y volley rang out, and numbers of the convicts fell.
Their two leaders, however, and some twenty of their followers, keeping
in a close body, rushed at the line of soldiers with clubbed muskets,
and with the suddenness and fury of the rush burst their way through
the line, and then scattering, fled across the country, pursued by a
dropping fire of musketry.

The officers in command, seeing that but a fraction had escaped, ordered
one company to pursue, and marched the rest into the prison yard. It was
already deserted; the convicts had scattered to their huts, those who
had arms throwing them away. Dotted here and there over the square were
the bodies of eight or ten convicts and as many warders, whose skulls
had been smashed in by their infuriated assailants as soon as they had
obtained possession of their muskets. Close to the gate lay the six
soldiers who had furnished the guard; these were all dead or mortally
wounded.

The Governor and the officials issued from the house as soon as the
soldiers entered the yard. The first step to do was to turn all the
convicts out of the huts and to iron them. No resistance was attempted,
the sight of the soldiers completely cowing the mutineers. When the
bodies of the convicts that had fallen were counted and the roll of the
prisoners called over, it was found that eighteen were missing, and of
these six were during the course of the next hour or two brought in by
the soldiers who had gone in pursuit of them. The rest had escaped.

The convicts were all questioned separately, and the tales they told
agreed so closely that the Governor could not doubt that they were
speaking the truth. All had been sworn in by one of two men, and knew
nothing whatever of what was intended to be done that day, until after
they were locked up on the evening previous. Each of those in the huts
had received his instructions the night before from the one man.

There were eighteen huts, each containing fifteen convicts. Of the men
who had given instructions six had fallen outside the gate, together
with sixteen others; five had been overtaken and brought in; altogether,
twelve were still at large. Among these were the two leaders. The next
day six of the prisoners were tried and executed. The rest were punished
only by a reduction in their rations; sentence of death was at the same
time passed upon the twelve still at large, so as to save the trouble of
a succession of trials as they were caught and