1808 30 June. be presented to Johnston. 98. Among the numerous alarming and terrific reports and orders that were given out every day, on Monday, the 8th February, in the morning, at a time when the soldiers and townspeople were A public filled with spirituous liquors, the bellman was ordered to cry meeting. through the streets that a meeting would be held in the church at eight o'clock at night. At the hour appointed the church was crowded with soldiers and the disaffected party, of whom the chief were Lieut. Wm. Minchin, L't Wm. Lawson, Mr. D'Arcy Wentworth, Edward McArthur, Gregory Blaxland, Lieut. Wm. Moore, John Harris (Surgeon of the New South Wales Corps), Thomas Jamison (Principal Surgeon), Doctor Townson, Isaac Nichols, Henry Kable. Besides these were Nicholas Bayly and Garnham Blaxcell, who, assisted by Simeon Lord, proposed that a sword A sword to should be voted to Major Johnston, not under the value of one hundred guineas, for the wise and salutary measures which he had adopted to suppress the tyranny which had ruled this country, and with it an address of thanks for his manly and spirited conduct on the 26th of January; that an address of thanks should be An address to the Corps, presented to the New South Wales Corps for their spirited and and to manly conduct on the same day; that an address of thanks might Macarthur. also be presented by the inhabitants of the town of Sydney to Jno. McArthur, Esq., as having been chiefly instrumental in bringing about the happy change which took place on that day; and likewise that a delegate might be appointed to be sent to England to a delegate state to His Majesty's Ministers those grievances the inhabitants of to be sent this colony laboured under during the administration of Governor Bligh and to pray redress. Home. sent for. the meeting. 99. They then asked who should be appointed. Some insignifi- Macarthur cant person said John McArthur, and he was accordingly sent for. He immediately came, and in very studied language described what he called the injuries which he had received from His Excellency Governor Bligh and the Bench of Magistrates, telling the people that they then beheld a man who had nearly fallen a victim to a band of bloody-minded and bloodthirsty butchers, villains who wanted to drink his blood, and farther using the most scurrilous language against the Governor and Bench of Magistrates, comparing them to nothing less than a parcel of assassins. He said that Headdresses plans, the most diabolical, had been laid with such damnable craft that they could not have failed to overwhelm him in total ruin and destruction had it not been for the timely interposition of Divine Providence in rescuing him from the malice of his enemies, at the same time using such pathetic tones and gestures as he thought would most affect and delude the people who were around him. He farther stated that, notwithstanding the injuries he had received from the Governor and magistrates, yet he did not wish a hair of their heads to be injured. He then concluded by thanking the populace for the honor they conferred on him by appointing 1808 30 June. Macarthur agrees to go Home as delegate. His expenses to be defrayed. him their delegate, and said, however repugnant it was to his wishes to embark for England at that time, and notwithstanding his want of capacity to fulfil the arduous task imposed on him, yet in gratitude to his friends he would devote the last hour of his existence to their service, would immediately settle his affairs, proceed to England, and lay before His Majesty's Ministers the very heavy grievances under which the inhabitants of these settlements laboured during His Excellency Governor Bligh's administration that they might be redressed. 100. Mr. Garnham Blaxcell then arose and proposed that a subscription should be opened for the purpose of defraying their delegate's (John McArthur, Esq.) expenses in proceeding to England and accomplishing his undertaking. On this Mr. John Blaxland stood up and proposed that a service of plate should be presented by the inhabitants to the officers of the New South Wales Corps, for the use of their mess, as a testimony of their gratitude and respect for their very spirited, manly, and patriotic conduct on the ever memorable 26th January, 1808. 101. In consequence of Mr. Blaxcell's proposal, a subscription was opened and, as I am informed, the following persons voted the sums as here expressed against their names, and at the same time signed a paper-of which the enclosed is a copy : No money raised. The case of Garnham Blaxcell 200 0 0 £1,095 50 102. Notwithstanding this subscription, report says that not a farthing has been realised, and it seems to be confirmed, for McArthur disgusted the principals and became afraid of going to England, as it will appear hereafter, by his putting himself in office. The night ended in a great scene of drunkenness, during which, altho' some horrid act was every hour expected to happen. yet it did not take place, notwithstanding McArthur indirectly recommended it in his address to the people, and the time was so propitious to his plans. 