the rest at a proper time liberated, after having seen the fate of their comrades, and being made sensible of the cause of their own detention.
'This scheme His Excellency was pleased instantly to adopt, adding, "If six cannot be taken, let this number be shot. Should you, however, find it practicable to take so many, I will hang two, and send the rest to Norfolk Island for a certain period, which will cause their countrymen to believe that we have despatched them secretly."
'At four o'clock on the morning of the 14th we marched; … provided with three days' provisions, ropes to bind our prisoners with, and hatchets and bags, to cut off and contain the heads of the slain. …'
Tench and his men spent two or three days in this attempt, but the natives eluded capture, and says the narrator:—
'At one o'clock we renewed our march, and at three halted near a fresh water swamp, where we resolved to remain until morning; that is, after a day of severe fatigue, to pass a night of restless inquietude, when weariness is denied repose by swarms of mosquitoes and sand-flies, which in the summer months bite and sting the traveller without measure or intermission. Next morning we bent our steps homeward; and, after wading breast-high through two arms of the sea, as broad as the Thames at Westminster, were glad to find ourselves at Sydney between one and two o'clock in the afternoon.'
