d a consultation with
his officers, and the upshot of this was that Johnston, as
lieutenant-governor of the colony, demanded the instant release of
MacArthur from gaol. The gaoler complied, and MacArthur went straight to
the barracks, where a requisition to Johnston to place Bligh under arrest
was arranged, at the suggestion of MacArthur, on the ground "that the
present alarming state of the colony, in which every man's property,
liberty, and life are endangered, induces us most earnestly to implore you
instantly to assume the command of the colony. We pledge ourselves at a
moment of less agitation to come forward to support the measure with our
lives and fortunes." This was signed by several of the principal Sydney
inhabitants, and then Johnston proceeded to carry out their and his own
and the other rum-traffickers' designs.

The drums beat to arms; the New South Wales Corps--most of the men primed
with the original cause of the trouble--formed in the barrack square, and
with fixed bayonets, colours flying, and band playing, marched to
Government House, led by Johnston. It was about half-past six on an
Australian summer evening, and broad daylight. The Government House guard
waited to prime and load, then joined their drunken comrades, and the
house was surrounded.

Mrs. Putland, the governor's brave daughter (widow of a lieutenant in the
navy, who had only been buried a week before), stood at the door, and
endeavoured to prevent the soldiers from entering. She was pushed aside,
and the house was soon full of soldiers, who, according to what some of
them said, found Bligh hiding under his bed--a statement which, there is
not the slightest doubt, was an infamous lie, suggested by the position in
which the governor really was found, viz., standing behind a cot in a back
room, where he was endeavouring to conceal some [Sidenote: 1808]
private papers.

Bligh surrendered to Johnston, who announced that he intended to assume
the government "by the advice of all my officers and the most respectable
of the inhabitants." Johnston caused Bligh's commission and all his papers
to be sealed up, informed the governor that he would be kept a prisoner in
his own house, and leaving a strong guard of soldiers, marched the rest of
his inebriated command back to barracks, with the same parade of
band-playing and pretence of dignity.

The colony was now practically under martial law, and Johnston appointed a
new batch of civ