rown worse rather than better. In the direction
of reformation the experiment of turning felons into farmers was not a
success. Few free emigrants had arrived in the colony, and those who came
out were by no means the best class of people. Nobody worked more than
they could help; drinking, gambling, and petty bickering occupied the
leisure of most. This was the state of affairs which Captain Bligh was
sent to reform, and we have seen how his mission succeeded.

In the case of the mutiny of the _Bounty_, it is reasonably believed that
the mutineers were, at any rate, partially incited to their crime by the
seductions of Tahiti; in the case of the revolt in New South Wales, it is
known that allegiance to constituted authority had no part in the
character of Bligh's subjects. Therefore, notwithstanding that Bligh was
the victim of two outbreaks against his rule, posterity, without the most
indisputable evidence to the contrary, would have held him acquitted of
the least responsibility for his misfortunes. In the case of the _Bounty_
mutiny the evidence of Bligh's opponents that the captain of the _Bounty_
was a tyrannical officer remains uncontradicted by any authority but that
of the _Bounty's_ captain; in the case of the New South Wales revolt we
can only judge of the probabilities, for the witnesses at the Johnston
court-martial were of necessity upon one side. But the court-martial, a
tribunal not at all likely to err upon the side of mutineers, came to the
same conclusion as we have, and, so far as we are aware, most other
writers acquainted with the subject have been driven to: that Bligh, to
say the least of it, behaved with great indiscretion.

Our references to this matter have been entirely to [Sidenote: 1829]
the minutes of the court-martial and to writers who wrote long enough ago
to have had a personal knowledge of the subject or acquaintance with
actors in the events. The lady whose letter we have quoted in the first
pages of this chapter refers us to Lang's _History_ for a justification of
Bligh, and Dr. Lang, as is well known to students of Australian history,
wrote more strongly in that governor's favour than did any other writer.
Dr. Lang tells us that the behaviour of certain subordinates towards
MacArthur was highly improper, and that MacArthur's speech in open court
was "calculated to give great offence to a man of so exceedingly irritable
disposition as Governor Bligh." Again, Dr. Lang says that