to be paid in hurdles, shoes and ploughing—no money according to our system of barter. This sow had been among the wounded pigs, but perfectly recovered. Escorted my little flock of sheep to the flat, keeping a sharp look-out for natives, with a good supply of balls in my pocket, but saw none of them: nor was I fasting altogether on this day, having had two eggs and some goat's butter at breakfast. But my cow, like Mrs. Shandy's, "puts off calving terribly." I shall soon have cauliflowers and turnips for dinner; in short, we shall all soon have an abundance of everything; and as to wheat, it will be so plentiful that we must see about mills of some kind or other. Steam machinery would be too expensive, and water power in most places cannot be commanded, as there are few continuous