It should seem that the commission of crimes was never to cease in this
settlement. Scarcely had the last court of judicature sent one man to the
gallows, when a highway robbery was committed between the town of Sydney
and Parramatta. Three men rushed from an adjoining wood, and, knocking
down a young man who was travelling to the last mentioned town, rifled
his pockets of a few dollars. On his recovering, finding that only one
man remained, who was endeavouring to twist his handkerchief from his
neck, he swore that no one person should plunder him, and had a struggle
with this fellow, who, not being the strongest of the two, was secured
and taken into Parramatta. A court was immediately assembled for his
trial; but the evidence was not thought sufficient to convict him, and he
was consequently acquitted. The want of any corroborating circumstance on
the part of the prosecutor compelled the court to this acquittal.
A quantity of fresh pork having been for some time received into the
store, there were found at this period six months salt provisions
remaining; which, without this supply would have been all consumed, and
the colony left without animal food, save in the article of live stock, a
resource on which it could not have been prudent to have touched as a
supply, except in a case of the last necessity.
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