162 SETTLEBS ^^®^ at the foot of Prospect Hill, near the site of the reservoir Locidityof which now constitutes the chief water supply of Sydney; while fifteen were put in possession of farms at a place on the northern bank of the Parramatta Eiver, long known as '^ The Ponds/'* The name has fallen into desuetude. The locality is now known, part of it, as Rydalmere, and the other part as Ermington. The relative positions of these first land grants can be seen from the accompanying map of the part of the County of Cumberland adjacent to Parra- matta and Prospect Hill. The mapt is complete with the exception of two grants which cannot be located. These were probably given to the two settlers to whom Collins Forfeited refcrsj as having been deprived of their grants for non- fulfilment of the condition which required bond fide cultiva- tion. The results were not at first very encouraging. The indortry scttlcrs who houcstly cudeavoured to do their best with the auccess. land, and were content to live frugally, soon found them- selves on the road to prosperity, but those who were not industrious became tired of the life before they had given it a fair trial. Some of them wished to give up their land almost as soon as they had acquired it ; others sold their live stock to procure luxuries, and thus deprived themselves of a valuable aid to success. Phillip reported to Dundas on the 19th March, 1792, that not only had several of the ■settlers who had been placed upon the land acted in this way, but that he had, in addition, ^^ just received an account of twenty-two men and nine women who are received on board that ship [the Pitt] the terms for which they had ex^^s?' been sentenced being expired. Thus will the best people
- " The G-overnor had now [August, 1791] chosen situations for his settlers,
and fixed them in their different allotments. Twelve convicte, whose terms of transportation had expired, he placed on 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 nngo of fresh -water ponds being in their Ticinity ; theee were situated two miles in a direction north-east of Parramatta." — Collins, toI. i, p. 172. t Hhe Editor is indebted for this map to Mr. C. J. Saunders, Chief Drafls- man of the Department of Lands, by whom it was specially prepared for the illustration of this chapter. t Collins, vol. i, p. 212.
