There is reason to believe that he had long meditated his escape,
which he effected in the night of the 3rd instant. About two o'clock
in the morning, he pretended illness, and awaking the servant who lay
in the room with him, begged to go down stairs. The other attended him
without suspicion of his design; and Baneelon no sooner found himself
in a backyard, than he nimbly leaped over a slight paling, and bade us adieu.
The following public order was issued within the date of this chapter,
and is too pleasing a proof that universal depravity did not prevail
among the convicts, to be omitted.
The governor, in consequence of the unremitted good behaviour
and meritorious conduct of John Irving, is pleased to remit
the remainder of the term for which he was sentenced to
transportation. He is therefore to be considered as restored
to all those rights and privileges, which had been suspended
in consequence of the sentence of the law. And as such,
he is hereby appointed to act as an assistant to the surgeon
at Norfolk Island.
CHAPTER VII
Transactions of the Colony in June, July, and August, 1790.
At length the clouds of misfortune began to separate, and on the evening
of the 3rd of June, the joyful cry of "the flag's up" resounded
in every direction.
