ie for a similar offence.

Besides the Criminal court, there is an inferior one composed of the
Judge Advocate, and one or more justices of the peace, for the trial of
small misdemeanours. This court is likewise empowered to decide all law
suits, and its verdict is final, except where the sum in dispute amounts
to more than three hundred pounds, in which case an appeal to England
can be made from its decree. Should necessity warrant it, an Admiralty
court, of which Lieutenant Governor Ross is judge, can also be summoned,
for the trial of offences committed on the high seas.

From being unwilling to break the thread of my narrative, I omitted to
note in its proper place the sailing of the 'Supply', Lieut. Ball,
on the 15th of the month, for Norfolk Island, which the Governor had
instructions from the ministry to take possession of. Lieut. King of
the Sirius was sent as superintendent and commandant of this place,
and carried with him a surgeon, a midshipman, a sawyer, a weaver, two
marines, and sixteen convicts, of whom six were women. He was also
supplied with a certain number of live animals to stock the island,
besides garden seeds, grain, and other requisites.

CHAPTER XI

A Description of the Natives of New South Wales, and our Transactions
with them.

I doubt not my readers will be as glad as I feel myself, to conclude the
dull detail of the last chapter. If they please, they may turn from the
subtle intricacies of the law, to contemplate the simple, undisguised
workings of nature, in her most artless colouring.

I have already said, we had been but very few days at Port Jackson, when
an alteration in the behaviour of the natives was perceptible; and I
wish I could add, that a longer residence in their neighbourhood had
introduced a greater degree of cordiality and intermixture between
the old, and new, lords of the soil, than at the day on which this
publication is dated subsists.

From their easy reception of us in the beginning, many were induced to
call in question the accounts which Mr. Cook had given of this people.
That celebrated navigator, we were willing believe, had somehow by
his conduct offended them, which prevented the intercourse that would
otherwise have taken place. The result, however, of our repeated
endeavours to induce them to come among us has been such as to confirm
me in an opinion, that they either fear or despise us too much, to be
anxious for a closer connection. And I