Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/205

 Captain Nepean, who by accident had called at Norfolk, to a command you had left, without permission, might have produced the most unplea* sant effects. Lt. Abbott would have been perfectly justified in resisting your appointment of Captain Nepean. . . . Ready as I might be to put up with any want of attention to myself, I really do not see how this can be done, for I must, for my own sake, report the circumstances. I have not a doubt but the Secretary of 8tate and the Commissioners of the Navy Board will consider your delaying the Britannia for this trifling pur- pose deserving their highest disapprobation.

"The mutiny you state to have happened I have directed to be investi- gated by a Court of Inquiry. . . . The necessity for disarming the detachment I cannot discover, although we all too plainly perceive that if the soldiers have been refractory, the insults they have received from the convicts were sufficient to provoke the most obedient to outrage. I have directed Lieut. Townson to take command of the detachment at Nor- folk, and he will communicate to you whatever orders I have given him respecting the soldiers. The militia you have ordered to assemble are immediately to be disembodied, and their arms are to be sent in the schooner. . . . Lieut. Townson is directed to apply to you for the persons of T. R. Crowder (the constable who was manager at the theatre) and W. Doran, who are to be kept in irons in the guard -house until the departure of the schooner, when they are to be sent prisoners to Sydney. ..

"It appearing by a remark of yours that Cooper, who struck Bannister, was forgiven his punishment at the intercession of the detachment, and . . . the officers and soldiers who came from Norfolk Island declaring that they were, ... on the contrary, dissappointed on finding him escape, I have to request you will trouble yourself to give me some further explanation."

Lieut. Townson, who was to assume control over the Lt.-Governor, was empowered to select 20 acres of land for himself, and a larger quantity for his brother officers.

Grose's letter has been quoted at some length, because without seeing his own words it would be difficult to believe that an officer in his position could have been so unjust to his junior in rank, and so untrue to the service of the Crown. On the voyage to New Zealand he had previously had ample time to comment, and it might be dismissed from consideration were it not that the English government saw in it the only flaw in King's comportment.

It would seem that a wiser counsellor than Grose detected in this act a weakness which had escaped Grose's observa-