(although the imprisonment displeased Hunter), volunteered
to collect pikes for the government, but broke down in his
attempt. The Judge-Advocate, Richard Dore, reporting
that, no overt act of rebellion being capable of proof, the
prisoners could not be capitally tried; they were punished
summarily. Marsden's MS. note to the Governor from
Parramatta stated:—"The prisoners have received their
punishment, as much as they could bear. . .
They
shall be sent down as soon as the doctor thinks it safe for
them to be removed." King issued in Oct. a proclamation
calling on all loyal subjects to aid in repressing the conspiracy for the destruction of the king's government, and
regretting that it was necessary to inflict severe corporal "punishment upon the principals and accomplices in the
horrid crime." Two months later other plots were laid, and King (Dec. 1800) sent a detachment from Sydney to
assist Macarthur. He longed to bring the insurgents to open arbitrament.
"If it comes within your directions or observation, my desire is that the supposed insurgents may be permitted to come to some point. If you are possessed of the orders I gave you on a former occasion they will suffice on this. If not, I have such dependence on your prudence that I am assured you will act and do for the best."
Macarthur's reply indicated one of the difficulties of a command in the New South Wales Corps.
"It may not be improper to observe that this being the day on which my company receive their month's pay, many of them will most probably be drunk to-morrow unless I take some particular measures to prevent it, and to do so would most probably create an alarm that might soon reach the ears of those turbulent wretches who create so much trouble."
Macarthur subsequently (25th Dec. 1800) reports his "great pleasure in saying that the company doing duty here were perfectly sober, with only three exceptions."
Regulations were at once made to guard against surprise.
On the 31st Dec. King thought it a duty to the loyal to "assure the turbulent and ill-disposed that none of their despicable plans, or daring anonymous writings (similar to that forwarded to him previous to the execution of the pirates[1]), will ever bias or slacken his exertions in detecting
- ↑ Fifteen convicts seized a vessel. They clumsily ran her on shore. They seized another at the Hunter River. King captured the vessel with nine runaways on board. Seven were transported for life, and two were executed as pirates.
