Here we find extreme ignorance, accompanied by great cunning, producing cruelty; for nothing less can be said of their abandoning the miserable uninformed companions of their crime.  Self-preservation was their plea; but was there not a method left within their reach, which might have preserved the whole?  Might they not have returned to Sydney, and thrown themselves upon that mercy which they had so often seen exercised in the settlement.  Could it be imagined, that at this day there was existing in a polished civilised kingdom a race of beings (for they do not deserve the appellation of men) so extremely ignorant, and so little humanised as these were, compared with whom the naked savages of the mountains were an enlightened people?

Occasional desertions of one or two people at a time had occurred since the establishment of the settlement; but the first convicts who arrived from Ireland in the Queen in the year 1791 went off in numerous bodies, few of whom ever returned.  They too were prepossessed with the possibility of penetrating through the woods to China, and imparted the same idea to all of their countrymen who came after them, engaging them in the same act of folly and madness.  It was not then to be wondered at, that Wilson, who lately came in from the woods, should, among other articles of information, mention his finding more than fifty skeletons, which the natives assured him had been white men, who had lost their way and perished.  This account was corroborated by different European articles which were scattered about, such as knives, old shoes, and other things which were known not to belong to the natives.

On the 20th the Francis returned with Captain Hamilton from the southward.  Previous to his departure for the wreck of his ship, he had informed the governor that she had on board nearly 7000 gallons of spirits, and solicited permission to bring back a part with him in the schooner.  The governor, ever averse to the introduction of spirituous liquors, would certainly have resisted the application; but, it being generally known in the colony that a considerable quantity of this article had been saved from the wreck, and that the island abounded with kangaroos and birds, he conceived these circumstances not only to have conduced to those desertions and captures of boats which had been effected, but as likely to prove farther temptations to similar practices.  He therefore determined to purchase the rum of Captain Hamilton; and, as there was none in store for the public service, to take it on account of government.  An agreement was accordingly entered into by the commissary, and 3500 gallons were brought round in the Francis.

Captain Hamilton stated, that of all the other articles which had been taken on shore from the wreck, a small quantity of coarse cloth alone had been saved, the remainder having been destroyed by gales of wind and bad weather.  The wreck of the ship was entirely washed away.  Of the six Lascars who had been left with the property, one had died; the other five were in health, and had lived tolerably well, killing upon a neighbouring island as many kangaroos and birds as they could use.  These poor fellows had erected a smoke-house, and had salted and smoke-dried as much meat as would serve them during the ensuing winter.