Late accounts from Sydney mention the execution of seven men,
part of a gang who murdered a party of thirty natives—men, women, and children—under circumstances of peculiar atrocity. They had all of them been convicts, and were employed in looking after cattle. In revenge for the loss of some cattle, supposed to have been speared by the natives, they resolved to extirpate all they could find. They fastened the poor creatures together with ropes, and then hacked them to pieces whit knives and cutlasses. They afterwards made a fire of the mangled limbs, and burned the bones. The murder, however, was discovered ; and after several months had elapsed, (for the crime was committed in June last,) seven of the ruffians were seized; and though acquitted by one jury, were found guilty on a second trial, and banged. Many persons in Sydney, it is said, expressed resentment that English- men should be hanged merely for killing "a few black cannibals." [This reminds us to ask, what are the Government and Sir William Molesworth doing with the Transportation Report ?]
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