66 ADMIRAL BLIGH. 
at Sydney by the New South Wales Corps, 
headed by Lieut. -Colonel G. Johnston. In 
May, 1811, Colonel Johnston was tried by 
court-martial at Chelsea Hospital, found guilty 
of an act of mutiny, and sentenced to be 
cashiered. This trial lasted for thirteen days, 
and excited great public interest. Colonel 
Johnston was of a highly respectable family in 
Annandale, in Scotland. He returned to New 
South Wales, shortly after his trial, and spent 
the remainder of his days in the colony. Sir 
F. S. Pollock, Lord Chief Baron of the Ex- 
chequer, who was at that time Mr, Frederick 
Pollock, was one of Bligh's counsel at the trial. 
Previously to this, and during Bligh's admi- 
nistration, a circumstance occurred which, when 
recent events are considered in connexion with 
the people of Pitcairn, appears very remarkable. 
His predecessor, as Governor of New South 
Wales, Philip King, had advised the abandon- 
ment of Norfolk Island as a convict settlement ; 
and the execution of the task devolved upon 
Bligh ; William Windham, Esq. , then Secretary 
of State for the Colonies, having, in December, 
1806, despatched to Governor Bligh directions 
for the entire evacuation of the Island. The 
reasons alleged for this measure were the vast 
expense of maintaining the settlement ; the dif- 
ficulty of keeping up a communication between 
it and Port Jackson; the danger attending an 
approach to an island without a port secure from 
tempests, and even without a road in which 
ships could safely anchor. Many of the convicts 
weie removed, against their own wishes, to Port 