103. It will appear in my despatches by the Duke of Portland* that I suspended Mr. D'Arcy Wentworth, assistant-surgeon, and gave my reasons for so doing. The rebels who had seized my papers and read my representation concerning him, sent him a copy, and in order to clear him of the accusation there contained contrived that he should be tried on those charges by a Court-Martial. On this occasion Major Johnston applied to me on the 9th of February *See Bligh's letter of 31st October, 1807, ante, p. 368. 1808 to know if I had any other evidence besides Oakes and Beldon, whom they discovered by my papers to have given me the private 30 June. information I had concerning him. To this I replied that my letter to His Majesty's Secretary of State contained the charges I preferred against him. Nevertheless, they presumed to bring him to a Court-Martial, acquitted him, and Major Johnston restored him to his situation. Jamison. 104. In a similar manner they extracted out of my despatches The case of what I had represented against Mr. Thomas Jamison, Principal Thomas Surgeon, and sending it to him, they also wished to bring him to trial, and wrote to me requesting that I would be pleased to specify what offence Mr. Jamison had committed, and that when he was acquainted with the particulars of my charges, I should be at liberty to proceed to the proof of them in any manner I might most approve. In reply to this, I observed that the private communication of my letter to the Secretary of State respecting Mr. Jamison I referred to the decision of His Majesty's Ministers, to whom he might apply. 105. On or about the 15th Feb'y a printed order was stuck up to this effect : appointed "JOHN MCARTHUR, Esq., is appointed Secretary to the Colony Macarthur and magistrate, and all applications are to be made to him. It is Secretary. to be observed that no emolument is attached to either situation. "By command of His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor "(Signed) NICHOLAS BAYLY, merely 106. This declaration is truly insulting when we consider the con- Johnston duct of McArthur and Major Johnston, who is only his instru- Macarthur's ment. By this appointment McArthur has become the sole manager instrument. of the colony. He has given every lucrative situation to his creatures; he has issued the stores wantonly to his own and their private purposes; has given away and disposed of Government cattle to persons greatly in his debt, so that the profits of them will finally return to himself; he has renewed and given away several leases of places in the town to his party; he is employing in his own and their private concerns, artificers, labourers, and Government cattle; he has let out Government factory; he has even Macarthur's sold from the store three pair of mill-stones which I intended for alleged appropriations the out-settlements, and taken two pair of them to himself, as likewise thirty stand of arms, which there is no doubt have been sent in the Parramatta, his schooner, to barter for pork in the South Seas; and his and their vessels have been fitted out with anchors, cables and canvas, sails, and other articles necessary for His Majesty's ships and vessels here. He has dismissed Mr. John The superJamieson, superintendant of Government stock, as appeared by his intendent (Mr. Jamieson's) letter,* on account of his having refused to remove dismissed. the Government herds to Broken Bay, where there is scarcely anything but rocks and barren ground, in order that his own * See Jamieson to Bligh, 28th April, 1808, ante, p. 606. of stock 1808 licenses. cattle might have the entire range of Government ground in the 30 June. neighbourhood of Parramatta. As a further insult to Government, he has sold a large ten-oared boat, which had been kept for the Governor's use, and has let out the garden of Government House at Parramatta, by which the Governor's table was in part supplied, and the premises are become degraded. He will, perhaps, state for Major Johnston that this is all done to procure money for public uses, as no one will take their bills; but there would have been no occasion for this ruinous system had I been in power, and therefore it is an highly additional offence to the subversion of His Majesty's Government. McArthur has issued many Retail spirit licenses for selling spirituous liquors to persons, some of whom are well known to sell spirits for him and his party. The worst of characters have erected signs to denote their authority for vending those liquors, among whom a ferocious and merciless gaoler, Daniel McKay (who was reinstated in that office, from which, out of motives of humanity, he had been dismissed) erected one having on one side an Highland officer emblematic of Major Johnston, with one foot on a snake and his sword thro' it, to whom a female