第27章 CHAPTER XIV(2)

The man applied to,under pretence of fetching what he asked for,went away and immediately gave the necessary information,in consequence of which a party under arms was sent out and apprehended him.When the poor wretch was brought in,he was greatly emaciated and almost famished.But on proper restoratives being administered,he was so far recovered by the 24th,as to be able to stand his trial,when he pleaded Guilty to the robbery with which he stood charged,and received sentence of death.In the course of repeated examinations it plainly appeared,he was an utter stranger to the place where the cattle might be,and was in no shape concerned in having driven them off.

Samuel Peyton,convict,for having on the evening of the King's birth-day broke open an officer's marquee,with an intent to commit robbery,of which he was fully convicted,had sentence of death passed on him at the same time as Corbet;and on the following day they were both executed,confessing the justness of their fate,and imploring the forgiveness of those whom they had injured.Peyton,at the time of his suffering,was but twenty years of age,the greatest part of which had been invariably passed in the commission of crimes,that at length terminated in his ignominious end.

The following letter,written by a fellow convict to the sufferer's unhappy mother,I shall make no apology for presenting to the reader;it affords a melancholy proof,that not the ignorant and untaught only have provoked the justice of their country to banish them to this remote region.

Sydney Cove,Port Jackson,New South Wales,24th June,1788.

"My dear and honoured mother!

"With a heart oppressed by the keenest sense of anguish,and too much agitated by the idea of my very melancholy condition,to express my own sentiments,I have prevailed on the goodness of a commiserating friend,to do me the last sad office of acquainting you with the dreadful fate that awaits me.

"My dear mother!with what agony of soul do I dedicate the few last moments of my life,to bid you an eternal adieu!

my doom being irrevocably fixed,and ere this hour to-morrow I shall have quitted this vale of wretchedness,to enter into an unknown and endless eternity.I will not distress your tender maternal feelings by any long comment on the cause of my present misfortune.Let it therefore suffice to say,that impelled by that strong propensity to evil,which neither the virtuous precepts nor example of the best of parents could eradicate,I have at length fallen an unhappy,though just,victim to my own follies.

"Too late I regret my inattention to your admonitions,and feel myself sensibly affected by the remembrance of the many anxious moments you have passed on my account.

For these,and all my,other transgressions,however great,I supplicate the Divine forgiveness;and encouraged by the promises of that Saviour who died for us all,I trust to receive that mercy in the world to come,which my offences have deprived me of all hope,or expectation of,in this.

The affliction which this will cost you,I hope the Almighty will enable you to bear.Banish from your memory all my former indiscretions,and let the cheering hope of a happy meeting hereafter,console you for my loss.Sincerely penitent for my sins;sensible of the justice of my conviction and sentence,and firmly relying on the merits of a Blessed Redeemer,I am at perfect peace with all mankind,and trust I shall yet experience that peace,which this world cannot give.Commend my soul to the Divine mercy.

I bid you an eternal farewell.

"Your unhappy dying Son,"SAMUEL PEYTON."After this nothing occurred with which I think it necessary to trouble the reader.The contents of the following chapters could not,I conceive,be so properly interwoven in the body of the work;I have,therefore,assigned them a place by themselves,with a view that the conclusions adopted in them may be more strongly enforced on the minds of those,to whom they are more particularly addressed.