and a man that hod been reported to me Sks a person singled out to head another party in cause the first had failed. I had thie iDfonnation from James Tracy, who then conceived himself in a dying state. He is io^ living.^' I The defence uf the shooting of Prendergass seemed 'indirectly to prove that 'Hhe latter end of the aftay" was raiBnamed. lung's commissioners were directed "to inquire whether the master was necessitated to proceed to such extremities.*' They thought he was, but that the matter should he brought under the cognizance of the Vice- ^Admiralty Court. Five sailors Mere tried for complicity in the mutiny, and rere acquitted. Betts was tried for the shooting in the iiffray, and for shooting the ringleader '* (it was alleged) 'some time after the mutiny."**^ '* On the first count he was acc|viitted, and in the second lie was found ^ilty of manslanghter, and sentenced hy the Court to psty £500 to the Orphan School, and to be imprisoned notil it was paid. As a doubt arose . in my mind respecting the propriety of hia being lined, I have given a con- I ditinnal remission of that part of the scnt<?nce, which 1 have referred to the I Jndge of the Admimlt}^ Comt for His Majesty's pleasure beinc signified I thereon ; and thai the course of justice may not bt perverted (if I am I wrong respecting tlie fine), the master is bound over to abide by that deter I mination and to surrender himself within five days after his arrival in the nrt of London." King ** respectfully hoped" that if the sentence should be ^confirmed the money might he " transmitted for the benefit of the institution it was adjudged to/* While he wrote tliese despatches the military were combined to oppose him, and Paterson was withholding information as to the designs of the French, but under no circumstances was the Orphan School forgotten. The escape of comdcts by ships required continual watching. When Flinders was sailhig from Sydney in 1803 as passenger in H,M,S. F(frp(riH('^ King instructed him to deliver to the Dutch commandant at Timor, ta labour there, any convicts who might be found secreted in the Forpokc or the ships accompanying her. The labour was to be "a sufficient indemnification" for the provisions. If the Dutchmen would not receive runaways found in the porpoise, Flinders was to exact a bond from the masters of the ships to deliver the prisoners into custody in India for
- » King to Transport CommisBionera, ftth Aug, Wfl.
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