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.
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