CHAPTER IX.
February 1788 to March 1788 A Criminal Court held--Broken Bay explored by Governor Phillip--Interviews with the Natives--Peculiarities remarked--Friendly behaviour and extraordinary courage of an old man.
Governor Phillip soon found with great regret, though doubtless without much surprise, that in the community committed to his care the strict enforcement of the sanctions of law was peculiarly necessary.

There were in it many individuals whom neither lenity could touch, nor rigour terrify; who, with all sense of social duty, appeared to have lost all value for life itself, and with the same wantonness exposed themselves to the darts of the savages, and to the severe punishments which, however reluctantly, every society must inflict when milder methods have been tried without success.

Towards the latter end of February a criminal court was convened, in which six of the convicts received sentence of death.

One, who was the head of the gang, was executed the same day; of the rest, one was pardoned; the other four were reprieved, and afterwards exiled to a small island within the bay, where they were kept on bread and water.

These men had frequently robbed the stores, and the other convicts.