Notwithstanding the lenity and indulgence which had been shown on his
Majesty's birthday, in pardoning the plunderers of gardens and the public
grounds, and by issuing an extra allowance of provisions to every one,
the governor's garden at Parramatta was that very night entered and
robbed by six men, who assaulted the watchman, Thomas Ocraft, and would
have escaped all together, had he not, with much resolution, secured
three of them for punishment.

Indulgences of this nature were certainly thrown away upon many who
partook of them; but as it was impossible to discriminate so nicely
between the good and the bad as wholly to exclude the undeserving, no
distinction could be made.

The people who had assaulted the watchman were severely punished, as his
authority could never have been supported without such an example; but
either his vigilance, or the countenance which was shown to him on
account of his strict performance of his duty, created him many enemies;
and it became necessary to give him arms, as well for his own defence, as
for the more effectual protection of the district he watched over. Some
nights after, in a turnip ground at Parramatta, he was obliged to fire at
a convict, whom he wounded, but not dangerously, and secured. He was sent
down to the hospital at Sydney.

Since the establishment of that familiar intercourse which now subsisted
between us and the natives, several of them had found it their interest
to sell or exchange fish among the people at Parramatta; they being
contented to receive a small quantity of either bread or salt meat in
barter for mullet, bream, and other fish. To the officers who resided
there this proved a great convenience, and they encouraged the natives to