NEW SOUTH WALES. 73 



clothes, the Governor ordered, that any person 

 buying them, should on information be obliged 

 to redeliver them, and lose the money they 

 might have given for them. 



At the end of February, the detachment took 

 possession of their barracks, and a brick guard- 

 house was began. At Rose-Hill the ground 

 was being cleared, but the labour of reriibving 

 the timber when cut down, very much retarded 

 the progress of our people. One of the convicts, 

 in March, strayed away to the woods, to obtain 

 a herb called by us the sweet tea, and he was 

 murdered bv the natives. The brick-makers 



y 



gang, to which this man belonged, determined 

 on revenge, and arming themselves with sticks, 

 proceeded against the natives, but met a larger 

 number than they expected, who threw spears 

 at them, and killed one man and wounded six. 

 On this, a well armed party was sent out, who 

 found the body of the man, and a boy whom 

 they had wounded and nearly cut his left ear 

 off. Notwithstanding this party suffered so 

 much, by going without orders against the 

 natives, the Governor determined to punish 

 them, and ordered those not wounded to have 

 150 lashes each, and as soon as the others re- 

 covered, they were to have the same. Six 

 soldiers were discovered, in a plan they had long 

 executed, of robbing the store, by means of a 

 false key, which breaking in the lock, led to a 

 discovery, and the six were tried and hung. In 

 the mean time Norfolk Island escaped an in- 



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