a legal ship: the seizure might be theft, but not piracy! Upon the
whole, the prisoners conducted themselves well: however criminal the
escape, their kindness to the people they overpowered; their unusual
unanimity, and prudent acknowledgment of their real circumstances; their
appeal to the _patriots_ for sympathy, and the ingenuity of their
defence,--must be admitted as exhibiting qualities by no means
despicable.

But never was the government more culpable, or the prisoners less so,
than in the instance of the _Badger_, a vessel of twenty-five tons,
freighted with provisions for the East Bay Neck military station (1833).
She was a fast sailer, and well found, and in charge of a master
mariner, a convict, and convict seamen. The escape was joined, and
probably planned, by Darby, late a lieutenant in the royal navy, and
present at the battle of Navarino: a man of small stature but great
daring. On his passage to the colony he had been implicated in a plot to
take the vessel, which was partly known to a notorious receiver on
board,[179] who expected some favor by informing. The plotters intended
to shut down the soldiers and officer, to run for the American coast,
and there allow those who thought proper to land, or to attend the
vessel to her destination. Darby declared that, buried on the shores of
America, he had considerable treasure. On his arrival in Van Diemen's
Land the affair on board was made known to the Governor, by whom Darby
was told, that if ever he attempted to abscond, or to enlist others in
the enterprise, he should suffer all the law could inflict. He was,
however, placed at the signal station, and afterwards appointed to
assist the water bailiff, and thus had always in view the means of
escape! A convict clergyman, employed as tutor by a member of council,
was the companion of his flight. The loss of this vessel exemplified the
laxity of official oversight, where most required. No one could be
surprised at the escape, which good men suffering in a good cause would
have naturally ascribed to the favor of Providence.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 176: _Backhouse's Narrative._]

[Footnote 177: This man had been transported, when eleven years of age,
for horse-stealing. He was lost off the coast of Boulogne. Swallow died
at Port Arthur.]

[Footnote 178: On the affair of Ikey Solomon.]

SECTION XIV.

The escapes of prisoners might be called romantic, could romance enter
the province of crime. While