Page:A colonial autocracy, New South Wales under Governor Macquarie, 1810-1821.djvu/196

 that could be done was to hold an investigation into any charge brought against a ship's master or crew—a purely magisterial inquiry which was only effective if followed by committal and then the trial of the accused in England.

The case of Theodore Walker illustrates many of the evils of the South Sea trade, and shows how incurable they were while the scope of the colonial courts was so restricted.

Early in 1813 a small vessel, the Daphne, was trading in the South Sea Islands. At Otaheite the master added to his crew by carrying off four or five natives. These natives, joining with some coloured men of the ship's company, mutinied, killed the master, took possession of the vessel, and either killed the remainder of the crew or put them ashore without food or water on adjacent islands. Some of them, however, survived, and spread the story of the mutiny. The death of the master, said Macquarie, though lawless, was no more than fitting retribution, for he had been guilty of the most wanton and vicious crimes. On one occasion some friendly natives came on board his ship to trade with him, and looked with the greatest respect and curiosity at all it contained. The captain, wishing to get quickly away, ordered the crew to clear the visitors from the ship, and they were flogged and beaten off. Their canoes had meanwhile been swamped, and the natives, unable to get to them, were drowned in full view of the Daphne as she stood off to sea. The savagery to which her captain afterwards fell a victim could scarcely equal the cold cruelty of this episode.

The crime of mutiny did not go unavenged. A short time afterwards, when the Daphne was in the Bay of Islands, the brig Endeavour, Theodore Walker, master, came into harbour there. Walker at once attacked the mutineers, and after some shots had been exchanged the firing from the Daphne ceased, and word was brought that her crew had abandoned her. Walker boarded the ship immediately and ordered a search. One man, a Lascar, who had been one of the leaders of the mutiny, was found in hiding. Walker ordered him to be taken on board the Endeavour and hanged him at the yard-arm. Henry, one of the missionary magistrates, reported these events to Macquarie, November, 1813, and the story was known when Walker reached Sydney. The Governor ordered the magistrates to