Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/442

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414
ADDRESS OF OFFICERS AND OTHERS TO JOHNSTON.


It was resolved to sweep away the imputations recorded against Macarthur, and (2nd Feb.) he was tried before the Criminal Court on the charges prepared by Crossley. Grimes, the Surveyor-General, was Judge-Advocate. The officers composing the Court were those appointed by Bligh. Macarthur was unanimously acquitted. It was pronounced that the warrant under which he was arrested was illegally issued and served, and that even his written statement "delivered to Oates, an unsworn constable," was defensible. On the 4th Feb., Johnston forbade Bligh to hold any communication with the officers of H.M.S. Porpoise, then in the harbour. On the 12th Feb., Johnston made Macarthur a magistrate, and Secretary of the colony without salary. Gore and Crossley found that the Secretary "lived not to be griped by meaner persons." Gore was tried and imprisoned for perjury in an affidavit made by him as to the custody of Macarthur on the 25th Jan.; and Crossley was transported for seven years for having acted as an attorney in defiance of the Act of Parliament prohibiting convicted perjurers from appearing as attorneys.

The act of a native may be recorded here. It will be remembered that Pemulwy, dreaded in the days of Phillip and Hunter, was, after years of perilous adventure, shot in the time of King. Macarthur was kind to Pemulwy's son, Tjedboro, who in return was grateful to Macarthur. The day after Bligh's arrest Tjedboro stalked into Sydney with his weapons of war, and as he put down his spears at Macarthur's house said-"They told me you were in gaol." "Well, Tjedboro, what have you come with your spears for?" Tjedboro's eyes flashed as he answered, "To spear the Governor."[1]

Bligh's deposition has been minutely represented in these pages, not only because it was in itself a singular episode in the life of the colony, but because it has been misrepresented[2] as an act caused by Bligh's determination to carry out faithfully his instructions to repress a traffic

  1. ↑ At a subsequent date, in altercation with a white man, Tjedboro was shot at Parramatta and died of the wound.
  2. ↑ It is because of misrepresentations, which, when once made, bave been heedlessly repeated, that it has been needful to mass together so much information, some of which is now published for the first time.
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