118 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE 
claim to every article of property we possessed, immediately 
proceeded to strike my tent, the material of which, they seid, 
they required for the voyage they had in contemplation, and 
it was instantly torn down and with the other articles, and a 
cask containing about twelve gallons of fresh water carried 
off to the boat, which was kept in charge of three men. They 
repeatedly demanded with much vehemence my compass; 
and finding I had neither that or any other instrument useful 
in navigation, they manifested great disappointment. As 
soon as those who had landed had again reached the boat, by 
swimming through a heavy surf she was put off, and was al- 
most immediately, in consequence of the continued darkness 
of the morning, out of sight. 
* When they had left us, which was according to our esti- 
mation, about half-past five o'clock, we began to look back 
on the scene of plunder, we had so lately witnessed. It was 
fortunate for us that the rain, which had fallen in heavy 
showers in the earlier hours of the morning, had ceased, aS 
we now found ourselves but half-dressed, in our shirts and 
trowsers, having myself neither hat or shoes, and without 
the shelter of a tent. Two of the men who were with me, 
having been prisoners on Norfolk Island for some years, im- 
mediately recognized the several persons who had landed; 
they were known as desperate convicts, whose term of 
transportation was for life; and as they repeatedly hailed by 
name those in charge of the boat, it was at once ascertai 
of whom this ruffian party of runaways was composed. 
They were, seven Irish, two English, one French, and one 
Swede ; in all eleven persons. : 
“Their report of having taken the settlement and impri 
soned Colonel Morriset and his officers, appeared to me at 
first view unworthy of credit, and therefore it gave me not @ 
moment’s uneasiness. I was rather disposed to conceive 1t 
probable, from the circumstance of their having carried 
our cask, which contained about twelve gallons of fresh 
water, as well as from the expression that had escaped them, 
intimating that they had a long voyage before them, that they 
