days, in a direction SSW from the settlement at Prospect Hill, he crossed the river named by Mr. Phillip the Nepean; and, to his great surprise and satisfaction, fell in with a very fine herd of cattle, upwards of forty in number, grazing in a pleasant and apparently fertile pasturage.  The day being far advanced when he saw them, he rested for the night in their neighbourhood, hoping in the morning to be gratified with a sight of the whole herd.  A doubt had been started of their being cattle produced from what we had brought into the country from the Cape; and it was suggested that they might be of longer standing.  The governor thought this a circumstance worth determining, and directed the attendants who were with him (Hacking and the two men who had first found them) to endeavour in the morning to get near enough to kill a calf.  This they were not able to effect; for, while lying in wait for the whole herd to pass (which now consisted of upwards of sixty young and old) they were furiously set upon by a bull, which brought up the rear, and which in their own defence they were compelled to kill.  This however answered the purpose better perhaps than a calf might have done; for he had all the marks of the Cape cattle when full grown, such as wide-spreading horns, a moderate rising or hump between his shoulders, and a short thin tail.  Being at this time seven or eight and thirty miles from Parramatta, a very small quantity of the meat only could be sent in; the remainder was left to the crows and dogs of the woods, much to the regret of the governor and his party*, who considered that the prisoners, particularly the sick at the hospital, had not lately received any meat either salt or fresh.

[* Captain Waterhouse and Mr. Bass (surgeon) of the Reliance, and the writer of this Narrative.]

The country where they were found grazing was remarkably pleasant to the eye; every where the foot trod on thick and luxuriant grass; the trees were thinly scattered, and free from underwood, except in particular spots; several beautiful flats presented large ponds, covered with ducks and the black swan, the margins of which were fringed with shrubs of the most delightful tints, and the ground rose from these levels into hills of easy ascent.

The question how these cattle came hither appeared easy of solution.  The few that were lost in 1788, two bulls and five cows, travelled without interruption in a western direction until they came to the banks of the Nepean.  Arrived there, and finding the crossing as easy as when the governor forded it, they came at once into a well-watered country, and amply stored with grass.  From this place why should they move?  They found themselves in possession of a country equal to their support, and in which they remained undisturbed.  We had not yet travelled quite so far westward; and but few natives were to be found thereabouts; they were likely therefore to remain for years unmolested, and securely to propagate their species.