522 ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH COLONY [January, 



from Ireland, with a very different cargo : inftead of elegancies from 

 Bond-ftreet, fhe brought 162 male and 26 female convicts from the 

 gaols of that kingdom ; all of whom were in perfed health, their 

 treatment and management on board doing the higheft credit to thofe 

 who were concerned in the care of them. This vefTel, having touched 

 at Rio de Janeiro, had brought many needful articles for fale, as well 

 from that port as from England ; but the prices required for them 

 were fuch as to drain the colony of every milling that could be fcraped 

 together. 



With the Minerva came the Fhynne, from Bengal ; which had . 

 been chartered by the officers of the colony, through the means of an 

 agent. She was freighted on their account with many articles y among 

 which, as more labour eould be obtained for fpirits than for any other 

 mode of payment, fo effential a commodity had not been omitted. 



The criminal court about this time was called upon to take cogni* 

 zance of the murder of two native boys. The bufinefs, as it appeared 

 upon the trial, was this :— The natives having, fome Ihort time before^ 

 murdered two men who poflefTed farms at the Hawkefbury, fome of 

 the fettlers in that diftrid determined to revenge their death. There 

 were at this time three native boys living with one Powell, a fettler,. 

 and two others his neighbours. Thefe unoffending lads they feleded 

 as the objeds of their revenge. Having informed them, that they 

 thought they could find the guns belonging to the white men, they 

 were difpatched for that purpofe, and in a mort time brought them in, 

 Powell and his affociates now began their work of vengeance. They 

 drove the boys into a barn ; where, after tying their hands behind 

 their backs, thefe cowardly mifcreants repeatedly ftabbed them, untit 

 two of them fell and died beneath their hands. The third, making 

 his efcape, jumped into the river, and, although in fwimming he 

 could only make ufe of his feet, yet under this difadvantage, and 

 with the favage murderers of his companions firing at him repeatedly, 

 he actually reached the oppofite bank alive, and foon joined his own 

 people. 



The 



