. / ( 'STRALASIA ILL LJSTRA TED. 



England in July of the same year. In the early part of 1809 Colonel Paterson arrived 

 from Van Diemen's Land and superseded Foveaux ; Bligh having been in the meantime 

 allowed to take command of the Porpoise, in which ship he sailed for Tasmania, where 

 he remained until the arrival in Sydney of Governor Macquarie. 



Anticipating an enquiry, Johnston and Macarthur had already left for England, but 

 it was not until May. 1811, that Johnston was tried for the mutiny by court-martial, 

 assembled at Chelsea Hospital, under the presidency of Lieutenant-General Keppel. An 

 immense amount of evidence was taken, and a determined attempt made to fasten a 

 charge of cowardice on Bligh by asserting that he tried to escape arrest by hiding 



under a bed. The shame of the attempt 

 reflected only on the men who made it, Bligh 

 successfully refuting the accusation. 



Here is an extract from the sturdy sailor's 

 evidence, which could hardly issue from the lips 

 of a coward: "Just before I was arrested, on 

 hearing of the approach of the regiment, I 

 called for my uniform (which is not a dress 

 adapted to concealment), and going into the 

 room where the papers were kept I selected 

 a few which I thought most important, either 

 to retain for the protection of my character, or 

 to prevent from falling into the hands of the 

 insurgents. Among the latter were copies of 

 my private and confidential communications to 

 the Secretary of State on the conduct of 

 several persons then in the colony. \Yith these 

 I retired upstairs, and having concealed some 

 about my person, I proceeded to tear the 

 remainder. In the attitude of stooping for this 

 purpose, with my papers about on the floor, I 

 was discovered by the soldiers on the other 

 side of the bed. As to the situation in which 

 it is said I was found, I can prove by two 

 witnesses that it was utterly impossible ; and I 

 should have done so in the first instance had 

 I not thought that Colonel Johnston was in- 

 capable of degrading his defence by the admis- 

 sion of a slander, which, if true, affords him no 

 excuse, and if false, is highly disgraceful. 



" I know that Mr. Macarthur wrote the 

 despatch in which this circumstance is mentioned 



with vulgar triumph ; but I could not anticipate that Colonel Johnston's address to 

 the Court would be written in the same spirit ; and that after being the victim of Mr. 

 Macarthur's intrigues he would allow himself to be made the tool of his revenge. 



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BLAXLAND AND LAWSON S TREE. 



