was o f large dimenfions, being 30 feet in height, and eredted on a
rock which was confiderably higher than the' furrounding ground.
The wheel was four feet in thicknefs, and the diameter within was
so feet.
There was very little intermifiion o f rain, thunder, and lightning,
during the whole o f the month.
April.] This month opened with a neceffary a61 o f juftice.
Five men were capitally convidted, before the court o f criminal
judicature, of feizing two boats, the property of individuals, with
an intent of efcaping from the colony. One man was capitally
convidted of a robbery ; three were tranfported to Norfolk-Ifland
for 14 years; one for 7 4 one was adjudged corporal punilhment,
and one acquitted.
Two of the five that were condemned for feizing the boats fuf-
fered death at Sydney, after a week’s preparation for that awful
moment. Their companions were refpited at the place o f execution.
They were all extremely penitent, confefied the juftice of
their fentence, and acknowledged how much mifchief they had
done, and how much more they meditated, had they not been
overtaken by juftice.
One man, for robbery, was executed at Parramatta, George
Mitton, who certainly was a very fit fubjedt for an example. He
had been twice pardoned when under fentence o f death ; once in
Ireland ; and once in this country, by the prefent governor, for an
offence fimikr to that for which he now fuffered.
Thefe melancholy inftances, had they been properly attended to,
muft bave Ihewn to the convidts not only the difficulty which accompanied
every attempt to efcape privately from the colony, and
the danger to which thofe who made the trial expofed themfelves,
but the certainty o f meeting that punifhment which the various
crimes that they committed on fuch occafions- fo highly merited.
The governor, in an order which he now publifhed, was defirous of
calling back to the recolledtion o f thefe mifguided people, who had
13 been,
»03
been, either through ignorance, or through the profligacy o f their
difpofitions, fo readily prevailed upon to engage in fuch dangerous
enterprifes, that they would find an attention to the advice which
he had To often given them the moft effedtual means of enfuring
their real happinefs. They would alfo recoiled!, that an information
was given him on the 19th o f January laft, in which he appeared
to have forefeen, and had pointed out to thofe piratical gangs,
who wifhed to make their efcape from hence, what would be the
fate of thofe who were of lead ufe to the general plan of fuch gangs,
that they would probably, if in danger at fea in their boat, be
thrown overboard to lighten her, or be landed on fome part of the
coaft, where, beyond a doubt, they would perifh. How far this pre-
didtion had been verified, thofe who were concerned in taking off
the fettlers’ boat, and who- might now be in the fettlement, could-
beft tell. It was well known, that they had treacheroufly left feven,
men upon a defolate iflandfar tothe fouthward, where they muft have
perifhed for want, had they not been difcovered in a moft miraculous
manner. H e wilhed thofe fadts to be impreffed upon the minds
o f the whole colony; they would then probably dilcover in what
their real intereft confided, and on what their true happinefs depended.
To be honeft and induftrious had been often fhewn to be
the moft certain means o f procuring thofe bleffmgs.
Mitton, before he was executed, confeffed in a moment of penitence,
that many robberies had been concerted, and were to have
been committed by him and fome others. He mentioned, as their
chief inftigator upon thefe occafions, a woman o f the name of.Rob-
ley (the wife o f a blackfmith at Sydney), who received all the
property which they might colledt in this way* Dreading, this dif—
covery, Ihe found it convenient to. offer to- accufe others,, or Ihe:
would inevitably have been convicted herfelf.
It was reported by a native woman from the Hawkefbury, that.
Ihe had feen the two mares which were ftolen fome time fince from.
Parramatta, and that they were in the neighbourhood of that, river-
She