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CHAPTER VIII

Attempt of some Irish convicts to desert in search of a new settlement
Some punished
Steps taken to prevent future desertion
A settler's boat stolen
Particulars
The _Francis_ returns from the southward
Conjectures as to a strait
Natives
A convict providentially saved
Public works
Weather
1798.]
January.] The Irish prisoners who had arrived in the last ships from
that country had about this period become so turbulent and refractory,
and so dissatisfied with their situation, that, without the most rigid
and severe treatment, it was impossible to derive from them any labour
whatever. In addition to their natural vicious propensities, they conceived
an opinion that there was a colony of white people, which had been
discovered in this country, situated to the SW of the settlement, from
which it was distant between three and four hundred miles, and in which
they were assured of finding all the comforts of life, without the
necessity of labouring for them.


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