though not in colour, being red and coarse. It was very fat, as
were the kangaroos which they found in the interior; differing in that
point very widely from any kangaroos which had been before seen; not a
particle of fat having ever been found on one of them.

The mountain natives named this new animal Wombat, and said it was good
eating; but it was wholly unknown to those who were admitted into the
settlement.

The men who, in the beginning of January last, had boarded and carried
off the boat belonging to Owen Cavanagh, were heard of again. About the
latter end of this month, a report was brought in, that a piratical boat
was infesting the harbour of Broken Bay, and the Hawkesbury. The day
following, the governor received a letter signed by these men, in which
they professed to repent of their former conduct, and implored
forgiveness. They said, they had been wrecked about 400 miles to the
northward, when they with difficulty got on shore, saving as much of the
remains of Cavanagh's boat as enabled them to build a smaller, in which
they had returned, and surrendered themselves to justice; pretending to
have had their eyes opened to the danger with which attempts at desertion
from the colony must ever be attended, and promising to convince the
minds of their ignorant countrymen that every such attempt must be
followed by inevitable ruin. The language of this letter was far above
the capacity of any of the party; and the part of their story which
related to their building a boat capable of carrying the whole number so
great a distance wore very little appearance of probability. The truth
was, they had by some means reached as far as Broken Bay, where they had
been lurking about for some days; meaning, no doubt, to seize the first
boat loaded with grain which they might be able to secure, and then put
off again for as long a time as their provisions would last. They
certainly proposed to live by piracy; but not being able with their small
boat to come up with any of the boats which they pursued, and being no
longer able to exist without provisions, added to the danger they were
always in of being pursued and at length taken, they preferred giving
themselves up. They were armed with five muskets; and certainly had the
will as well as the ability to do a great deal of mischief. They were
placed in confinement, and charges preferred against them for piracy.

This was absolutely necessary; as the suffering such offences to