Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/507

 rARlK SKNDS AWAY A HUMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST. 47S* New South Wales Corps) wert^ relieved. In 1817 be recom- mended that they ** should be disbanded altogether," They were ** ineffective, old,** and expensive. They received grants of land in various places. The settlement of some of them on the Mulwaree Ponds, in Argyle, caused the name "Veterans* Flats'' -to be given to the site. The name survived long after the Veterans had disappeared, and their holdings Imd been merged with adjacent posses- Bions near the town of Goulburn. Though Macquarie recommended the disbandment in 1817, it was not carried out until 1823, Free passages to England were offered, but only three or four were accepted. Some veterans remained where they had spent a quarter of a century as eoldiers. I Macquarie (Dec. 1817) reported the arrival of an immi- 1 'grating priest, one OTljmi; who told Macquarie that he had Earl Bathurat's permission: " — but lis he could not producu auy writteu ilcKiument froiit^'our Lordship or any other of His Majesty's Mirusters, 1 concluded that if he luid fiolit^ited he htul been refused your aaiiction^ aud theace congidering hiut an impostor I declined giving him iwrniJssbn to renuiin in th(^ colony, but, on the contrary, have instructed bini to ipiit it in t}ie same ship {Duke of Wellington) in which he came, being pc'r!<uade<l he would do a great de4il of mischief among the lower order of Roman Catholics were he allowed to remain." L On the 18th May Macquarie reported that he yielded to f 0Tlynn*8 entreaty for permisBion to remain till an expected ship might hring the desired credentials. But they did not arrive. O'Flynn was told to go back with the ship which had brought him. He ''retired to some skulking- place in the country where he could not be found, and from whence he did not return until after the ship had sailed," He then promised to sail in the next ship to China or elsewhei'e, and Macquarie ''being reluctant to resort to compulsory measio-es trusted to Ms honour," ... I foimd he was directed him by letter to hold himself in readiness to embark in the ship David Shan.'* (The answer being unsatisfactory, there were) "no other means left for me to get rid of this meddling, ignorant, dangerous character than by securing his person, if possible." On the 15th May, O'Flynn was secui'ed and put in '* jail, ^i^iL^a3^a2Ck
 * tampering with the soldiers of the -IBth liegiment. I