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[Page 36]
[hesi]tate to say, that had they been bent for to us as much injury, as we would have done them, the matter would not have ended so well, for it was in their power, for to have done us almost an irreparable injury by fire, as the colony was so badly of for the want of provisions. Whether the natives were guilty of what was laid to their charge I shall not say, but there has been proofs of the stock-keepers losing part of their flock, and laying the charge to the natives, when at the same time they were innocent.
A serious alarm has just lately happened, by upwards of twenty prisoners absconding from a new settlement called Castle Hill. They were chiefly Irish. They did not proceed far before they rushed into the home of a french emigrant settler. After stripping the house of almost every necessary article, they proceeded to some others, taking away the fire arms, and such other things as engaged their attention. At one home one of them shot a man in the mouth; but he is now in a fair way of recovery. At another two of them committed a rape upon a young woman. From thence they proceeded towards the Hawkesbury, and as it was reported that they were all armed, it gave a suspicion that they would seize upon the settlers