wanted to be going, but Jackson, Carter, and the rest persuaded them to stay and have more drink, and make it up, saying they were sorry for what had happened. Unfortunately for Galley and Chater, they were persuaded, and stayed drinking with all present. Jackson and Carter after a while wanted to see the letter they were taking to Major Battin, but they refused to show it ; whereupon they made a resolution that they would see it, and for that purpose plied them well with drink till they and Thomas Austin were completely fuddled, when they persuaded Galley and Chater to go into another room, in which was a bed, and lie down : they did so , and from the effects of the liquor, were soon fast asleep ; the letter was then taken out of one of their pockets, brought into the kitchen, and read by one of the party, and the contents of it being plainly a design to promote an information against some of the gang, they agreed first to destroy the letter, and then consulted what to do with the men.
And now began a series of cold-blooded cruelty and barbarity, the bare recital of which makes one's blood curdle, and which, were the facts not well authenticated, would lead persons to doubt if human beings in a civilized country could be found to put in practice such a piece of diabolical savageness.
Galley and Chater being still asleep on the bed, one of the smugglers, Jackson, putting on his spurs, got -
