, 7 38.] OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 37 



the woods, but being brought back was punifhed for his impofition 

 with fifty lames. Still, however, perfifting that he had difcovered a 

 metal, a fpecitnen of which he produced, the governor ordered him 

 to be taken again down the harbour, with directions to his adjutant to 

 land the men on the place which he fhould point out, and keep him 

 in light j but on being allured by that officer, that if he attempted to 

 deceive him he would put him to death, the man confeffed that his 

 (lory of having found a gold-mine was a falfehood which he had pro- 

 pagated in the hope of impofing on the people belonging to the Fifh- 

 burn and Golden Grove ftore-mips, from whom he expected to pro- 

 cure cloathing and other articles in return for his promifed gold-dud ; 

 and that he had fabricated the fpecimens of the metal which he had 

 exhibited, from a guinea and a brafs buckle ; the remains of which 

 he then produced, and was rewarded for his ingenuity with a hundred 

 lafh.es. 



Among the people of his own defcription, there were many who 

 believed, notwithstanding his confeffion and punifhment, that he had 

 actually made the difcovery which he pretended, and that he was in- 

 duced to fay it was a fabrication merely to fecure it to himfelf, to 

 make ufe of at a future opportunity : fo eafy is it to impofe on the 

 minds of the lower clafs of people ! 



The natives continued to moleft the inhabitants whenever they 

 chanced to meet any of them ftraggling and unarmed ; yet, although 

 forcibly warned by the evil and danger that attended their being thus 

 found, the latter dill continued to give the natives opportunity of in- 

 juring them. About the middle of this month a convict who had 

 wandered beyond the limits of fecurity fell in with a party of natives, 

 who ftripped and beat him mockingly, and would have murdered him 

 had not the report of a mufquet frightened them away. On the 2 lit 

 a party of natives landed from five canoes, near the point where the 

 obfervatory was building, where, fome of them engaging the atten- 

 tion of the officers and people at the obfervatory, the others attempted 

 forcibly to take off a goat from the people at the hofpital ; in which 



attempt. 



