after his arrival in this country, been a worthless vagabond; but
had latterly appeared sensible how much more to his advantage a different
character would prove, and had gained the good word and opinion of the
overseers and superintendants under whom he laboured.

February.] On the 4th of this month the watches which had remained so
long undiscovered were brought down from Parramatta by Lieutenant
Macarthur. By a chain of circumstances it appeared that they had been
stolen by John Bevan, who at the time had broken out of the prison hut at
Toongabbie, and coming immediately down to Sydney, in conjunction with
Sutton (the man who was tried for stealing Mr. Raven's watch in October
1792) committed the theft, returning with the spoil to his hut at
Toongabbie before he had been missed from it by any of the watchmen. He
afterwards played at cards with another convict, and exchanged the
watches for a nankeen waistcoat and trousers. From this man they got into
the possession of two or three other people, and were at last, by great
accident, found to be in the possession of one Batty, an overseer, in
the thatch of whose hut they, together with ten dollars, were found safe
and uninjured. The dollars were supposed to be part of the money stolen
at the same time from Walsh at the hospital*, with whom Bevan, some time
before, had made acquaintance, winning from him not only a hundred weight
of flour, which he had almost starved himself to lay by, but deluding him
also out of the secret of his money, with every particular that was
necessary to his design of stealing it.

[* This wretched old man did not long survive the loss of his money.]

This was the information given against Bevan by the people through whose
hands the watches had passed; but as it was entirely unsupported by any
corroborating circumstance, he was discharged without punishment; but
Batty and another man, Luke Normington, of whose guilt there was not a
doubt, received each a severe corporal punishment by order of the
lieutenant-governor. In all the examinations which took place, nothing
appeared that affected Sutton, farther than the unsupported assertions of
one or two other convicts; but if Bevan was assisted by any one, Sutton,
from his general character, having already dealt in the article of
watches, was very probably his friend on the occasion

The constancy of this wretched young man (Bevan) was astonishing. He most
steadily denied knowing any thing of th