The record of their trial is very interesting. The original group of smugglers arrested on the charge of murder were moved to London for trial as authorities were worried about the local people trying to free them. A well kept secret at the time was that one of the smugglers, Edward Horne, had turned witness for the crown and had dubbed them in. He gave damning evidence at their trial and it seemed certain that they must hang. There is a full text online book available that gives first hand accounts of the trial called The Smugglers: pictureseque chapters in the history of contraband provided by the Internet Archive site.
The smugglers had a very astute lawyer who managed to reduce their charges to just smuggling and thus saved them from the death sentence. They received a life sentence and Transportation to Van Diemen's Land.
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This is really interesting
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