Page:Some account of the wars, extirpation, habits.djvu/96

88 to be guilty, were committed to gaol accordingly, and M'Kay bound over to appear at their trial; but the Attorney-General of the time, the shrewd but eccentric Algernon Montagu, who (if it were possible) cared less for public opinion than even the Duke of Wellington, would not prosecute, so they were discharged, that is, if consigning them to the islands of Bass' Straits could be called discharging them.

After it had become known to the men of the Big River tribe through M'Kay, that Thomas' dispositions towards their race were friendly, they expressed great sorrow at having killed him, in which M'Kay believed them to be perfectly sincere.