312 THE FIRST RETURN OF LIVE STOCK. 1788 9 July. Live stock on the lot May. Sheep poifloned. Cattle strayed away. The Cow- pastures. Phillip does not mention in His despatches that he Kad caused a retnm to be prepared by the Commissary^ showing' the exact number of live stock in the settlement on the 1st May.* Including under that head horses^ cattle^ sheep, goats, and pigs, the number brought from the Cape on public account was ninety-one ; but no record was kept of the stock brought by private individuals. On the 1st May, the population of the Cove could only muster one hundred and thirty-six out of the total number of animals landed in January. As the difference between the two totals amounts to forty-five only, it follows that either the importations on private account were very small, or the mortality was very great. Phillip mentions in his despatch of 28th September that he had brought over seventy sheep with him on his own and on Government account, but that one only remained alive when he wrote. The natural grass was considered to be fatal to them ; for those which were fed by their owners outside their tents managed to survive their companions. The loss of the cattle referred to by Phillip — ^two bulls and five cows — became in later years one of the romantic incidents of the time. After many ineffectual attempts to recover the runaways, all hope of seeing them again was at last abandoned ; the general theory being that they had been killed and eaten by the natives.f It was not until November, 1795, that the cattle were heard of again, when reports were brought in to Governor Hunter to the effect that they had multiplied into a herd, and were to be seen grazing on the banks of the Nepean, in pastures as rich as those of a typical English landscape. The narrative of th(*ir recovery in Collins furnishes almost the only instance in
- Post, p. 551.
t Writing in 1791 , Tench referred to the matter as follows : — " Not a trace of them has ever since been observecL Their fate ia a riddle, so difficult of solution that I shall not attempt it. Surely, had they strajred inland, in some of our numerous excursions marks of them must have been found. It is equally impossible to believe that either the convicts or natives killed and eat them, without some sign of detection."— Complete Account, p. 163. Had Tench, who discovered the Nepean, followed its course as far as the Cowpastures, his riddle would have oeen solved at a glance. Digitized by Google
