oncealment: and he had contrived his escape with such address,
that although he was well known to be about making an attempt, yet how
far he was prepared, as well as the time when he meant to go, remained a
secret. Most of his companions were connected with women; but if these
knew any thing, they were too faithful to those they lived with to reveal
it. Had the women been bound to them by any ties of affection, fear for
their safety, or the dislike to part, might have induced some of them to
have defeated the enterprise; but not having any interest either in their
flight, or in their remaining here, they were silent on the subject. For
one young woman, Sarah Young, a letter was found the next morning,
written by James Cox, and left at a place where he was accustomed to work
in his leisure hours as a cabinet-maker, conjuring her to give over the
pursuit of the vices which, he told her, prevailed in the settlement,
leaving to her what little property he did not take with him, and
assigning as a reason for his flight the severity of his situation, being
transported for life, without the prospect of any mitigation, or hope of
ever quitting the country, but by the means he was about to adopt. It was
conjectured that they would steer for Timor, or Batavia, as their
assistance and information were derived from the Dutch snow.

The situation of these people was very different from that of Tarwood and
his associates, who were but ill provided for an undertaking so perilous;
but Bryant had long availed himself of the opportunities given him by
selling fish to collect provisions together, and his boat was a very good
one, and in excellent order; so that there was little reason to doubt
their reaching Timor, if no dissension prevailed among them, and they had
but prudence enough to guard against the natives wherever they might
land. William Morton was said to know something of navigation; James Cox
had endeavoured to acquire such information on the subject as might serve
him whenever a fit occasion should present itself, and Bryant and Bird
knew perfectly well how to manage a boat. What story they could invent on
their arrival at any port, sufficiently plausible to prevent suspicion of
their real characters, it was not easy to imagine.

The depredations committed on the Indian corn at Rose Hill were so
frequent and so extensive, that it became absolutely necessary to punish
such offenders as were detected with a severity that might