Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/294

 350 FOOD BUFPLIEB ^'^ for grinding com had now improved somewliat^ but thd nulls were overtaxed^ and tlie people had to receive their grain coarsely ground. In this shape it could not have been very palatable ; but there was plenty of it. To relieve the want caused by the scarcity of animal f ood^ » few h<^ were slaughtered^ and served in place of salt pork. Fresh A delicacy, meat was an almost unheard-of delicacy in the colony,* and one would have thought that this little change in diet would have been eagerly welcomed. Tet^ if Collinses account is correct, the people preferred salt pork to fresh ; not because they liked it better, but because it would last longer. The arrival of the William rendered it unnecessary to put the people on a diet of bread and water, and before the provisions she brought were exhausted two other store- ships from England, the Indispensable and Speedy, came into port, besides the Britannia, which had been chartered to bring stores from India, but had been obliged to change her course and go to Batavia instead.t The Indispens- able arrived on the 24th May. She was the first of a fleet of six or seven ships which were to sail from England with Provisions stores and provisions, and were expected to arrive in the clothing. course of two months. The provisions and clothing she Arrival of storeships. man, happened, fortunatelj, at a season when its pUoe ooaldin somei be supplied immediutelj, the harvest having been all safely got in at Toon- gabbie by the beginning of this month. About the middle of it, eight hundred bushels were threshed out, and on Monday the 16th the civil and military received each seven pounds of wheat coarsely ground at the mill at Parra- matta."— Collins, vol. i, p. 326. Bengal steer, both private property, were killed and issued to the non-commia- sioned officers and privates of two companies of the New South Wales Corps. This was but the third time that fresh beef had been tasted by the colonists of this country ; once, it may be remembered, in the year 1788; and a second time when the Lieutenant-G-ovemor and the officers of the settlement were entertained by the Spanish captains. At that time, however, had we not been informed that we were eating beef, we should never have discovered it by the flarour ; and it certainly happened to more than one Englishman tfaaii day, to eat his favourite -viand without recognising the taste. . . . The beef tiiat was killed at this time was deemed worth eighteenpenoe per pound, and at that price was sold to the soldiers. The two animals together weighed tluree hundred and seventy-two pounda."— lb., p. 338. t She was attacked in the Straits of Malacca by pirates, from whom tbm escaped after a six hours' engagement.
 * " About the middle of the month [January, 1704] one small cow and m