THE RIGHT HON. W.W. GRENVILLE TO GOVERNOR PHILLIP
Whitehall, _19th June 1789._
Sir,
The discontents which have prevailed in the marine detachment, and the
desire expressed by most of the officers and men to return home as soon
as they shall have performed the tour of duty they had undertaken, have
led to the making arrangements for relieving them. With that view His
Majesty has ordered a corps to be raised for that particular service,
consisting of three hundred rank and file and a suitable number of
officers under a Major-Commandant. This corps is ordered to be in
readiness for embarkation on the 1st of October next, and will, it is
expected, soon after that time proceed upon the voyage.
GRENVILLE TO PHILLIP
_Dec. 24th, 1789._
The corps which I before informed you was to be raised to serve within
your Government, instead of the marines now doing duty there, has been
complete for some time past. A detachment from it, consisting of about
100 officers and men, has been put on board the convict ships for their
greater security against attempts which the convicts might meditate,
and the remainder, under the command of Major Grose, amounting as you
will see by the enclosed establishment to upwards of 200 more, will, I
expect, embark at Portsmouth on board His Majesty's ship the _Gorgon_,
in the course of a few days.
GOVERNOR HUNTER TO THE DUKE OF PORTLAND
Sydney, New South Wales,
_10th Aug., 1796._
My Lord,
Having occasion in my letter, No. 9. by the ship _Marquis Cornwallis_,
to notice very particularly a paragraph in your Grace's letter of the
10th of June, 1795, which related to the conduct of the military serving
upon Norfolk Island in 1794, and which gave me occasion to mention
similar outrage having been committed by the soldiers here since my
arrival, I signified in that letter that I thought it might be improper
in me to suppress or keep from your Grace's knowledge that outrage, and
that it should be communicated at a future opportunity. I therefore
enclose for your Grace's information a paper, No. 1, containing the
particulars, stated in as brief a manner as possible. I forbear, my
Lord, to make any observations upon this violent and extraordinary
conduct on the part of the soldiers. I transmit only a statement of the
facts, leaving your Grace wholly uninfluenced by anything I might have
occasion to remark upon so daring a violation of the peace and order of
the settlement, as well as in defiance of those laws by which that peace
is to be preserved.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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