found among Bligh's papers, further proved "the extensiveness of the plan upon which the Governor intended to proceed."
Though Johnston acquainted Paterson with what had been done by the New South Wales Corps, he questioned Colonel Paterson's view that that gentleman could leave his distinct appointment at Port Dalrymple and assume the government in Sydney, where Colonel Foveaux, as Lt.-Governor of Norfolk Island, seemed entitled to succeed. For his own part, Johnston would rather err by resigning the command than, by retaining it, expose himself to the suspicion of grasping at power. He sent his despatches by Grimes, the Surveyor-General, in one vessel, and duplicates by Dr. Harris in another. Lord Castlereagh might rely upon the verbal information which Mr. Grimes would afford. Colonel Paterson, when made acquainted with Johnston's despatches, determined (14th May) to wait further information to "correctly guide" his conduct, and requested Johnston to place hit "by the earliest possible opportunity in possession of the first intelligence from England."
Johnston, retaining Bligh under arrest at the Government House, administered the government until Colonel Foveaux arrived from England on his way to Norfolk Island, in July 1808. When Foveaux landed, the batteries saluted, and Johnston received him with the utmost respect. Bligh deposed that he, "having a sanguine hope" that Foveaux would reinstate him, sent friends (of whom Commissary Palmer was one) to wait upon Foveaux, but that "Mr. Macarthur and his adherents got to the ship first." Bligh then wrote "positive orders as Commander-in-Chief that Foveaux should put himself at the head of the New South Wales Corps and reinstate" Bligh. Foveaux notified by a General Order (30th July) that (as Bligh had been out of power for six months, and his suspension was submitted to His Majesty's Ministers) he thought it "beyond his authority to judge between Captain Bligh and the officer whom he found in actual command of the colony."
Foveaux may be remembered as the disciplinarian who drummed mutinous soldiers out of his regiment without trial, and was called to account by Paterson. After
