It became necessary at length for the criminal justice of the settlement to interfere, and three convicts were tried for burglaries.  John Bevan, though tried on two charges, was acquitted from a want of evidence, and others, John Flemming and Archibald McDonald, were convicted.  The latter of these two had broken into a soldier’s hut the night before the court sat, and at a time when it was publicly known in the settlement that it was to sit for the trial of such offenders as might be brought before it.  The state of the colony called loudly for their punishment, and they were both executed the third day after their conviction.  It was afterwards said, that McDonald was one of the party who broke into the clergyman’s house.

Soon after these executions, Caesar*, still incorrigible, took up again his former practice of subsisting in the woods by plundering the farms and huts at the outskirts of the towns.  He was soon taken; but on his being punished, and that with some severity, he declared with exultation and contempt, that ‘all that would not make him better.’

[* See Chapter VII, from “Toward the end of the month, some convicts having reported . . .” et seq.]

The Hope sailed this month for Canton, the master being suffered to take with him one man, John Pardo Watts, who had served his time of transportation.

The Britannia was also hired in this month by some of the officers of the civil and military departments, to procure them cattle and other articles at the Cape of Good Hope.

During this month a building, consisting of four cells for prisoners, was added to the guard-house on the east side of the cove.  This had long been greatly wanted; and, the whole being now inclosed with a strong high paling, some advantage was expected to be derived from confinement adopted only as a punishment.

CHAPTER XXVII

The Speedy sails and returns
Excursion to the western mountains
The Francis returns from Norfolk Island
Corn bills not paid
The Britannia sails for the Cape, and the Speedy on her fishing voyage
Notification respecting the corn bills
The Resolution and Salamander arrive from England
Irish prisoners troublesome
Gales of wind
Natives
Daedalus sails for Norfolk Island
Emancipations
The Fancy sails
A death
Bevan executed
A settler murdered at Parramatta
The Mercury arrives
Spanish ships
Emancipation
Settlers and natives
Civil Court
The Surprize arrives
Deaths
Resolution and Salamander sail
Transactions
The Daedalus returns from Norfolk Island
The Mercury sails for America
The Lieutenant-Governor leaves the Settlement
The Daedalus sails for England, and the Surprize for Bengal
The Experiment arrives
Captain Paterson assumes the government pro tempore
Ration
Deaths in 1794