And On Being Apprehended,
One Of The Tools Of The Superiors Impeached The Rest, And Disclosed The Scheme.
The Trial Came On The 28th Of The Month, And Of Four Who Were Arraigned
For The Offence, Three Were Condemned To Die, And The Fourth To Receive
A Very Severe Corporal Punishment.
In hopes that his lenity would not be
abused, his Excellency was, however, pleased to order one only for execution,
which took place a little before sun-set the same day.
The name
of the unhappy wretch was Thomas Barret, an old and desperate offender,
who died with that hardy spirit, which too often is found in the worst
and most abandoned class of men. During the execution the battalion
of marines was under arms, and the whole of the convicts obliged to be present.
The two associates of the sufferer were ordered to be kept close prisoners,
until an eligible place to banish them to could be fixed on; as were also
two more, who on the following day were condemned to die for a similar offence.
Besides the Criminal court, there is an inferior one composed of the
Judge Advocate, and one or more justices of the peace, for the trial
of small misdemeanours. This court is likewise empowered to decide all
law suits, and its verdict is final, except where the sum in dispute amounts
to more than three hundred pounds, in which case an appeal to England
can be made from its decree. Should necessity warrant it, an Admiralty court,
of which Lieutenant Governor Ross is judge, can also be summoned, for the trial
of offences committed on the high seas.
From being unwilling to break the thread of my narrative, I omitted to note
in its proper place the sailing of the 'Supply', Lieut. Ball, on the 15th
of the month, for Norfolk Island, which the Governor had instructions
from the ministry to take possession of. Lieut. King of the Sirius was sent
as superintendent and commandant of this place, and carried with him
a surgeon, a midshipman, a sawyer, a weaver, two marines, and sixteen convicts,
of whom six were women. He was also supplied with a certain number
of live animals to stock the island, besides garden seeds, grain,
and other requisites.
CHAPTER XI
A Description of the Natives of New South Wales,
and our Transactions with them.
I doubt not my readers will be as glad as I feel myself, to conclude
the dull detail of the last chapter. If they please, they may turn from
the subtle intricacies of the law, to contemplate the simple, undisguised
workings of nature, in her most artless colouring.
I have already said, we had been but very few days at Port Jackson, when
an alteration in the behaviour of the natives was perceptible; and I wish
I could add, that a longer residence in their neighbourhood had introduced
a greater degree of cordiality and intermixture between the old, and new,
lords of the soil, than at the day on which this publication is dated subsists.
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