arge and expensive
complement of officers and men, a guard of sepoys, and a commission from
the Bombay marine*. New Zealand was by us supposed to be the place; as
force, or at least the appearance of it, was there absolutely requisite.

[* Mr. Dell had likewise on board a much greater number of cross-cut saws
than were necessary to procure wood for the mere use of the vessel.]

The wife of Griffin the drummer, whose hoarded guineas were supposed to
have been stolen by Charles, or (as he was more commonly named) Pat Gray,
killed herself with drinking, expiring in a fit of intoxication while the
husband was employed in the lower part of the harbour in fishing for his
family. She left him four children to provide for.

October.] This month opened with an indispensable act of justice: John
Bevan, a wretched convict, whose name has been frequently mentioned in
this narrative, broke into the house of William Fielder at Sydney, and
being caught in the fact, it was substantiated against him beyond the
chance of escape; he was of course fully convicted, and received sentence
of death. The trial was on the 1st, and at nine in the morning of the 6th
he was executed. At the tree he confessed nothing, but seemed terrified
when he found himself so near the ignominious death that he had so long
merited. On being taken to hear divine service the Sunday preceding his
execution, he seemed not to be in the smallest degree affected by the
clergyman's discourse, which was composed for the occasion; but was
visibly touched at the singing of the psalm intitled the 'Lamentation of
a Sinner.'

On the evening preceding the day of his execution, information was
received from Parramatta, that Simon Burn, a settler, had been stabbed to
the heart about eight o'clock in the evening before, of which wound he
died in an hour. The man who perpetrated this atrocious act was a convict
named Hill, a butcher by trade. It appeared on the trial, which lasted
five hours, that Hill had borne the deceased much animosity for some
time, and, having been all the day (which, to aggravate the offence,
happened to be Sunday) in company drinking with him, took occasion to
quarrel with a woman with whom he cohabited, and following her into an
empty house, whither she had run to avoid a beating, the deceased,
unhappily for him, interfered, and was by Hill stabbed to the heart;
living, as has been said, about an hour, but having just strength enough
to declare in the p