d, when his gifts were
sold for rum. His successor was not more successful, when he tried the
same plan. Cargoes of American spirit produced the madness of
intoxication; and the freed settlers neglected their farms, or
anticipated their produce to obtain the liquid destruction. Their
passion for gaming was universal: they sometimes staked not only their
money and their goods, but even their clothing, and were seen to labor
in the field, as free from clothing as the savages who surrounded them.

In spite of the dread of famine, they consumed their time and substance
in intemperance: sold their seed, lent to insure their harvest. In the
distribution of stores, robberies were daily committed; double rations
were issued; and Collins ingenuously confesses, that office converted
the most trusty into thieves; and that peculations were forgiven,
because a change of agency was useless. All in superior circumstances,
unprotected by military vigilance, were robbed and robbed again.
Missionaries, who fled from Tahiti, found their countrymen more savage
than strangers: one was wounded, and plundered of all his property; and
another, murdered with an axe, while writing a receipt for a payment,
which his destroyer thus hoped to evade. The Governor, in an imploring
tone, enumerated the robberies which every day occurred, and hoped that
the constables, in whose presence they were committed, did not profit by
such crimes! Those who obtained their freedom, were a source of infinite
annoyance: unable to depart from the country, they refused all kinds of
labor; and, joined with others equally worthless, astonished the
officers by the vigour and ingenuity of their spoliations.

The account given by Collins, is a valuable delineation of society when
set free from moral influence, and proves how little simple coercion can
check a general disposition to crime. So rare was reformation, that a
single instance is mentioned with triumph: among the few who redeemed
that settlement from utter dishonor, was George Barrington, celebrated
for his dexterity as a pickpocket, and for his pathos at the bar; who
robbed a prince with the grace of a courtier, and was the _beau ideal_
of swindlers. He was distinguished in New South Wales for his integrity
in the office of chief constable, and his diligence as a farmer. He died
regretted, in the year this dependency was colonised.[98]

Governor Hunter authorised the opening of a theatre at Sydney. The
principa