Page:An account of the English colony in New South Wales.djvu/15

 and compelled me to condemn the temerity which could a second time forego every earthly enjoyment, a second time to encounter each species of hardship, and all the various dangers so certainly attendant upon those who explore new and distant climes: a sacrifice for which no reward however liberal, no praise however loud, could offer any adequate recompence.

From the performance of my laborious task I can claim no other praise than that to which a perseverance in what was irksome may be thought to entitle me; though to the best of my judgment I have rendered the abridgment as perfect as it could be; having been careful to insert all that could interest the general class of readers, and to omit only such parts as must, by a repetition of crimes and their punishment, with the oft-repeated regulations and laws consequent thereto, become distressing or tedious. Yet enough of the former still remains, to convince every reflecting mind of the wisdom which dictated the relieving their country from a set of people so hostile to the interests and safety of its more worthy inhabitants. Nor can the specimens here given of incurable depravity fail to convince the most violent opposers of the colonising system of its necessity; or at least to fill them with gratitude to that government which has, by removing such numbers of unprincipled people, endeavoured to protect them from depredation and violence. Were