Loose Papers Found Between Pages of The Governor's Diary

The following documents were found between the pages of Hindmarsh's diary. Hindmarsh has written across the back of one:

"What a to do! Why can they not simply say "Everyone stay as you are until further order. And Hindmarsh, spread the news!" instead of all this?"


The first is a letter from Lord Glenelg informing Hindmarsh of the death of King William IV.



From the Right Honourable Lord GLENELG, 

Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies,

Downing Street,

SIR,

21st June, 1837.

It is with the greatest regret I have to communicate to you the melancholy intelligence of the demise of His late most gracious Majesty, King William the Fourth. His Majesty expired at His Castle at Windsor, on the morning of the 20th instant, at 12 minutes past two o'clock, to the great affliction of the Royal Family, and of all classes of His Majesty's subjects.

Her present Majesty was this day proclaimed Queen Victoria with all the solemnities used on the like occasions. Her Majesty's most gracious Declaration contained in the accompanying Gazette, will best inform you of her determination, under the guidance of Divine Providence, to maintain the reformed religion as by law established, securing at the same time to all, the full enjoyment of religious liberty, and to protect the rights and promote to the utmost of her power the happiness and welfare of all classes of her subjects.

The form to be observed in proclaiming within your government Her most sacred Majesty Queen Victoria, is stated for your guidance in the accompanying communication from the Lords of Her Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council, which also transmits in order that the same may be made public within your Government, Her Majesty's Proclamation requiring all persons being in office of authority, or Government, at the decease of the late King, to proceed in the execution of their respective offices.

I have the honour to be, SIR,

Your most obedient humble Servant,

GLENELG.

The second is a letter from the Privy Council instructing Hindmarsh as to his immediate actions.

From the Lords of Her Majesty's most Honorable Privy Council:

To our very loving Friend the Governor of South Australia.

It having pleased Almighty God to take to His Mercy out of this troublesome life, Our late Sovereign Lord King William the Fourth, of blessed and glorious Memory, and thereupon Her Royal Majesty Queen Victoria, being here proclaimed, We have thought fit to signify the same unto you, with directions that you do, with the assistance of the Council, and numbers of the principal Inhabitants of South Australia, forthwith Proclaim her most sacred Majesty Queen Victoria, according to the form here enclosed, with the solemnities and ceremonies requisite on the like occasions. And you are likewise to publish and proclaim, a Proclamation, requiring all persons being in office of Authority, or Government, at the demise of the late King, to proceed in the execution of their respective offices, till Her Majesty's pleasure shall be further signified, according to the printed copy of the Proclamation herewith transmitted to you for that purpose.

And so not doubting of your ready compliance herein, we bid you heartily farewell.

From the Council Chamber of St. James's, this twenty-first day of June, 1837.

Your loving Friends,

COTTENHAM C.

DUNCANNON.

PALMERSTON.

COMBERMERE.

GLENELG.

HILL.

SPRING

RICE.

ANGLESEY.

The third is a minute from the new Queen's declaration to her Council regarding her accession to the throne

AT the Court at Kensington, the 20th day of June, 1837,

PRESENT,
The QUEEN'S Most Excellent Majesty in Council.

HER Majesty being this day present in Council, was pleased to make the following Declaration, viz. THE severe and afflicting loss which the Nation has sustained by the death of His Majesty, my beloved Uncle has devolved upon me the duty of administering the Government of this Empire. 

This awful responsibility is imposed upon me so suddenly, and at so early a period of my life, that I should feel myself utterly opprest by the burthen were I not sustained by the hope that Divine Providence, which has called me to this work, will give me strength for the performance of it and that I shall find in the purity of my intentions, and in my zeal for the public welfare, that support and those resources which usually belong to a more mature age, and to longer experience.

I place my firm reliance upon the wisdom of Parliament, and upon the loyalty and affection of my people. I esteem it also a peculiar advantage, that I succeed to a Sovereign whose constant regard for the rights and liberties of his Subjects, and whose desire to promote the amelioration of the Laws and Institutions of the Country, have rendered his name the object of general attachment and veneration.
Educated in England, under the tender and enlightened care of a most affectionate Mother, I have learned from my Infancy to respect and love the Constitution of my Native Country. It will be my unceasing study to maintain the Reformed Religion us by Law established, securing at the same time to all the full enjoyment of Religious liberty; and I shall steadily protect the rights, and promote to the utmost of my power, the happiness and welfare of all classes of my subjects.

Whereupon the Lords of the Council made it their humble request to Her Majesty, that Her Majesty's most gracious Declaration to their Lordships might be made public, which Her Majesty was pleased to order accordingly.

C.C. GREVILLE.

The fourth document is a handwritten copy of the Queen's Proclamation regarding the immediate future of all government positions.

BY THE QUEEN. 

A PROCLAMATION, Requiring all Persons being in Office of Authority or Government at the Decease of the late King, to proceed in the Execution of their respective Offices.

VICTORIA R.

