e, or run the risk of incurring the other. A convict
belonging to the brick-maker's gang had strayed into the woods for the
purpose of collecting sweet tea; an herb so called by the convicts, and
which was in great estimation among them. The leaves of it being boiled,
they obtained a beverage not unlike liquorice in taste, and which was
recommended by some of the medical gentlemen here, as a powerful tonic.
It was discovered soon after our arrival, and was then found close to the
settlement; but the great consumption had not rendered it scarce. It was
supposed, that the convict in his search after this article had fallen in
with a party of natives, who had killed him. A few days after this
accident, a party of the convicts, sixteen in number, chiefly belonging
to the brick-maker's gang, quitted the place of their employment, and,
providing themselves with stakes, set off toward Botany Bay, with a
determination to revenge, upon whatever natives they should meet, the
treatment which one of their brethren had received at the close of the
last month. Near Botany Bay they fell in with the natives, but in a
larger body than they expected or desired. According to their report,
they were fifty in number; but much dependance was not placed on what
they said in this respect, nor in their narrative of the affair; it was
certain, however, that they were driven in by the natives, who killed one
man and wounded six others. Immediately on this being known in the
settlement, an armed party was sent out with an officer, who found the
body of the man that had been killed, stripped, and lying in the path to
Botany Bay. They also found a boy, who had likewise been stripped and
left for dead by the natives. He was very much wounded, and his left ear
nearly cut off. The party, after burying the body of the man, returned
with the wounded boy, but without seeing any of the perpetrators of this
mischief; the other wounded people had reached the settlement, and were
taken to the hospital. The day following, the governor, judging it highly
necessary to make examples of these misguided people, who had so daringly
and flagrantly broken through every order which had been given to prevent
their interfering with the natives as to form a party expressly to meet
with and attack them, directed that those who were not wounded should
receive each one hundred and fifty lashes, and wear a fetter for a
twelvemonth; the like punishment was directed to be inflicte