The man who killed Mo-roo-bra had undergone a second attack from his friends; and, though yet suffering from the wounds which he received in the first affair, made a most excellent defence.
The governor having been informed, by some of the natives who dwelt in the neighbourhood of the cow pasture plains, that several of the wild cattle had been killed, and imagining this mischief to have been done by some of the Irish convicts (who were nearly as wild themselves as the cattle), a party of the military, with Hacking, a man well acquainted with that part of the country, was sent out with orders to surprise, and if possible to secure them. After being absent some days, they returned and reported, that, having searched the country round, no traces were seen of the cattle in any of the places where they had been accustomed to range, nor did they meet with any white people; but the natives persisted in asserting their having seen some of them among them, and added that some of the calves had been run down by them. This was not impossible; and the idea was somewhat strengthened, by their finding some short spears pointed with the leg bone of the kangaroo, which were supposed to be designed for stabbing the calves when caught. Although it was the opinion of these people, that the cattle had quitted the part of the country in which they had been so long known to graze, there was yet much reason to believe that this was not the case; for, on visiting them, they were not always to be found in one spot.
It will be sufficient to state the following circumstance, to show the unpleasant and distressing situation of the principal officer of the settlement, by the construction that was put on his endeavours to rectify every abuse that the inhabitants might labour under.
An infamous and seditious anonymous paper was dropped in the streets, in which the governor and every officer in the colony were most scurrilously abused and libelled, and accused of practising extortions in the way of trade. This would not have been misplaced, had the abuse been confined to the description of persons who really deserved it, and truth had been attended to, which would have afforded them ample materials. But, although it must have been evident to every one who had sense to see it, that the governor, from the hour of his arrival, had used his utmost endeavours to put an end to the practice of so much imposition; yet this libeller inferred, from his not succeeding, that he was become one in the number of retail traders who disgraced the settlement.
A reward was immediately offered for the discovery of the offender; but, as might have been expected, without success.
The three persons who had been sent out with the Irishmen, that were so desirous of discovering a country wherein they might live more at their ease, returned on the 9th, so much exhausted with fatigue that two of them were scarcely able to move when they arrived. Wilson, who was the third, having been longer in the habit of travelling through the woods, kept up their spirits, and thereby enabled them to reach Prospect Hill about sunset; where, from long abstinence, having had nothing to support them for several days, except two or three small birds, the refreshment which they procured had nearly overcome them. Such were the difficulties attending excursions in the interior of this country. With Wilson, who knew much of the country, and was well qualified to conduct the party, the governor sent a lad, a free servant of his, who was capable of giving an account of the occurrences of the journey; and from him the following particulars were collected:
From Mount Hunter (which was the highest land then known in that part of the country, and distant from the township of Parramatta from about 30 to 34 miles in a SW direction) they took their departure on the 24th of last month, travelling in a SSW course for 18 miles, 12 of which laid through a fine open country. There they fell in with the river Nepean, which was found winding to the southward and westward, close behind the cow pasture plains. The banks of the river being at this place exceedingly steep and rocky, they had some difficulty in getting across. On the other side the ground wore a barren, unpromising appearance; and during the day they saw only a few kangaroos of a particular kind, having long, black, and brushy tails; with a few birds, which from the length of the tail feathers, they denominated pheasants.
On the 25th they continued in their course, SSW for six miles, through a country in general open, and apparently of a good black soil. In the course of the day they saw many kangaroos and several emus; and fell in with a party of natives, one of whom engaged to accompany them, on condition of their halting for that night where they then were. Consenting to this, they had leisure to examine a hill in that neighbourhood, the face of which appeared white, and proved to be an immense cliff of salt, a specimen of which they brought in.
On the 26th, they determined to incline more to the westward, and travelled 16 miles in a direction WSW over a rocky country, covered with brush wood, and a prickly kind of vine. They did not meet with any natives; and that animals existed there, they only saw by their faeces.
They continued on the 27th travelling in the same direction about 16 miles; the first six of which were like those of the preceding day. From thence they got into an open but mountainous country, where they crossed a small river, and discovered a quantity of coal and limestone. Here every mile they went the scene improved. The rocky and barren ground was exchanged for a flat country and beautiful meadows, furnishing pasture for the kangaroos and emus, several of which they saw. The timber was observed to run small, and to be thinly scattered about, there being scarcely ten trees upon an acre of ground. The quality of them was known in the settlement, where a similar timber was called the Black Wattle.