1789.] 



OF NEW SOUTH WALES, 



55 



got into the woods ; and the ferjeant and the party were to be treated 

 in the fame manner. Thefe people being all properly taken care of, 

 a fignai was to be made to the fhip in the Bay to fend her boat on 

 fhorej the crew of which were to be made prifoners on their landing ; 

 and two or three of the infurgents were to go off in a boat belonging 

 to the ifland, and inform the commanding officer that the fhip's boat 

 had been ftove on the beach, and that the commandant requefted 

 another might be fent on fhore ; this was alfo to be captured : and 

 then, as the la ft acT of this abfurd fcheme, the fhip was to be taken, 

 with which they were to proceed to Otaheite, and there eftablifh a 

 fettlement. They, however, charitably intended to leave fome pro- 

 vifions for the commandant and his officers, and for fuch of the 

 people as did not accompany them in their efcape. This was their 

 fcheme, and not one difficulty in the execution of it . ever occurred to 

 their imagination : all was to happen with as much facility as it was plan- 

 ned ; and, had it not been fortunately revealed to a fearnan belonging 

 to the Sirius, who lived with Mr. King as a gardener, by a female 

 convicT that cohabited with him, there was no doubt but all thefe im- 

 probabilities would have been attempted. 



On being made acquainted with thefe circumftances, the command- 

 ant took fuch meafures as appeared to him neceffary to defeat them ; 

 and feveral perfons confeffed the fhare which they were to have had 

 in the execution of this foolim fcheme. Mr. King had hitherto, from 

 the peculiarity of his fituation, — -fecluded from fociety, and confined 

 to a fmall fpeck in the vail ocean, with but a handful of people, — 

 drawn them around him, and treated them with the kind attentions 

 which a good family meets with at the hands of a humane matter ; 

 but he now faw them in their true colours ; and one of his firft fteps, 

 when peace was reftored, was to clear the ground as far as poffible 

 round the fettlement, that future villainy might not find a fhelter in 

 the woods for its tranfa&ions. To this truly providential circum- 

 ftance, perhaps, many colonifts afterwards were indebted for their 

 lives. 



On 



