Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/382
re-transmission to Sydney, or to take them to England if no ship was about to sail to Australia from India. All that Flinders did he was to report in England.
The Governor-General in India was as arbitrary as the Governor in Sydney. A convict was landed in Calcutta in 1800 from the ship Hunter, commanded by one Hingston. The Marquis Wellesley directed the seizure of Hingston and his ship, and that steps should be taken to condemn the vessel and all the "persons engaged in an illicit trade in India in violation of the chartered rights" of the East India Company. The alarmed Hingston falsely averred that he had gone to India with the approbation of Governor Hunter, and the Marquis relented. King exposed Hingston's fraud, and hoped (Oct. 1801) that the Indian Government would put no faith in similar declarations made by persons not holding
"my permission in writing, which will never be granted except in such cases of necessity as are at present unforeseen. . . . I feel much obliged by your Excellency's wish to promote the interests of this colony, and you may rest assured that no exertions shall be wanting on my part to prevent the emigration of any description of people from this colony to any port in India."
King sent (1802) to the East India Company's supercargo at Canton lists of all persons permitted by him to leave the colony, and suggested that passengers in ships sailing from the colony by way of China to England should be mustered on arrival at, and departure from, Macao. By these means he preserved the goodwill of the Governor-General, which was of no slight benefit to the struggling colony, sorely in need of food and live stock in the beginning of the century.
American vessels sinned against the Ordinances of the Governor. In 1804 two of them were ordered to leave the harbour at a few hours' notice. In 1806 another American vessel, having shipped a British subject contrary to law, was forbidden to land any part of her cargo.
Port Jackson saw strange scenes in the beginning of the century. In 1806 there was a mutiny on board the colonial schooner Governor Hunter. All persons "concerned in colonial vessels were ordered to cause the people they employed to go on board some of the vessels in the Cove at 8 a.m. to witness the punishment to be inflicted on these