narmed, upon different
duties; while the new-raised militia took possession of their arms. On
their return, twenty were selected as mutineers to be sent to this place,
the remainder returning to their duty immediately, but of that number ten
were, after a few days confinement, pardoned and liberated; and two days
after Mr. King had restored good order in the settlement the _Francis_
appeared. By her he sent the ten prisoners under a guard of an officer
and as many soldiers as the vessel could conveniently receive.

A court of inquiry, composed of the officers of the regiment present at
Sydney, was assembled immediately after the arrival of the _Francis_, to
inquire into the complaint which had accompanied the soldiers from
Norfolk Island; when, after five days deliberation, and examination of
papers, witnesses, etc. they reported, that the conduct of the soldiers,
in disobeying the orders of their officers, was reprehensible; but, on
considering the provocations which had given birth to that disobedience.
they recommended them to their commanding officer's clemency.

On the 27th the schooner sailed a second time for Norfolk Island, for the
purpose of conveying two officers of the New South Wales corps, and some
non-commissioned officers and privates, in lieu of those who had been
sent hither, and without whom the detachment on duty there would have
been too much weakened.

The natives were again troublesome this month. Two several accounts were
sent down from Parramatta, of their having attacked, robbed, and beaten
some of the settlers' wives who were repassing between their farms and
Parramatta; and great quantities of corn continued to be stolen by them.
One of these women (married to Trace, a settler at the foot of Prospect
Hill) was so severely wounded by a party who robbed and stripped her of
some of her wearing apparel, that she lay for a long time dangerously ill
at the hospital. It was said, that the people who committed this and
other acts of violence and cruelty were occasional visitors with others
at Sydney. Could their persons have been properly identified, the
lieutenant-governor would have taken serious notice of the offenders.

Notwithstanding the woods were infested by these people, numbers of the
male convicts, idle, and dreading labour as a greater evil than the risk
of being murdered, absented from the new settlements, and, after
wandering about for a few days, got at length to Sydney almost naked,