The four officers who had carried the summons met me at the Governor's
door and reported that he was nowhere to be found, nor any information
to be obtained of him, although the strongest assurances had been given
that his person should be strictly guarded from insult or violence.
After a rigid search the Governor, however, was at last discovered, in a
situation too disgraceful to be mentioned, and which I solemnly declare
to your Lordship would have been most gratifying to my feelings had it
been possible to have concealed from the public. As soon as Governor
Bligh made his appearance, I assured him of his personal safety and of
every attention in my power to offer him.
Whilst the search was making for Governor Bligh I was entreated by the
Civil Officers and the Inhabitants to proclaim Martial Law, and this
request meeting my approbation, Martial Law was instantly proclaimed and
continued in force until the next day. As not a single act of disorder
or irregularity was committed during the interesting scene that I have
had the honour to describe to your Lordship, and as the most perfect
peace and tranquillity were restored throughout the whole settlement I
published a Proclamation the next morning, revoking the order of the
preceding evening and restoring the Civil Government.
I ordered the Court of Criminal Judicature to assemble that Mr.
Macarthur might be arraigned on the Indictment that was found amongst
the Judge-Advocate's papers, and that the trial might proceed on the
plan Crossley had suggested to secure his conviction. The evidences were
examined in the order Crossley had prescribed, and every question asked
that he had previously dictated. Your Lordship will discover from the
copy of the Trial that Mr. Macarthur was acquitted without being put on
his defence, and that a complete disclosure was made of the plans which
had been deliberately formed for the ruin and destruction of that
gentleman.
I respectfully trust this trial and the confessions of the Magistrates
and other confidential persons will convince your Lordship of the guilty
intentions of Governor Bligh, and how little he regarded the sacred
personage whom he represented by suffering himself to be guided by a
wretch like that man Crossley to persecute and oppress His Majesty's
subjects.
I am now, my Lord, arrived at the most painful part of my task--an
explanation of the causes that have prevented me from preparing a better
arranged Statement of the transactions in which I have been engaged; and
it is with deep concern I find myself obliged to report to your Lordship
that the opposition from those persons from whom I had most reason to
expect support has been one of the principal obstacles I have had to
encounter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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