It was intended by the governor that this ship should have proceeded
immediately to Norfolk Island with the greater part of the convicts she
had on board, together with all the stores and provisions; but the
master, Mr. Matthew Weatherhead, requesting that as the ship was very
leaky the _Mary Ann_ might be permitted to perform the service required,
instead of the _Matilda_ (both ships belonging to the same owners), and
the _Mary Ann_ being perfectly ready for sea, the governor consented to
this proposal; and that ship was hauled alongside the _Matilda_ to
receive her cargo. Fifty-five of the convicts brought in this ship,
selected from the others as farmers or artificers, were sent up to
Parramatta; of the remainder, those whose health would permit them to go
were put on board the _Mary Ann_, together with thirty-two convicts of
bad character from among those who came out in the preceding year, and
eleven privates of the New South Wales corps. On the Monday following
(the 8th) the _Mary Ann_ sailed for Norfolk Island.

At Parramatta the only accommodation which the shortness of the notice
admitted of being provided for the people who were on their passage was
got up; two tent huts, one hundred feet long, thatched with grass, were
erected; and, independent of the risk which the occupiers might run from
fire, they would afford good and comfortable shelter from the weather.

The governor had now chosen situations for his settlers, and fixed them
on their different allotments. Twelve convicts, whose terms of
transportation had expired, he placed in a range of farms at the foot of
a hill named Prospect Hill, about four miles west from Parramatta;
fifteen others were placed on allotments in a district named the Ponds,
from a range of fresh-water ponds being in their vicinity; these were
situated two miles in a direction north-east of Parramatta. Between every