1825-1854 23 



deserted from Tlie Trusty, a wlialer whicli had come into tlie 

 atoll in January 1836. He was a bad character, who had fled 

 from justice in " Charlestown close by Boston in Massa- 

 chusetts/' having already served ten years for the murder of 

 a negro. Raymond, whom Ross in his petition calls " the 

 foreign anarchistical ringleader," joined with Leisk in opposing 

 " duly constituted British authority in territory which if 

 not British is at all events not American." The trouble 

 became serious, for Raymond induced the natives to strike, 

 enlisted other deserters in his cause, and did much damage 

 to the settlement by setting fire to the working sheds and 

 oil factory. It was to have a sure ground for thoroughly 

 dealing with the rising that Ross Primus applied to the 

 Admiral. Unfortunately, w^ith the sending of the petition, 

 the story as written by Ross Primus in his journal ends ; but 

 though no word is said as to the fate of Raymond, we learn 

 that Leisk was duly banished to Batavia, and passed out of 

 the island story. 



A natural interest attaches to the fate of Raymond, for he 

 Avas playing the desperate game of civil war and of attempting 

 to usurp the authority in a place where a strong and resolute 

 man made his own laws and dealt his own justice. Which- 

 ever way the game should chance to go, it was one that had 

 of necessity to be enacted without the help or interference 

 of outsiders, for no appeal could be carried to an authority 

 nearer than Ceylon, where the Admiral was stationed at 

 Trincomalee. 



When Ross first discovered the plot, he says in his journal, 

 " fortunately my previous suspicions and the gradual manner 

 in which the whole affair had opened upon me had so far 

 prepared me that I was not taken by surprise, in which case 

 I had certainly bestowed upon the villain his quietus on the 

 instant." This petition tells us all we know of the affair, and 

 as Admiral Capel does not seem to have come to the islands 

 and settled the business, it is to be presumed that Ross Primus 

 managed to execute justice without the additional weight of 

 outside approval. 



