Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/300

 25ft GBOSE AND THE JjJlSJ}. 17W officers. In reporting the condition of the colony at this time (April, 1794), Grose said : — Midinir " When Governor Phillip left this country the military officers were sufifering in huts of the most miserable description. I haire now the satisfaction to say they are all in good barracks.* We have three large mills at work, and you will perceive by the Surveyor-General's return that two thousand nine hundred and sixty-two acres and one-quarter of ground have been cleared during my command."! ^"oarocto^ Grose was justified in writing thus confidently of the condition and prospects of the colony. The difficulties attending a deficient food supply had been removed, culti- vation was proceeding at a rapid rate, and live stock was increasing.^ At about the same time as the officers began to engage in agriculture (February, 1793) the first free Free setden settlers f rom England, who had arrived by the Bellona, BeUona. woro placed upon the land. This vessel was to have brought out the Quaker families which Sutton had agreed to send, but that proposal, for the reasons stated on a previous page,§ was not carried out. The Bellona brought instead of the Quakers five settlers of the farmer class and their families ; a millwright named Thorpe, who had been engaged at a salary of £100 per annum; and a former resident, Walter • It would have been a fairer statement of the case to say that these barracks were being constructed -when Phillip left the colony. Ante, p. 144. t " The permission given to ofRcers to hold lands had operated powerfully in favour of the colony. They were liberal in their employment of people to cultivate those lands ; and such had been their exertions that it appeared by a survey taken in the last month [April] by Mr. Alt that nine hundred and eighty-two acres (982) had been cleared by them since that permission had been received. Mr. Alt reported that there had been cleared since Governor Phillip's departure, in December, 1792, two thousand nine hux)dred and sixty- two acres and one-quarter (2,962^), which, added to seventeen hundred and three acres and a half (1,7031) that were cleared at that time, made a total of four thousand six hundred and sixty-five acres and three-quarters of cleared ground in this territory." — Historical Accords, vol. ii, p. 208. X "It might be safely pronounced, that the colony never wore so favourable an appearance as at this period ; our public stores filled with wholesome provisions ; five ships on the seas with additional supplies ; and wheat enough in the ground to promise the realising of many a golden dream ; a rapidly* increasing stock; a country gradually opening, and improving everywhere upon us as it opened ; with a spirit universally prevalent of cultivating it." — Coilins, vol. i, p. 875. § AxLte, p. 130.