figure is in the attitude of presenting a cap of liberty. On the reverse of this is printed, in large characters, "The ever memorable 26th of January, 1808." In the house of one John Driver is painted, on one side of his hall, in large characters, "Success to Major George Johnston; may he live for ever! Our deliverer and the suppressor of tyrants." One John Reddington, a disaffected Irishman, has the sign of the harp without the crown; and one W'm Evans, formerly a servant of McArthur's and Blaxcell's, and since the 26th January, appointed their Provost-Marshal's bailiff, has erected a sign representing King Charles the Second in the oak on one side, and on the other is painted, in large characters, "The ever memorable 26th Jan'y, 1808.” Hotel sign-boards. An American vessel seized for alleged smuggling. 107. I have already mentioned (in paragraph 18)* that the American ship, Jenny (Captain Dorr), was in the harbor, and that I could not permit her to sell any spirits. She sailed on the 8th Feb'y for China, but was so suddenly sent out of the port, on a pretended suspicion of smuggling, that she could not stow her cargo, in consequence of which was obliged to put into Broken Bay. This had no sooner become known than McArthur asserted she had returned to smuggle, and persuaded Acting-Lieutenant Symons to seize her as a prize for the Porpoise-which he did-and brought her back here on the 16th. On the 22nd a Court of Vice-Admiralty was held, by a precept from Major Johnston, as here enclosed, to decide the case, of which Captain Abbott was judge, Chas. Grimes, registrar, Nicholas Bayly, marshal, and Garnham Blaxcell, the partner in trade with McArthur, acted as agent for the prosecutor, Symons. In the course of the trial an altercation arose between Mr. Blaxcell and Captain Abbott, cn See the paragraph referred to in letter of 30th April, 1808, ante, p. 612. 1808 Macarthur account of which the former left the Court and McArthur took his place and brought with him my private instruction from His 30 June. Majesty's Ministers, reading aloud such parts of these instructions as related to the importation of spirits into the colony; and also acts as read that part which related to the Americans with respect to prosecutor. trade, and thereby impressing on the American masters and men an idea of the intentions of His Majesty's Government being unfavorable to them. After all, the ship and cargo were restored to The vessel Captain Dorr, who, feeling himself much injured, has appealed to restored. the High Court of Admiralty, and left it with his agents to be sent to England. The inclosed information* has been sent to me, and I beg leave to recommend it to your perusal, as it is a fair description of the characters it notices, and shows that Major Johnston and other officers of the New South Wales Corps had used every underhand means to smuggle the whole of the spirits from this ship previous to the 26th January. Since that time there has been imported here 48,710 gallons of wine and 12,650 gallons of spirits, to the manifest injury of the colony. the 108. Among the extraordinary circumstances which have taken seizure of place under the present ruling power, it is conducive to general Harrington. information to mention that a brig, called the Harrington, William Campbell, master, which arrived on the 30th March, and was equipped and ready for sea (lying a little without the cove) was taken possession of and her crew turned on shore by a prisoner called S (a determined man, who had frequently endeavoured to leave the colony in open boats, and in consequence was put to labor in the gaol gang, but after my confinement was liberated) and about forty other convicts, who carried her to sea on the 16th May and have not since been heard of. This was a well-known Ownership vessel, which I found here on my arrival in the colony, for she had of the vessel. been detained by Governor King for piratically taking two Spanish vessels on the coast of Peru. I brought out orders for her release and she was given up accordingly, and sailed on the 28th January, 1807. During her detention the House of Chace, Cheney, and Company in India, to which she belonged, failed; and it appears, since her arrival this time, on the 30th March, that the master, instead of having proceeded to the port of Madras for the benefit of the creditors, connected himself with McArthur and proceeded to the Fiji Islands for a cargo of sandal-wood, and from thence to China, where he procured a valuable cargo in exchange; but as Trading he then could not clear out for this colony, he sailed to Malacca for that purpose and brought the cargo to McArthur since my confinement. McArthur well knew, under these circumstances (particularly not having gone to her lawful owners), had the brig returned here while I had the power of acting, she would not have *The enclosure is not available. + She was captured by a man-of-war off the Philippine Islands in March, 1809. with China. |