17B9.] OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 55 



when they knew their affociate would have the {lore under his 

 charge, and, by means of the keys, fheltered in the fecurity which 

 he afforded them, (by betraying in fo flagrant a manner the truft and 

 confidence repofed in him as a centinel,) they mould open a paffage 

 into the ftore, where they mould remain fhut up until they had pro* 

 cured as much liquor and provisions as they could take off. If the 

 patroles vifited the (lore while they chanced to be within its walls, the 

 door was found locked and fecure, the centinel alert and vigilant on 

 his pod, and the ftore apparently fafe. 



Fortunately for the fettlement, on the night preceding the difco- 

 very one of the party intended to have availed hirnfelf of his fituation 

 as centinel, to enter the flore alone, purpofing to plunder with- 

 out the participation of his afTociates. But while he was ftanding with 

 the key in the lock, he heard the patrole advancing. The key had 

 done its office ; but, as he knew that the lock would be examined 

 by the corporal, in his fright and hafte to turn it back again, he mif- 

 took the way, and was compelled to leave the w^ards in it ; the 

 other part of the key he threw away. 



On this information, the fix foldiers whom he accufed were taken 

 up and tried ; when, the evidence of the accomplice being confirmed 

 "by feveral ftrong corroborating circumftances (among which it ap- 

 peared that the ftore had been broken into and robbed by them at va- 

 rious times for upwards of eight months), they were unanimoufly 

 found guilty, and fentenced to fuffer that death which they acknow- 

 ledged they had juftly merited. Their defence wholly confided in 

 accufmg the accomplice of having been the firft to propofe and carry 

 the plan into execution, and afterwards the firft to accufe and ruin 

 the people whom he had influenced to affociate with him. A crime 

 of fuch magnitude called for a fevere example j and the fentence was 

 carried into execution a few days after the trial. 



Some of thefe unhappy men were held in high eftimation by their 

 officers ; but the others, together with the accomplice Hunt, had 

 been long verging toward this melancholy fate. Four of them had 



4 been 



