Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/233

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THE "SCOTCH MARTYRS."


in Sydney in 1794, while Grose was there, and they said, in a petition to Grose (1794):—

"For obvious reasons your petitioners did not wish to come out at the expense of government; they accordingly caused to be paid to the said Patrick Campbell (master of the Surprise), for their accommodation as cabin-passengers, a sum of money greater than that allowed by government for those in the same ship, either in its immediate employ or those who have come out as settlers."

The Record Office in London (New South Wales, vol. ix.) contains proof that kind treatment of the exiles was enjoined. A complaint from the Surprise transport at Spithead (21st April 1794) was sent by the surgeon, by a passenger, and an ensign of the New South Wales Corps, who objected to being associated with Margarot in the officers' cabin. Margarot's wife being free, and the captain having received an order from Mr. Dundas[1] for her free passage in the ship, they did not remonstrate against her presence, but they objected to his. Campbell, the master, however, saw no objection, having (he wrote) "high authority to make these people as comfortable as possible.

Nevertheless Pitt has been repeatedly reviled for associating the Scotch Martyrs with burglars and felons. Gerald was sent out subsequently. Muir, Palmer, Skirving, and Margarot had some trouble in the Surprise, but it was due to Margarot's intrigues. To ingratiate himself with the master, he accused Palmer and Skirving of conspiring with the convicts to seize the vessel and take her to a French or American port. Another Scotch convict, exiled for forgery, told the captain that he heard some Irishmen speaking in Erse of the plot, and that his acquaintance with Gaelic enabled him to understand them. Margarot the abettor, if not the concoctor of the scheme to injure his companions, was profusely praised by Campbell. A guard was put over Palmer and Skirving, and others were confined in irons.[2] Palmer and Skirving repelled "with horror" the accusation of complicity in the plot; they even averred that Margarot

  1. ↑ Dundas, who was savagely attacked for alleged harshness to the Scotch convicts, directed that the "master of the Surprise should be allowed £30 for the passage of Mrs. Margarot with a view to her better accommodation on board that transport. Historical Records. N.S.W., Vol. II., p. 854.
  2. ↑ Record Office. N.S.W., Vol. IX.
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