and bringing to condign punishment every vicious and idle
character." He pointed out the advantages of good conduct, which ought to "create confidence, and prevent future
ridiculous plans, which are contrived by artful villains to
deprive the industrious of their comforts." He would adopt
measures "to insure that tranquillity which must not, and
shall not, be interrupted with impunity."
Early in 1801 Margarot's private journal teemed with seditious entries. Rumours of a decisive defeat of the English in Ireland, and of revolution in England, were industriously spread to show the hopelessness of supporting the Governor in New South Wales. On the 14th Feb. it was noted of King—"Tout le jour il se comporta en enragé." On the 4th was deplored the failure of an attempt by an American captain to carry off some Irishmen who, seeking "a échapper ont été pris, ramenés, mis en prison, et aux fers!!!"
On the 9th March Margarot wrote—"Le Gouverneur s'enferma pour écrire." What the Governor then wrote is perhaps to be seen in an extant despatch of the 10th March. It dealt with many subjects. The drawing of bills; the growth of the vine; the complaint of the Indian Government that, during Hunter's time, many convicts had escaped to India; the importation of spirits, and measures to repress it; a census; floods at the Hawkesbury; the crops; the supply of food, and of clothing; the purchase of a house as a home for orphans; recovery of old debts due to the Crown; the obtaining of coals from the Hunter river; the capture of runaway convicts who, after seizing a Government vessel, which they ran ashore, were captured in a private vessel which they stole; the want of another clergyman; the death of Judge-Advocate Dore, and the need of a successor to him; Major Foveaux's excellent efforts to maintain order at Norfolk Island, where the Irish convicts had been seditious-formed the staple of the despatch. Some allusions to the Irish would have enraged the conspirator.
The Ann arrived from Ireland with one hundred and thirty-seven male and twenty female convicts in Feb. 1801. The whole of the convicts were of the "most desperate character." Before reaching the Brazils they
