2 3 o ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH COLONY [October, 



which the laft year grew Indian corn. The weather throughout the 

 month had been extremely favourable for wheat. 



The number of convicts which it was intended to receive into the 

 New South Wales corps being determined, a warrant of emancipation 

 pa{Ted the feal of the territory, giving conditional freedom to three- 

 and-twenty perfons of that defcription, feven of whom . had been 

 tranfported for life, and three had between fix and nine years to ferve. 

 The condition of their pardon was, their continuing to ferve in the 

 corps into which they had enlifted until they mould be regularly dis- 

 charged therefrom. 



Several frefh proofs of the incorrigible depravity of the convicls 

 had occurred during the month of October : four of them had broken 

 into the houfe of a fettler, where with large bludgeons they had 

 beaten and nearly murdered two men who lived with him. The 

 hands and faces of thefe mifcreants were blackened ; and it was ob- 

 ferved, that they did not fpeak during the time they were in the hut 

 It was fuppofed that they were fome of thofe who had come from 

 Ireland ; feven of whom, with one woman, had at this time abfconded 

 into the woods. 



During a ftorm of rain and thunder which happened in the after- 

 noon of Saturday the 26th, two convi&s, who were employed in 

 cutting wood when the rain commenced, ran to a tree for fhelter, 

 where they were found the next morning lying dead, together with a 

 dog which followed them. There was no doubt that the fhelter which 

 they fought had proved their deftrudion, and that they had been 

 ftruck dead by lightning, fome flames of which had been obferved to 

 be very vivid and near. One of them, when he received the ftroke, had 

 his hands in his bofom ; the hands of the other were acrofs his breaft, 

 and he feemed to have had fomething in them. The pupils of their 

 eyes were confiderably dilated, and the tongue of each, as well as that 

 of the dog, was forced out between the teeth. Their faces were livid, 

 and the fame appearance was vifible on feveral parts of their bodies. 

 The tree at the foot of which they were found was barked at the top, 



and 



