Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/284

 t^m GOVERNOR KIN<; ANT) CAFIWIN COLNETT. GMton.'' ** All difficiiltieB would be obviated . . • you | granting her is not ftpprov^ed, I will retnni tier again to the colonij at my own exptiue. I til ill k this ia a duty I owe for the secret services alie rendered ine relating to the convicta, &l., dnriu^ the paasage. Should she return 1 will take eare that she doea not go Iwiuk to her friends till your release la backed anrl approved," King replied (17th April) that he could lawfully ^^ alter a sentence, hut as 1 candidly explained to you two days ago, granting a free pardon to a periion who had not been resident here twe^e months is what I dare not do, without Bubjecttng myself to ruin and my fiiiinily to distresa, by acting contrary to jioaitive instructions., . . If you will write me officially that she has brought forward Miy conspiracies, Stc, on the voyage I will give her a conditional emancipation on landings or give her a conditional emaQci[jatiou on the 4th June (the King's birth* flay) if she behaves weU." i Cohtett would not risk making an official declaration of Buch a nature, and went away in a rage, threatening to represent to the Admiralty^ the ill-treatment he had ^ He kept his word, He preferred complaints against the port regula- tions; the police; the pilot estalilishnieut j the public buildings; the rjovernor's *' predominant p.ussiori for governing" lujd onfrieudly demean- our (though he admitted that King guve him " fre<|uent invitations to bis hoAise''); the mud in the streets^ and want of a horse; the want of fresh meat; the difficulty of watering liin ship; the Imd wharves; the iU-placed f)owder magazine; the faet that none but tho ilovernor and his '^* confiden- tial secretary could poBsibly smuggle with impunity;" that King *^made H catspaw of me ami deceived the garrison" (in landing spiritj* from the Cattle, of Good Hope at Colnett'a request) ; that King's conduct was *" very irregular and disrespectful tD(Colnett) his superior officer;'" that there waa a prolmbility tlmt a man-of-war might be ** rim away with (by convicts) if not a better look-out be kept;" tbiit King showed **a strange partiality to the French (under Baudin) b^' Hufl'ering them to purchase spirits at a very low price from Americans when the otficers and inliabitants could not pro- cure any;" thiit King's aiispicioia that the French deaircil to form a settle- ment in Australia was erroneous, because in Cobiett's opinion "if they form any it will be in New Zealand ;" that King refused the oidy favour Colnett ever asked, viz., to grant a "conditional emancipation to a young woman of decent parents and connection that came out in the ship, ana had been transported for stealing forty ah i I lings, her first crime ; that Iving broke his promise that she should have a free pardon to go Imck in the Giattou (a promise which the correspondence of Colnett and King shows w^as never made); that all L'olnett could " urge or advance answered no purpose*' on her behalf, in spite of the *' recommendation from the I Secretary of Htates office,*' but all lie conld ever obtain waa her emancipa- commaiiduig and abusing the vilest ]mrt of mankind had forgot all cipa tion on the 4th -lune," in which Colnett "placed no faith ;" that King,V (hcvnt corjfluet for those b-eneath him tmd rea^wect for his equals/' &c. 1
 * conditional emancipation to return to England on my finding Irond ; if it 1
 * ' connnaiiduig and abusing the vilest ]mrt of mankind had forgot ai