they requefted to return with the foldiers, wffofe million here terminated,
being ordered to leave them at this place in the direction, of
the guides ; one man only expreffed a refoludon to perfevere, and
penetrate further into the country, and was left with them for that
■ purpofel
The hiftory o f thefe people might well be fuppofed to end here ;
but their reftlefs- difpofitions were not calculated to remain long in
peace.
It will be feen, on recurring to the tranfadions o f the month o f
October laft, that a boat belonging to a fettler had been carried off
in the night,/by fome people who were fuppofed to have tiken her
out to fea, where, from the weaknefs o f the boat, they muft foon
Lave perilhed : but they were now heard of again. Owen Cavanagh,
,a free man, had about which he employed in tranfporting grain
from the Hawkefbury to Sydney. On the doth of this month, he
informed the governor, that, a fliort time befqre, his boat had been
boarded in the night, off- Mullett-Ifland, by the very people who
had ftolen the one from the fettler, and carried her off, with another
icontaining fifty bulhels o f grain which fome other perfon was
bringing to Sydney. One man, who had, againft his wifh, been
concerned in the firft feizure, now left them, and returned with Cavanagh
; and from him the following account o f their proceedings
was obtained. Having effeded the capture, they proceeded to the
fouthward, with the intention of reaching the wreck of the Ihip
Sydney-cove. For their guide, they'had a pocket compal's, of
which fcarcely one man o f the fourteen who. compofed the party
knew the ufe. In this boat they were twice thrown on Ihore, and at
laft reached an ifiand, where, had they not fortunately found many
birds and feals, they muft inevitably have perilhed. From the inconceivable
hardfhips they underwent, they would to a man .have
-gladly returned, could they hav.e hoped that their punilhment
-would have been any thing Ihort of death. Finding it impoffible
for fuch a number o f difeontented beings to continue o f one mind,-
or to bp able to furnilh food in their miferable fituation for fo many,
theyjud’ged it neceffary, from a motive o f felf-prefervation, that
one half Ihould deceive the other h a lf; and while thefe were afleep,
thofe who were prepared took away the boat, leaving their feven
■ wretched and unfufpedHng companions upon the defolate ifiand,
the fituation o f which this man could not deferibe fo as to enable-
the governor at any time to find it. Their number now being reduced
to feVen, and thinking themfelves in danger near this port,
they had been lurking for fome time about Broken-Bay, with a
. view of capturing a better boat loaded with grain from the Hawkef—
bury ; which they effected, firft by taking the boat o f Owen Cavanagh,
the fupport o f whofe wife and children it had long been.
After fecuring him, they took poffeffion of a.fmaller boat, containing
upwards o f fifty bulhels o f wheat ; and, finding Cavanagh’s
the largeft and beft o f the two, they ran out about three or four
leagues from, the land, when they.lhifted their prifoners into the
fmaller boat, and flood off to the Northward ; where it was very
probable they would lofe their boat, Ihe being o f fitch a fize, that,
i f they Ihould get her on Ihore by any .accident, they would not-be.
able to launch her again, and muft finally perifh.
Here we find extreme ignorance, accompanied by great cunning;,,
producing cruelty ; for nothings lefs can be laid o f their abandon!'rig,
the miferable-uninformed companions o f their crime. Self-prefer—■
vation was their plea ; but was there not a method left within their
reach, which might have.preferved the whole ? Might they not have
returned to Sydney, and thrown-themfelves upon that mercy which
they had fo often feen exercifed in the fettlement. Could it be
imagined, that at this day there was exifting in a polifhed civilized
kingdom a race of beings (for they do not deferve the appellation oF
men) fo extremely ignorant, and fo little humanized as thefe were,,
compared with whom the naked.favages. o f the. mountains were an
enlightened people l.