3o ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH COLONY [May, 



wards the clothes of the man that was miffing were brought in, torn 

 and bloody, and pierced with fpears; fo that there was every reafon 

 to fuppofe that the poor wretch had fallen a facrifice to his own folly 

 and the barbarity of the natives ; and on the 30th an officer, who 

 had been collecting ruffies in a cove up the harbour, found and 

 brought to the hofpital the bodies of two convids who had been 

 employed for fome time in cutting ruffies there ; they were pierced 

 through in many places with fpears, and the head of one beaten to a 

 jelly. As it was improbable that thefe murders mould be committed 

 without provocation, inquiry was made ; and it appeared that thefe 

 unfortunate men had, a few days previous to their being found, taken 

 away and detained a canoe belonging to the natives ; for which a£r. of 

 violence and injuftice they paid with their lives. 



Notwithstanding thefe circumftances, a party of natives in their 

 canoes went alongfide the Sirius, and fome fubmitted to the operation 

 of {having : after which they landed on the weftern point of the cove, 

 where they examined with the greaterl attention every thing that they 

 faw, and then went away peaceably, and apparently not under any 

 apprehenfion of refentment on our parts for the murders above- 

 mentioned. 



June, 1788.] The Governor, however, on hearing of the mur- 

 der of the rum-cutters, thought it abfolutely neceffary to endeavour 

 to difcover, and, if poffible, fecure thofe who had killed them ; for 

 which purpofe he fet off with aitrong party well armed, and landed 

 in the Cove where their bodies had been found ; whence he ftruck 

 acrofs the country to Botany Bay, where on the beach he faw 

 about fifty canoes, but none of their owners. In a cove on the fea- 

 fide, however, between Botany Bay and Port Jackfon, he fuddenly 

 fell in with an armed party of between two and three hundred natives, 

 confirming of men, women, and children. "With thefe a friendly in- 

 tercourfe dire&ly took place, and fome fpears, &c. were exchanged 

 for hatchets ; but the murderers, if amongft them, could not be dis- 

 covered. The Governor had hoped to have found the people flill at 



the 



