600 
himself was brought up by the famous ty- 
rant Ali Pacha. He is shrewd and am- 
bitious, and has played the tyrant, !but ‘is 
now persuaded that the road to fame and 
wealth is by pursuing 
ports the people and the republic. Negrs, 
“who once signed his sentence of death, is 
now his minister. Of the islands, Hydra 
and Spezia are under the influence of some 
rich oligarchs, supported by the rabble, and 
Ipsara is purely demccratic, 
** The parties may be said to be three, 
Ist. There is Mayrocordato, the oligarchs 
of the islands, and some of those of the 
Peloponnesus, and the, legislative body. 
These are for order and a mild despotism, 
either under a foreign king, or otherwise. 
This faction stood high, but must now 
‘change its principles or lose its power. 
‘2dly, There is Colocotroni, and some of 
the captains, and some of the oligarchs of 
the Morea, who are for power and plunder, 
This party is going down hill at a gallop. 
And, 3dly, there is Ipsilanti, Odysseus, 
Nepris,/and the mass who are now begin- 
“ning to embrace republican notions, finding 
that they cannot otherwise maintain their 
power.” 
Eas 
VAN DIEMEN’S LAND. 
Cannibalism.—On the 14th of June, 
Alexander Pierce, a convict, was tried at 
Hobart Town, for the murder of a fellow- 
prisoner, named Thomas Cox, in the 
month of November, 1823. He was found 
guilty, and hanged on the Monday after, 
previously to which he made the following 
horrible confession to a Catholic minister : 
“¢T was born in the county of Ferma- 
nagh, in the north of Ireland. In the 
twenty-sixth year of my age, I was con- 
victed of stealing six pairs of shoes, and 
received sentence to be transported for se- 
ven years. [I arrived in Van Dieman’s 
Land, on board the ship Castle Forbes, 
from Sydney; was assigned as servant to 
John Bellenger, with whom I remained 
about nine months ; was then, from mis- 
conduct, returned to the government su- 
perintendent. A few months after, I was 
assigned to a man named Cane, a consta- 
ble, and staid with him only sixteen weeks, 
when an occasion obliged him to take 
me before the magistrates, who ordered 
that I should receive fifty lashes in the 
usual way, and again be returned to 
crown Jabour. Afterwards, I was placed 
to serve a Mr. Seattergood, of New Nor- 
folk, from whom I absconded -into the 
woods, and joined Laughton, Saunders, 
Latten, and Atkinson, who were then at 
large ; staid with them three months, and 
surrendered myself, by a proclamation 
issued by the Lieut.governor, and was 
pardoned. ~ Shortly afterwards I forged 
Several orders, upon which JI obtained 
‘ discovered, ‘T'was ‘Agam* i 
Greece, in 1823 and 1824. 
property. On hearin 
fs] 
the. fraud was 
to re- 
fturnjinto the woods. But, after three or 
_four months, I was taken by a part 
48th regiment, brought to H 
tried for the forgeries, found guilty, an¢ 
sent to the’ Perial Settlement at Macquar- 
rie Harbour for the remainder of my sen- 
tence. I was not there more than a month 
before I made my escapé with seven others, 
namely— Dalton, Traverse, Badman, Ma- 
thews, Greenhill, Brown, and Cornelius. 
We kept altogether for ten days, during 
which time we had no food but our kan- 
garoo skin jackets, which we ate, being 
nearly exhausted with hunger and fatigue. 
On the eleventh night we began'to consult 
what was best to be done for our preser- 
vation, and made up our minds to a 
dreadful result. 
«‘ In the morning we missed three of 
our companions—Dalton, Cornelius, and 
Brown, we concluded had left us.witly the 
intention of going back, if possible. We 
then drew cuts which of us five should die ; 
it fell to Badman’s lot. I went with one 
of the others,to-collect.dry..wood..to.make 
a fire, during which time Traverse had 
succeeded in killing Badman, and had 
begun to cut him up. “We dressed part of 
the flesh immediately, and continued to 
use it as long as it lasted. We then drew 
cuts again, and it fell to the fate of Ma- 
thews. Traverse and: Greenhill killed him 
with an axe, cut. the flesh from. his,bones, 
carried it on, and lived upon it as long as 
it lasted. By the time it was all eat, Tra- 
verse, through fatigue, fell lame in_his 
knee, so much so, that he could not pro- 
ceed. Greenhill proposed that I should 
kill him, which I agreed to. We then 
made the best of our way, carrying the 
flesh of Traverse between us, in the hope 
of reaching the eastern settlements ‘while 
it lasted. We did not, however, suceeed, 
and I perceived Greenhill always carried 
the axe, and thought be watched an oppor- 
tunity to kill me. I was always. on, my. 
guard, and succeeded, when he fell asleep 
to get the axe, with which, I immediately 
despatched him, made a meal, and car- 
ried all the remaining flesh with me to 
feed upon.” 
[To cut short this tale of horrors, we 
will briefly add, that in spite of all these . 
crimes, he was soon after in want of food, 
and subsisted many days on grass and’ net- 
tle tops. At length he wastaken, and re- 
turned to the Penal Settlement,» but: he 
escaped again with Thomas Cox ; -they 
quarrelled, and he killed Cox with an axe, 
ate part of bim that night, and cut the 
greatest part of his flesh up. to carry,with , 
him, but soon after his heart failed him, - 
and he surrendered himself, carrying 
piece of his confederate’s flesh to the c om - 
mandant, to shew that he was dead, | 1 
afterwards conducted:a party to the place 
where he left his remains.] 
