and from
him the following account of their proceedings was obtained. Having
effected the capture, they proceeded to the southward, with the intention
of reaching the wreck of the ship _Sydney Cove_. For their guide,
they had a pocket compass, of which scarcely one man of the fourteen who
composed the party knew the use. In this boat they were twice thrown on
shore, and at last reached an island, where, had they not fortunately
found many birds and seals, they must inevitably have perished. From the
inconceivable hardships they underwent, they would to a man have gladly
returned, could they have hoped that their punishment would have been any
thing short of death. Finding it impossible for such a number of
discontented beings to continue of one mind, or to be able to furnish
food in their miserable situation for so many, they judged it necessary,
from a motive of self-preservation, that one half should deceive the
other half; and while these were asleep, those who were prepared took
away the boat, leaving their seven wretched and unsuspecting companions
upon the desolate island, the situation of which this man could not
describe so as to enable the governor at any time to find it. Their
number now being reduced to seven, and thinking themselves in danger near
this port, they had been lurking for some time about Broken Bay, with a
view of capturing a better boat loaded with grain from the Hawkesbury;
which they effected, first by taking the boat of Owen Cavanagh, the
support of whose wife and children it had long been. After securing him,
they took possession of a smaller boat, containing upwards of fifty
bushels of wheat; and, finding Cavanagh's the largest and best of the
two, they ran out about three or four leagues from the land, when they
shifted their prisoners into the smaller boat, and stood off to the
Northward; where it was very probable they would lose their boat, she
being of such a size, that if they should get her on shore by any
accident, they would not be able to launch her again, and must finally
perish.

Here we find extreme ignorance, accompanied by great cunning, producing
cruelty; for nothing less can be said of their abandoning the miserable
uninformed companions of their crime. Self-preservation was their plea;
but was there not a method left within their reach, which might have
preserved the whole? Might they not have returned to Sydney, and thrown
themselves upon that mercy which they had so oft