182 



A COLONIAL AUTOCRACY. 



conformably to the port regulations from hence ... on proper 

 officers being appointed to take charge of her." l 



Drake wrote again, and his letter concluded in these 

 words : 



" If there be specific charges against any of the officers or 

 crew of the ship Chapman, I have to solicit that those of the 

 officers and crew of the said ship so charged be withdrawn from 

 on board by the proper authorities, that arrangements may be 

 forthwith made for their being properly succeeded in their 

 different stations on board." 2 



It was the difficulty of deciding on the specific charges 

 which was the cause of the delay. Though the court held its 

 final sitting on the 4th October, it did not report to the 

 Governor until the I7th November. On the gth, Wylde wrote 

 to him describing his efforts to obtain a unanimous report, but 

 he was unsuccessful, and on the I7th Campbell presented one 

 report and Wylde and Wentworth another. 



On many points the same views were put forward in both. 

 No proof had been forthcoming that a mutiny had ever been 

 projected. The means taken to arrest what those in command 

 deemed to be mutinous attempts (though on amazingly little 

 evidence) had been far in excess of necessary self-defence. One 

 night an alarm was given that the convicts were trying to seize 

 the boats, and that night four innocent men were shot down. 

 The alarm was proved at the inquiry to have been utterly with- 

 out foundation. The proofs of shooting by three soldiers of the 

 guard were quite conclusive, and they were committed to the 

 Sydney gaol to be tried for murder in England. It was in 

 regard to the captain of the ship, the surgeon-superintendent, 

 the officer of the guard, and the three mates, that the reports 

 differed. Campbell proposed that these men should all be 

 committed for trial on criminal charges of varying heinousness 

 from murder downwards, and Macquarie concurred. He had 

 read through the evidence, depositions, log-books and journals 

 which had been before the Court, and discussed the matter with 

 Campbell and probably with Field, the Judge of the Supreme 

 Court. Field had also communicated his opinions to Wylde, 



1 Campbell to Drake, 2Qth October, 1817. R.O., MS. 



2 Drake to M., 8th November, 1817. R.O., MS. 



