Page:A colonial autocracy, New South Wales under Governor Macquarie, 1810-1821.djvu/204

 caused Macquarie to order a magisterial inquiry. Already one inquiry had been held into the conduct of officers and crew at St. Helena by a British admiral stationed there. But the surgeon wrote to the Governor "from whatever circumstances that transpired at the investigation the effrontery of the aggressors was considerably increased, and every act of profligacy appeared to have received the sanction of law, ocular demonstration being considered indispensably necessary for conviction; and even then it was held that there was no power vested in the authority of New South Wales to punish the offenders."

The Bench of Magistrates at Sydney absolved the master of the ship and the surgeon-superintendent of all blame, saying that they had done what they could to restrain the officers and crew.

In his report to Lord Bathurst, Macquarie said: "Your Lordship will perhaps conceive &hellip; that I have been aware of these abuses having frequently existed heretofore, and of course that I should have reported them before the present time. In explanation, I have only to observe that the present time is the first occasion where the facts have been brought to view at all, whilst there is reason to apprehend that on similar occasions the officers were as generally guilty as the crews, and that a good understanding was thereby preserved between all parties, and of course no complaints were made." "It is true," he continued,