lk Island, being embarked, the _Pitt_ sailed on
the 7th. Previous to her departure, a female convict was found secreted
on board, who declaring in her justification that the fourth mate of the
ship had assisted her in her escape, he was tried by the civil court of
judicature for taking a convict from the settlement, but, for want of
sufficient proof, was acquitted.

The practicability of being secreted on board of ships would always
operate as an inducement to wretches who saw a long term of servitude
before them to attempt their escape; but it certainly behoved every
master of a merchantman bound from this port to be very vigilant and
sedulous to prevent their succeeding, as the safety of the ship might be
very much endangered by having numbers of such people on board mixing
with their ship's company.

On Friday the 13th died Mr. David Burton, of a gunshot wound which he
received on the preceding Saturday. This young man, on account of the
talents he possessed as a botanist, and the services which he was capable
of rendering in the surveying line, could be but ill spared in this
settlement. His loss was occasioned by one of those accidents which too
frequently happen to persons who are inexperienced in the use of
fire-arms. Mr. Burton had been out with Ensign Beckwith, and some
soldiers of the New South Wales corps, intending to kill ducks on the
Nepean. With that sensation of the mind which is called presentiment he
is said to have set out, having more than once observed, that he feared
some accident would happen before his return; and he did not cease to be
tormented with this unpleasant idea, until his gun, which he carried
rather awkwardly, went off, and lodged its contents in the ground within
a few inches of the feet of the person who immediately preceded him in
the walk through the woods. Considering this as the accident which his
mind foreboded, he went on afterwards perfectly freed from any
apprehension. But he was deceived. Reaching the banks of the river, they
found on its surface innumerable flocks of those fowl of which they were
in search. Mr. Burton, in order to have a better view of them, got upon
the stump of a tree, and, resting his hand upon the muzzle of his piece,
raised himself by its assistance as high as he was able. The butt of the
piece rested on the ground, which was thickly covered with long grass,
shrubs, and weeds. No one saw the danger of such a situation in time to
prevent what followed