red, and sheep by
scores were salted down. Ewes were driven into the interior until their
lambs were weaned, when they were returned to their owners. In supplying
the commissariat, it was not unusual to drive a flock of sheep for
inspection, which were again returned to the fold, and others from a
stolen stock passed under the certificate thus obtained; and the plunder
of the royal herds, were slaughtered and sold to the crown.

Such depredations were enormous: large gangs were in combination, and
the first session held in Van Diemen's Land, brought to light extensive
robberies, comprehending twelve hundred sheep.[93] These evils were
encouraged by difficulties in the administration of justice. For five
years, fifteen charges only were tried by the court of criminal
jurisdiction in New South Wales: the prosecutor, the witnesses, and the
prisoners were forwarded together. On one occasion, six were sent up for
trial: the skins of the stolen beasts were deposited in a cask, and the
proof was deemed complete; but of the same cooperage, another was
prepared, an admirable imitation. This last was opened in court, but it
was found filled with the skins of seals; and, by the ingenious
transformation, the prosecution was satisfied.

It is just to observe, that the absence of legal redress not only
prompted, but extenuated these violations of law: crime retaliated
crime: the lower settlers carried on a system of plunder; but the
uncertain tenure of property weakened that moral principle which is its
surest defence. The cattle stealer was himself a loser by the man he
robbed: a stray beast was branded without question; the owner, when he
discovered that his property was beyond his reach, except by the
prosecution of the robber, adopted a shorter course. Reprisals thus lost
half their guilt: nor is it wonderful that such feelings, as borderers
were said once to cherish, prevailed among men who found excuses in
their position, and indemnified their past or possible losses by the
first spoil which came in their way.

But these combinations led to other crimes. The robbers had their
accomplices and abettors: the theft complete, they grew suspicious of
each other, and some who disappeared, were sacrificed by the jealousy of
their companions. When engaged in these depredations, they usually set a
watch: a cautious traveller avoided inquiry, and well authenticated
instances proved how perilous, in those days of violence, was an
expres