CHAPTER II. 



THE DEPOSITION OF BLIGH. 



AUTHORITIES. Historical Records of New South Wales (especially Vol. VII.) 

 Report of Trial of Lieut.-Col. Johnston. State Trials, vols. 21, 28, 30. Colonial 

 Office, Domestic Correspondence, 1816. 



ON the 26th January, 1808, Major Johnston, at the head of the 

 New South Wales Corps, marched through Sydney to Govern- 

 ment House and placed Governor Bligh under arrest. Leaving 

 him there a prisoner, Johnston, urged by a number of civilians, 

 at whose head stood John Macarthur, and with the ready 

 support of his officers, took over the administration of the 

 Colony under the title of Lieutenant-Governor. 



When the first news of these events reached Downing Street 

 in September, the Colonial Office were already aware that 

 Bligh, the hero (or culprit) of the " Bounty " mutiny, was proving 

 by no means a popular ruler. Complaints were often made 

 against the best of Governors, but in Bligh's case they were 

 forcible and unceasing. There was the case of D'Arcy Went- 

 worth, an assistant surgeon on the staff, but a man of wealth 

 and influence, who had been suspended without cause shown 

 and with a lack of justice which the Minister himself censured. 1 

 Again, on the formal ground that he had received no public 

 instructions, Bligh had refused to comply with the requests of 

 some settlers coming from England for land, cattle and convict 

 servants. These men, Townson, Doctor of Laws and man of 

 science, the brothers Blaxland, who were graziers, and a Captain 

 Short, had brought definite written promises from ministers of 

 large indulgences adequate to the capital they proposed to 

 expend. Disappointed in their hopes and impatient at the 

 delay, they soon found themselves arrayed in the ranks of the 



1 Castlereagh to Bligh, isth May, 1809. H.R., VII., p. 147. 

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