But a circumstance more imperative on my attention was, how to dispose of them in such a way as to guard against the principles they might possess, and to prevent their commixture with such seeds of error and vice as might be only suppressed in the original convicts. All these unpleasant consequences grew out of the crude intimation of the Governor’s,—for His Excellency does not seem to have thoroughly known his own intentions, even after it was signified that he had “made up his mind” to send the sixteen convicts on board the Neptune. How else can it be comprehended, that the positive order of sending sixteen prisoners, as was spoken of, had been altered for the shipment of the two colonial convicts from the Cape district only? Can it be that the sheriff in bringing those two on board acted under the single authority of the fiscal?—or was that authority of such preponderating power, at the seat of government, as to weigh down against every other? This latter unaccountable experiment having been tried, another was resorted to, to obtain from the ship’s charter-party whether any objection lurked in that instrument, or in the copy of my instructions. Special care was taken that the person sent for that purpose should be allowed to copy those documents freely, as it was the desire of the Naval Commissioner; and the spirit of accommodation went further, by giving also a copy of the Master’s instructions: for all this, what complaisance was shown in turn? My letter, requesting a survey of the ship to be made before the Governor’s “_positive_” should be issued, was not at all attended to, although it was exclusively on the public service; nor was it treated with that common politeness which every communication of the sort is generally entitled to. His Excellency deigned to convey his intentions through the agency of a third person, who was allowed to express them in his stead, although I had the honour of waiting on him for that purpose, it is presumed, by his own appointment. His pleasure, when made known, was issued in the teeth of the report made by the agent for transports, “That the ship could not accommodate the increased number which was intended to be sent;” yet were sixteen, besides the additional guard of seven invalids, thrust upon a crowded ship, without the least deference to the judgement of those who were most competent to decide on an affair in which the lives of one hundred and eighty-six prisoners were concerned.