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return peaceably. If they would do so all but wilful murderers would be pardoned. If they should refuse, they would be treated as outlaws. Some surrendered (including Michael Howe, who after three months absconded again), some were pardoned,^[1] and immediately resumed their habits of plunder. Colonel Davey proclaimed martial law in May 1815 in spite of remonstrance from Abbott.

It was nominally in force during five months. Macquarie disallowed the proclamation as exceeding the powers of a Lt. Governor. But Macquarie was not able to enforce under Davey measures for crushing the evil which, in the measured language of a Commissioner of Enquiry, became a systematic, continued or combined effort of desperate convicts to defy the attempts of the local government or to subsist by plunder.^[2] Davey was removed.^[3] Some of the inhabitants of the distracted island had vainly presented an address (Sept. 1815) in favour of maintaining martial law. When the new Lt.-Gov., Colonel Sorell, arrived, bushranging was still rampant in the land, and one of the most notorious was Peter Geary, a deserter from the 73rd Regt. Sorell called the inhabitants together to devise the means of coping with the difficulty. They agreed (5th July 1817) to subscribe funds. Sorell offered rewards which breathed new life among the constabulary. For Geary one hundred guineas were offered. Soldiers joined in the pursuit. Many outlaws were taken, and a stop was speedily put to the dangers which, under Davey's rule, had terrified the peaceable and made insolent the bad.

A detachment of the 46th Regt. was the principal instrument in reducing the island to order. Under Sergeant McCarthy eight of the 46th encountered eleven bush-