nt dishonour'd by
cruelties and merciless execution.

The event that I have the honour to report to your Lordship took place
on the 26th of last January, and although such a space of time has since
elapsed, I have found it impossible to prepare that arranged detail, and
that connected chain of evidence which so uncommon a subject has made it
my indispensable duty to transmit to your Lordship.

Why I have been unable to perform this task, I shall, as I proceed,
endeavour to explain, and I respectfully hope that the information and
the evidence which I now propose to forward will prove to your Lordship
that Governor Bligh has betrayed the high trust and Confidence reposed
in him by his Sovereign, and acted upon a predetermined plan to subvert
the Laws of his country, to terrify and influence the Courts of Justice,
and to bereave those persons who had the misfortune to be obnoxious to
him, of their fortunes, their liberty, and their lives.

In the accomplishment of this plan, one act of oppression was succeeded
in a progressive course by a greater, until a general sensation of alarm
and terror prevailed throughout the settlement. Several inhabitants were
dispossessed of their houses, and many others of respectable characters,
or who had become opulent by trade, were threatened with the Governor's
resentment if they presumed to build upon or alienate their own lands.

These measures and various other acts of violence were projected and
supported by the Governor and a junto of unprincipled men, amongst whom
it was well known and has since been proved, the notorious George
Crossley, sent to this colony for perjury, was the principal person, and
the one most confided in by the Governor.

Your Lordship will not be surprised that a Government conducted by the
aid of such a Minister should be hated and detested as well as feared.

All the inhabitants who were a little advanced in their circumstances
beyond the common mass dreaded the approach of the moment when their
turn would come to be sacrificed to the avarice, the resentment, or the
fury of the Governor and his friends.

But whilst they were trembling with apprehension for their own safety,
the eyes of the whole were suddenly turned from the contemplation of the
general danger to that of Mr. Macarthur, a gentleman who was many years
an officer in the New South Wales Corps, and who now possesses a large
property in this Country.

The extent of Mr. Macarthur's estate,