little money in the colony, and the settlers carried on a legitimate
system of barter by which they exchanged with each other their grain and
herds. But the floods, of course, threw this system somewhat out of gear,
and he who after the floods had escaped without much damage to his
property had a pretty good pull upon his neighbour whose worldly
belongings had been carried away by the swollen waters.

Bligh, there is no doubt, did the right thing at this time. He slaughtered
a number of the Government cattle, dividing them among the more distressed
colonists; and, to encourage them to go cheerfully to work to cultivate
their land again and to become independent of their fellow-settlers, he
promised to buy for the King's stores all the wheat they could dispose of
after the next harvest, and to pay for it at a reasonable price.

Dr. Lang, in his _History of New South Wales_, published [Sidenote: 1834]
about 1834, relates how an old settler said to him, "Them were the days,
sir, for the poor settler; he had only to tell the governor what he
wanted, and he was sure to get it from the stores, whatever it was, from a
needle to an anchor, from a penn'orth o' pack-thread to a ship's cable."

This arrangement was not conducive to the interests of the rum traders,
who had been in the habit of purchasing grain and compelling the growers
to accept spirits in payment for it. It operated still further against
them when Bligh made a tour of the colony, took a note of each settler's
requirements and of what the settler was likely to be able to produce from
his land; then, according to what the governor thought the farmer was
likely to be able to supply, Bligh gave an order for what was most needed
by the man from the King's stores.

Of course this was taking a heavy responsibility upon himself. Even