On reaching Manly Cove, three Indians were observed standing on a rock, with whom they entered into conversation.  The Indians informed them, that the man who had wounded the governor belonged to a tribe residing at Broken Bay, and they seemed highly to condemn what he had done.  Our gentlemen asked them for a spear, which they immediately gave.  The boat’s crew said that Baneelon and Colbee had just departed, after a friendly intercourse.  Like the others, they had pretended highly to disapprove the conduct of the man who had thrown the spear, vowing to execute vengeance upon him.

From this time, until the 14th, no communication passed between the natives and us.  On that day, the chaplain and lieutenant Dawes, having Abaroo with them in a boat, learned from two Indians that Wileemarin was the name of the person who had wounded the governor.  These two people inquired kindly how his excellency did, and seemed pleased to hear that he was likely to recover.  They said that they were inhabitants of Rose Hill, and expressed great dissatisfaction at the number of white men who had settled in their former territories.  In consequence of which declaration, the detachment at that post was reinforced on the following day.

A hazardous enterprise (but when liberty is the stake, what enterprise is too hazardous for its attainment!) was undertaken in this month by five convicts at Rose Hill, who, in the night, seized a small punt there, and proceeded in her to the South Head, whence they seized and carried off a boat, appropriated to the use of the lookout house, and put to sea in her, doubtless with a view of reaching any port they could arrive at, and asserting their freedom.  They had all come out in the last fleet; and for some time previous to their elopement, had been collecting fishing tackle, and hoarding up provisions, to enable them to put their scheme into execution*.

[They have never since been heard of.  Before they went away, they tried in vain to procure firearms.  If they were not swallowed by the sea, probably they were cut off by the natives, on some part of the coast where their necessities obliged them to land.]

CHAPTER IX.

Transactions of the Colony in part of September and October, 1790.

From so unfavourable an omen as I have just related, who could prognosticate that an intercourse with the natives was about to commence!  That the foundation of what neither entreaty, munificence, or humanity, could induce, should be laid by a deed, which threatened to accumulate scenes of bloodshed and horror was a consequence which neither speculation could predict, or hope expect to see accomplished.