As the offence consisted in aiding a convict, it was
requisite to prove that such was the person found on board his ship; but,
upon referring to a list of the prisoners who were embarked in the
_Royal Admiral_, the ship in which Arm Holmes had been sent out to
New South Wales, no specific term of transportation was found annexed to
her name. On the question then, whether the master had aided a convict in
making an escape, he was acquitted, it not being possible by any document
to prove that Holmes was at that moment a convict. But the master was
reprehensible in concealing any person whatever in his ship, and ought to
have felt the awkwardness of his situation, in being brought before a
court for the breach of an order expressly issued a short time before to
guard him and others against the offence that he had committed.
When the _Hillsborough_ was searched, not less than thirty convicts
were found to have been received on board, against the orders and without
the knowledge of the officers, and secreted by the seamen.
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