ENLlSTxMENT OF CONVICIB IN N.8.W. CORPS. im further, that the right of every man, free or bozid, to his crop, was secured by the hiw ; while at the name time a fair market price would be given by the government for provigions. To guard against losses of cattle Phillip employed I convicts in enclosing ground at Parramatta, In Nov. 1791 Phillip was constrained to assemble the I newly-arrived convicts, and declare that riinawajs would be fired upon, and that recaptured prisoners would be put on a desolate place or chained together and fed on bread and water, until their sentences of transportation had exph'ed. Fiu^ther, as there were rumours that the stores were to he attacked, he promised instant death to every one taken in the attempt; while at the same time he displayed clemency for past misdeeds. In Dee. 1791 the convicts at Parra- matta, disliking the regulation that tbeir food should be issued daily, " met in rather a tumultuous manner before the Governor's liause at Parramatta to request that thts provisions shoidd be issued on Saturdays. The Governor dispersed them without granting their request, and as murmurs were heard m the crowd, with confused threats to obtain otherwise what was refused to entreaty, he told them that they were led by eight or ten designing men, whose names he knew, and that on any open discontent he would make immediate examples of them. This first public meet- ing unconvened by authority in Australia promised implicit obedience to orders, and was dismissed. The meeting was ascribed by Collins to the spirit of villamy lately imported by the new-comers from England and Ireland. Phillip issued a lu^oclamation declaring that in case of riot or disturbance, every convict seen out of his hut at night, or during hours of rest from labour, or absent from his labour during working hours, should be deemed to be aiding and assisting the rioters, and be punished accordingly. Meet- ings of the convicts were strictly forbidden, and all complaints were to be made through the superintendents. Towards the end of 1792 some sailors who left some of the vessels in the harbour were enlisted in the New South Wales Coi^ps, and also several ** convicts of good character, to complete the company formed from the marines under Captain Johnston." In Oct, 1793 couditiouftX ^i3kxto[v^
