[* On the 30th of November, and the others on the 9th and 10th of December.]

Having thus satisfied the public justice of the country, the governor extended the hand of mercy to the three others who had been capitally convicted of the same crime, viz John McDouall (another soldier), Thomas Inville, and Michael Doland (convicts), by granting them a conditional pardon.

It was much to be lamented, that these people were not to be deterred by any example from the practice of robbing the public stores, which had of late been more frequent than heretofore, and for which there could not be admitted the shadow of an excuse; as the whole of the inhabitants of every description were at this very time on a full and liberal allowance of provisions and clothing, neither of which were in any scarcity in the settlement.  But the cause was to be found in the too great indulgence in the use of spirituous liquors which had been obtained among them for a considerable time past.  The different capital crimes which had lately been brought before the court of criminal judicature, together with the various petty offences that daily came under the cognisance of the magistrates, did not proceed from an insufficiency either of food or clothing; but from an inordinate desire of possessing, by any means whatsoever, those articles with which they might be able to procure spirits, ’that source—­as the governor expressed himself in an order which he published directly after these executions—­that source of the misfortunes of all those whom the laws of their country, and the justice that was due to others, had launched into eternity, surrounded with the crimes of an ill-spent life.’

The court having ordered that Francis Morgan should be hung in chains upon the small island which is situated in the middle of the harbour, and named by the natives Mat-te-wan-ye, a gibbet was accordingly erected, and he was hung there, exhibiting an object of much greater terror to the natives, than to the white people, many of whom were more inclined to make a jest of it; but to the natives his appearance was so frightful—­his clothes shaking in the wind, and the creaking of his irons, added to their superstitious ideas of ghosts (for these children of ignorance imagined that, like a ghost, this man might have the power of taking hold of them by the throat), all rendering him such an alarming object to them—­that they never trusted themselves near him, nor the spot on which he hung; which, until this time, had ever been with them a favourite place of resort.

The Prince of Wales, having been cleared of her cargo, sailed on the 23rd for China.  Previous to her departure, the master having complained of the conduct of his ship’s company, the governor appointed a day for their appearing before him; when the differences which subsisted between them were inquired into by his excellency, and settled to the satisfaction of all parties.

The public works in which the people at Sydney had been employed during this month, consisted in receiving the cargoes of the two victuallers, and in clearing out the tanks or reservoirs for water, which had become a necessary work, as they never had been emptied or cleansed since they were first cut and filled in the year 1792.*