16 



DEPORTATION TO THE DERWENT. 



convicted in New South Wales, and that this was more 

 dreaded than the first transportation. He thought that for 

 this purpose it might be continued as an alternative for the 

 gallows, but as a settlement the expense was quite dispro- 

 portionate to any advantage to be derived from it. From the 

 reports of Flinders and Bass on the climate, soil, and harbours 

 of Van Diemen's Land, he thought that territory would be 

 found much more profitable than this parched and inaccessible 

 island. 



Such was the condition of affairs when Major Foveaux took 

 over the command in July, 1300. Foveaux was not the man 

 to cope with the situation, or to infuse a spirit of order into a dis- 

 organised society. As if with the intention of making his task- 

 more difficult Governor King added a new trouble by banishing 

 to the island a number of the most turbulent of the Irishmen 

 who had been exiled to New South Wales for their partici- 

 pation in the rising of 1798 : they had given much trouble at 

 Port Jackson through their mutinous conduct, and it was 

 thought that by banishing the most turbulent to the distant 

 settlement they could be kept under better restraint. But in 

 Norfolk Island society was even more anarchical than in the 

 principal colony, and there was abundant opportunity for 

 plotting. In December, 1800, a conspiracy was discovered 

 among the Irish, the object being to overpower the officers, 

 seize the island, and escape. As the Irish numbered only 36 

 men, while there was a force of 100 soldiers and 26 constables, 

 the plot could scarcely have been called formidable. But, if 

 Foveaux was unable to preserve order, he could at least take 

 summary and barbarous vengeance. He received full infor- 

 mation of the plot, on a Saturday evening. On the Sunday 

 morning the people went to church as usual. When service 

 was over all the Irish were ironed and put into gaol. At two 

 o'clock the Commandant had a gallows erected, and two of the 

 ringleaders, John Whollahan and Peter M'Lean, were brought 

 out and forthwith hanged without trial or examination. 



In the memoirs of the so-called General Holt we have some 

 graphic sketches of the state of Norfolk Island under Major 

 Foveaux's government in 1804. Joseph Holt was a prominent 

 leader of the United Irishmen during the rising of 1798, and 

 was transported — or to speak more correctly, exiled— to New 

 South Wales as a political prisoner. As a State prisoner Holt 

 was allowed full liberty in the Colony, and being a man of 

 ability and energy attained a fairly comfortable position. At 

 the time of the Castle Hill rising' in 1804, however, he came 

 under suspicion, more on account of his antecedents as a rebel 

 leader than from any actual proof of his complicity in the 

 plot. Governor King, however, made up his mind that Holt 

 was a dangerous character, and banished him to Norfolk 



