Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/303

 GBOSE AND THE LAND. 259 The new settlement was a decided success. Three months ^7®* after the first landowners had gone into possession^ Grose Rapid wrote to Dundas, 29th April, 1794 :— ^"*^' '* I have settled on the banks of the Hawkesbury twenty-two settlers, who seem very much pleased with their farms. They describe the soU as particularly rich, and they inform me whatever they have planted has grown in the greatest luxuriance."^ Collins, nnder date of April, 1794, made the following allusion to these pioneer settlers upon the banks of the Hawkesbury : — "The best reports continue to be received. . . . Everywhere the settlers found a rich black mould a rich soil of several feet in depth, and one man had in three months planted and dug a crop of potatoes.'^t Although the land at and near Parramatta, according to Superintendent Burton's report,! was of fair quality — a fact established by Macarthur's success — it was certainly less productive than the rich soil on the banks of the Hawkesbury. Agriculture at Liberty Plains had not been successful, and in consequence eager eyes were turned to the Hawkesbury, where a crop of potatoes had been grown in so short a space of time. Grose's brief reports were of the most encouraging nature. On the 5th July§ he spoke of luxuriant crops, and on the 31st August he informed Luxuriant Dundas that : — " The settlers placed on the banks of the Hawkesbury, being seventy in number, are doing exceedingly well. The ground they have already in cultivation has all the appearance of bearing better wheat than has yet been grown in the colony."|| others, to open ground on the banks of the Hawkesbuiy, at the distance of about twenty-four miles from Parramatta. They chose for themselves allot- ments of ground conyeniently situated for fresh water, and not much burdened with timber, beginning with much spirit, and forming to themselres very sanguine hopes of success. At the end of the month they had been so active as to have cleared several acres, and were in eome forwardness with a few huts."— Collins, vol. i, p. 840. these farms will be found. t Collins, vol. i, p. 864. J Ante, p. 166. § Uistoncal Beoords, rol. ii, p. 238. || lb., p. 254.
 * Historical Beoorde, vol. ii, p. 210, where a plan showing the locality of