The Soldier Felt Little Inclination
To Surrender His Arms, By Which He Would Be Put Entirely In Their Power.
But
Seeing no alternative, he at last consented; on which the whole party
laid down their spears and faithfully escorted him
To the nearest part
of the settlement, where the gun was given up, and they took their leave
without asking for any remuneration, or even seeming to expect it.
The distressful state of the colony for provisions continued gradually
to augment until the 9th of July, when the Mary Anne transport arrived
from England. This ship had sailed from the Downs so lately as
the 25th of February, having been only four months and twelve days
on her passage. She brought out convicts, by contract, at a specific sum
for each person. But to demonstrate the effect of humanity and justice,
of 144 female convicts embarked on board only three had died, and the rest
were landed in perfect health, all loud in praise of their conductor.
The master's name was Munro; and his ship, after fulfilling her engagement
with government, was bound on the southern fishery. The reader must not
conclude that I sacrifice to dull detail, when he finds such benevolent
conduct minutely narrated. The advocates of humanity are not yet become
too numerous: but those who practise its divine precepts, however humble
and unnoticed be their station, ought not to sink into obscurity,
unrecorded and unpraised, with the vile monsters who deride misery
and fatten on calamity.
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