diff --git a/contrib/fast-import/git-p4 b/contrib/fast-import/git-p4
index a5b6d94d1a..669cf95d74 100755
--- a/contrib/fast-import/git-p4
+++ b/contrib/fast-import/git-p4
@@ -352,7 +352,7 @@ class GitSync(Command):
         self.knownBranches = Set()
         self.createdBranches = Set()
         self.committedChanges = Set()
-        self.branch = "master"
+        self.branch = "p4"
         self.detectBranches = False
         self.changesFile = ""
 
diff --git a/contrib/fast-import/git-p4.txt b/contrib/fast-import/git-p4.txt
index 5786bffad4..0d30aff64c 100644
--- a/contrib/fast-import/git-p4.txt
+++ b/contrib/fast-import/git-p4.txt
@@ -17,9 +17,9 @@ The procedure is simple:
   git init
   git-p4 sync //path/in/your/perforce/depot
 
-This will import the current head revision of the specified depot path into the
-master branch of your git repository. You can use the --branch=mybranch option
-to let git-p4 import from Perforce into a git branch of your choice.
+This will import the current head revision of the specified depot path into a
+"p4" branch of your git repository. You can use the --branch=mybranch option
+to use a different branch.
 
 If you want to import the entire history of a given depot path just use