d in the night, and left by
their respective owners in situations so favourable to the views of those
ignorant beings who were perpetually looking out for means to escape from
the settlement, the governor therefore found it expedient positively to
prohibit the building of a boat of any kind without having previously
obtained his express permission; and to declare, that if any of the boats
then in use in the settlement should thenceforward be found improperly
secured at night, or left with oars, rudder, masts, or sails on board,
they would be laid on shore and burnt.

Such was the increase of crimes, that thrice in this month was the court
of criminal judicature assembled. The offences that came under their
cognisance were those of murder, perjury, forgery, and theft.

Two men were tried for having killed a native youth, well known in the
settlement*; but it appearing to the court that he had been accidentally
shot, they were acquitted. The natives certainly behaved ill, and often
provoked the death which they met with; but there was not any necessity
for wantonly destroying them, a circumstance which it was feared had but
too often occurred. On the acquittal of these prisoners, they were
assured by the governor, that he was determined to make an example of the
first person who should be convicted of having wantonly taken the life of
a native.

[* By the name of Tom Rowley (after one of the officers of the regiment).
He had accompanied Mr. Raven, in the _Britannia_, to Bengal, in the
year 1795.]

Another prisoner, John Morris, was tried for the murder of Charles
Martin, by violently kicking and beating him, so that he died the
following day. He was found guilty of manslaughter, and sentenced to be
burned in the hand and imprisoned for 12 months.

One man was found guilty of uttering a bill knowing it to be forged, and
adjudged to suffer death; and two others, for theft, were ordered to be
transported to Norfolk Island, one for the term of his life, and another
for seven years.

It appearing on one of these trials, that three of the witnesses had
manifestly and wilfully committed the crime of perjury, they were brought
to trial; and, being found guilty, were sentenced to stand in the
pillory; to which, as an additional punishment, their ears were to be
nailed. Their sentence was put in execution before the public provision
store, when the mob, either to display their aversion to the crime, or,
what might be more pr