The tower of the new wind-mill was, under all these disadvantages, completed, and the machinery put in hand. This tower was of large dimensions, being 30 feet in height, and erected on a rock which was considerably higher than the surrounding ground. The wheel was four feet in thickness, and the diameter within was 20 feet.
There was very little intermission of rain, thunder, and lightning, during the whole of the month.
April.] This month opened with a necessary act of justice. Five men were capitally convicted, before the court of criminal judicature, of seizing two boats, the property of individuals, with an intent of escaping from the colony. One man was capitally convicted of a robbery; three were transported to Norfolk Island for 14 years; one for 7; one was adjudged corporal punishment, and one acquitted.
Two of the five that were condemned for seizing the boats suffered death at Sydney, after a week's preparation for that awful moment. Their companions were respited at the place of execution. They were all extremely penitent, confessed the justice of their sentence, and acknowledged how much mischief they had done, and how much more they meditated, had they not been overtaken by justice.
One man, for robbery, was executed at Parramatta, George Mitton, who certainly was a very fit subject for an example. He had been twice pardoned when under sentence of death; once in Ireland; and once in this country, by the present governor, for an offence similar to that for which he now suffered.
These melancholy instances, had they been properly attended to, must have hewn to the convicts not only the difficulty which accompanied every attempt to escape privately from the colony, and the danger to which those who made the trial exposed themselves, but the certainty of meeting that punishment which the various crimes that they committed on such occasions so highly merited. The governor, in an order which he now published, was desirous of calling back to the recollection of these misguided people, who had been, either through ignorance, or through the profligacy of their dispositions, so readily prevailed upon to engage in such dangerous enterprises, that they would find an attention to the advice which he had so often given them the most effectual means of ensuring their real happiness. They would also recollect, that an information was given him on the 19th of January last, in which he appeared to have foreseen, and had pointed out to those piratical gangs who wished to make their escape from hence, what would be the fate of those who were of least use to the general plan of such gangs, that they would probably, if in danger at sea in their boat, be thrown overboard to lighten her, or be landed on some part of the coast, where, beyond a doubt, they would perish. How far this prediction had been verified, those who were concerned in taking off the settlers' boat, and who might now be in the settlement, could best tell. It was well known, that they had treacherously left seven men upon a desolate island far to the southward, where they must have perished for want, had they not been discovered in a most miraculous manner. He wished those facts to be impressed upon the minds of the whole colony; they would then probably discover in what their real interest consisted, and on what their true happiness depended. To be honest and industrious had been often hewn to be the most certain means of procuring those blessings.
Mitton, before he was executed, confessed in a moment of penitence, that many robberies had been concerted, and were to have been committed by him and some others. He mentioned, as their chief instigator upon these occasions, a woman of the name of Robley (the wife of a blacksmith at Sydney), who received all the property which they might collect in this way. Dreading this discovery, she found it convenient to offer to accuse others, or she would inevitably have been convicted herself.
It was reported by a native woman from the Hawkesbury, that she had seen the two mares which were stolen some time since from Parramatta, and that they were in the neighbourhood of that river. She also mentioned, that one of the men who went off with them had been killed by the natives, and that the other had perished with hunger.
The proprietors of this valuable article of stock were rather unfortunate in the care of it, notwithstanding the high price which it bore. The acting commissary lost a very fine mare, through the stupidity of an Irish servant, who put a short halter round her neck, with a running knot, by which she was strangled in the night; and information had been received of the death of two foals belonging to government. This accident proceeded from want of proper care in those who were appointed to look after them; but unfortunately, though they were often changed, the change was never found to be for the better.
When Hacking was sent to the salt-hill in the preceding month, he was accompanied by Wilson and another man, who were directed to penetrate as far into the interior of the country as the provisions which they were able to carry would permit them. They returned after an absence of three weeks, and reported that they had been about 140 miles in a direction SW by S from Prospect Hill. In the course of their journey they travelled over a vast variety of country, and fell in with more salt-hills. They also met with many narrow rivers or creeks (with which the country appeared to be much intersected), and found some very extensive tracts of open luxuriant ground, as well as much unpromising land. They ascended several hills of great height, from which their prospect was extensive, and whence they discovered mountains rising upon mountains to the westward; all of which appeared exceedingly high. They did not, however, meet a single native in all their journey (a proof that the human race was but thinly scattered over the interior part of this extensive country); but they brought with them another of those beautiful birds before described.