Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/259

 PORT ORDERS. A CONVICT LAWYER. 231 King issued more stringent port-orders, and umde a notable exaraple of the way in wliieli he could carry them out. The house of Carapbell, besides increasing (from 5000 to 8000 gallons) the quantity which the Governor-General of India permitted them to Rend in a cattle-transport to I Port Dahyniple, caused another vessel, the Eaiflc,^ without any permission, to carry 16,000 gallons from Ceylon to S^'dney. King sent them, together with the 1500 gallons back to India, An extraordinary combination was made to oppose tills high-handed proceeding; and as more than one of those wlio conspired at this time to '^brce spirits upon the colony'' became bosom-advisers of Governor Bligh m the events which ended m BHgh's deposition, it is proper to describe who and what one of them was. • George Crossley, after twice standing in the pillory for perjury, was transported to New South Wales for repetition of his crime. The rumour ran, and was believed even amongst his brother criminals, that it was he who, in forging a signature to a will with the hand of a dead man, placed a I fly in the mouth of the Ijody, so that he might, though he made a mark with a senseless hand, be able to swear that there was life in the body when the name was affixed. Strange mdeed are the contradictions in the human mind when an additional ingredient of villainy could be supposed capable of lessening crime, or securing impunity. That the man was plausible was soon learned by colonists. On the voyage he persuaded the officers of the ship, by means of forged documents, that he and his wife had command of I large funds in England. The officers accepted bills for goods, Crossley, on arriving in Sydney, obtained more ^oods from traders, and set up a shop with the permission of Governor Hunter. King wrote (7th Aug. 1803) to the keeping a reapoctable shop, fuU of goodw, the fate (jf which aU auapected. After being a year in the governmpnt I was importuntjd to j^^ive biin a coiiditioiial eiiiaiicipatioQ — which 1 coiiipUed with— to enaUe liis cieililora to recover from hjin, or for him to aiio for hia own debta^ which his disability as a convict prevented." ^ King to Lord Camden, ;iOth Apiil 18<15.
 * 'in the Sophia, on which he had put the king's mark,"
 * On my arrival I was siirpriiiHl to find thia weU-known character