1 78 A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



of great interest to the people of this remote Colony. In this 

 instance there was a thrilling adventure to report : " The com- 

 plement of prisoners received on board the Chapman was nearly 

 200," said the Gazette, " seven of whom, we have unhappily to 

 deplore, were killed in a daring mutiny, and a number of others 

 wounded. The attempt was made to take the ship, and what is 

 still more terrible to relate, the mutineers we/e joined by several 

 of the ship's company ; who, with the ringleaders, have been kept 

 in confinement ever since." Such was the story circulating in 

 the town that evening. 



The muster was not held immediately, and on the 3<Dth July 

 Campbell, the Governor's Secretary, wrote thus to Captain 

 Drake : 



" The Surgeon-Superintendent of Convicts on board your 

 ship . . . informed me yesterday that you had declined striking 

 the irons off the convicts previous to the muster which I am to 

 hold on board to-morrow morning unless you received special 

 instructions from me." He therefore desired that unless there 

 was strong cause to apprehend danger the usual custom should 

 be complied with and the men relieved of their irons. 1 



He received no answer to the letter, and when he went on 

 board next day found that his request had not been complied 

 with. Drake said " he had received them in irons and would 

 land them in irons ". 2 Campbell then proceeded to the work of 

 the muster, and carried it out with such thoroughness that it 

 occupied him for fully two days. 



The condition of the men who had worn double irons for 

 almost the whole voyage was such as to move him to pity and 

 anger. The more he pressed his inquiries the more cause did 

 he have for indignation. For the first month, from 1 7th March to 

 1 2th April, nothing had gone seriously amiss. But on the I2th, 

 two of the convicts reported that the rest of the prisoners were 

 conspiring to take the ship. On the night of I7th April an alarm 

 was given that they were trying to force the grating of the 

 hatchway which formed the prison door. It was a hot night, 

 and the convicts were many of them lying on the floor of the 



1 soth July, 1817. Enclosure to D. 29, 1817. R.O., MS. 

 2 Campbell's Report to Macquarie, ist August, 1817. Enclosure, D. 26, 1817. 

 R.O., MS. 



