Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/357

 OP KING^ SOI tion that is bestowed on these points in the subsequent ^''^ correspondence^ that these were not the real causes. Grose seems to have thought that as the New Zealand ^^[^ ^^^ natives had been delivered to him by Lieutenant Hanson^ SiKsuwed and been forwarded by him to Norfolk Island, therefore, when they were no longer required there, they should have been sent back to Sydney. King himself intended in the first instance to take this course,* but there was no ship going to Port Jackson, and he adopted the readiest way of returning the captives to their homes. Apart from ques- tions of etiquette and official rule. King did right. To send King's the natives back to Port Jackson, so that the Lieutenant- defended. Governor there might forward them to New Zealand in his own way, would have served no useful purpose. More- over, King had given his word to the natives that if they would communicate the information they possessed they should be returned to their homes by the first ship. Under this promise they gave the information, and claimed the fulfilment of the undertaking. They had been '' thrice dis- appointed," and were making "hourly lamentations" because they were still detained on Norfolk Island. King went out of his way to restore the captives to their homes, from motives of humanity and policy, not with the object of invading the authority or position of his superior officer. If Grose really thought that this had been done, the explanation given by King in his letter of the 19th March, 1794, ought to have amply satisfied him. Eang^s appointment of Captain Nepean as his substitute. Real caiue instead of Lieutenant Abbott, appears to have been the real anger. cause of Grose^s anger. He had determined that military rule should prevail in the settlements. Almost the first step he took on assuming the government was to destroy the civil authority in New South Wales, and establish a military autocracy. With the arrangements of Norfolk
 * King to Grose, 19th March, 1794.— Historical Becords, vol. ii, p. 178.