jects".[1] The truth was that Captain Chase was preparing to take the sea once more, and not wishing to fall in with an American vessel without his full crew on board, was filling vacancies by the method of the press-gang. As he kept to his ship, and as pressing for the Navy was legal, Macquarie could not restrain him, and by Chase's orders men were impressed "both afloat and ashore". The Governor pointed out to Lord Bathurst how unsuitable was the "Impress Service" to a country where the "great mass of the population is made up of Convicts," to press whom was "at direct variance with the object of their transportation". The Secretary of State agreed and made representations to the Admiralty, but as the war soon came to an end no more was heard of such practices and the matter dropped.[2] Except for naval store-ships coming to New South Wales or New Zealand for timber, or vessels on voyages of discovery, the whole territory lay beyond the track of the Navy. It was in the trade with New Zealand and in the South Sea Islands and in transportation of convicts that the limits of the jurisdiction of the courts of New South Wales were most severely felt.
The traders in the South Seas were rough, adventurous men ruling with foul speech and brutal punishments their wild and turbulent crews.[3] The annals of the Pacific are filled with stories of murder and revenge. They tell of outrages on the natives followed by fierce reprisals, mutinies successful or unsuccessful alike ending in bloodshed, and scarcely credible oppressions practised by the captains on their crews.[4] Macquarie's missionary-magistrates had jurisdiction only when crimes were committed on land. Even then, being wholly without coercive powers, they could do nothing effective. In New South Wales itself there was no court which could take cognisance of offences committed on the Islands or on the High Seas. The only thing
- ↑ D.8, 14th August, 1813. R.O., MS.
- ↑ See D. above and correspondence of C.O., MS., 1814.
- ↑ These vessels were of varying size, from 250 tons to 800 tons, for no vessel of less than 250 tons might navigate in these seas according to the East India Charter. The cargoes taken to the natives consisted of Bengal prints, slates and pencils, gunpowder and muskets. The Marquesas Islands, however, were so well supplied with muskets from America that they would take no English ones. See Appendix, Bigge's Reports. R.O., MS.
- ↑ e.g., the master of a ship would entice men to join his crew and then starve and ill-treat them, apparently for no reason save the gratification of his brutality. See case of "General Gates," Appendix to Bigge's Reports. R.O., MS.