WHEREAS by an Act made in the Sixth Year of the Reign of Her late Majesty Queen Anne, intituled An Act for the Security of Her Majesty's Person and Government, and of the Succession to the Crown of Great Britain in the Protestant Line; it was enacted, that no Office, Place, or Employment, Civil or Military, within the Kingdoms of Great Britain or Ireland, Dominion of Wales, Town of Berwick upon Tweed, Isles of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, and Sark, and any of Her Majesty's Plantations, should be made void by reason of the Demise of Her said late Majesty, Her Heirs or Successors, Kings or Queens of this Realm, but that every Person or Persons in any of the Offices, Places, and Employments aforesaid should continue in their respective Offices, Places, and Employments for the Space of Six Months next after such Death or Demise, unless sooner removed and discharged by the next Successor, to whom the Imperial Crown of this Realm was limited and appointed to go, remain, and descend: And whereas by an Act made in the Fifty-seventh Year of the Reign of His late Majesty King George the Third, intituled An Act for the Continuation of all and every Person or Persons in any and every Office, Place, or Employment, Civil or Military, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain aud Ireland, Dominion of Wales, Town of Berwick upon Tweed, Isles of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all and every of His Majesty's Foreign Possessions, Colonies, or Plantations, which he or she shall hold, possess, or exercise during the pleasure of the Crown at the Time of the Death or Demise of His present Majesty, until removed or discharged therefrom by the succeeding King or Queen of this Realm ; it was enacted, that all and every Person and Persons, who upon the Day of the Demise of His said late Majesty should hold any Office, Civil or Military, under the Crown, during Pleasure, should, under and by virtue of the said Act and without any new or other Patent, Commission, Warrant, or Authority, continue and be entitled in all respects, notwithstanding the Demise of His said Majesty, to hold and enjoy the same: But nevertheless the same should be held or enjoyed only during the Pleasure of the King or Queen who should succeed to the Crown upon the Demise of His said late Majesty; and the Right and Title to hold and enjoy the same under the Authority of the said Act should be determinable in such and the like Manner, by the King or Queen who upon the Demise of His said late Majesty should succeed to the Crown, as the Right or Title to any Office, Place, or Employment granted by such succeeding King or Queen, during Pleasure, would by Law be determinable : We, therefore, with the Advice of Our Privy Council, declare Our Royal Will and Pleasure to be, and do hereby direct and command, That all and every Person and Persons, who at the Time of the Demise of Our late Royal Uncle, of Glorious Memory, duly and lawfully held, or were duly and lawfully possessed of or invested in any Office, Place, or Employment, Civil or Military, within Our United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Dominion of Wales, Town of Berwick upon Tweed, Isles of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney Sark, or Man, or any of Our Foreign Possessions, Colonies, or Plantations, do severally, according to their Places, Offices, or Charges, proceed in the Performance and Execution of all Duties belonging to their respective Offices whilst they shall hold the same respectively during Our Pleasure; And We do hereby require and command all Our loving Subjects to be aiding, helping, and assisting, at the Commandment of the said Officers and Ministers, in the Performance and Execution of their respective Offices and Places, us they and every of them tender Our utmost Displeasure, and will answer the contrary at their Peril. 

Given at Our Court at Saint James's, 
this Twenty-first Day of June One thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven. 

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.

The final document is Hindmarsh's Declaration regarding the succession to the throne of the new Queen, given, as instructed, to the Colony and to which a number of leading colonists added their signatures.

Adelaide, 19th day of October, 1837.

 HIS Excellency the Governor, assisted by the Members of Council, Magistrates, Officers of Government, and numbers of the Principal Inhabitants this day assembled in front of Government House, and proclaimed Her Majesty-Queen Victoria as follows:

WHEREAS it hath pleased Almighty God to call to His Mercy our late Sovereign Lord King William the Fourth, of blessed and glorious Memory, by whose decease the Imperial Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and all other His late Majesty's Dominions, is solely and rightfully come to the High and Mighty Princess Alexandrina Victoria, saving the right of any issue of His late Majesty King William the Fourth, which may be born of His late Majesty's Consort, We, John Hindmarsh, Knight of the Royal Hanoverian Guelplic Order, Captain in Her Majesty's Royal Navy, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Province of South Australia, assisted by the Honourable the Council of the said Province, the Magistrates, Officers of Government, and numbers of the principal inhabitants of Adelaide, therefore Do Now hereby with our full voice and consent of tongue and heart, publish and proclaim, that the High and Mighty Princess Alexandrina Victoria, is now by the death of our late Sovereign of happy and glorious memory, become our only lawful and rightful leige, Lady Victoria, by the Grace of God Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, saving as aforesaid, Supreme Lady of Her Majesty's Province of South Australia, and its Dependencies, to whom, saving as aforesaid, We do acknowledge all Faith and constant Obedience, with all hearty and humble affection, beseeching God, by whom Kings and Queens do reign, to bless the Royal Princess Victoria with long and happy years to Reign over us. 

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.

John Hindmarsh                             J. W. Jeffcott

C. J. William Bell                 T. Bewes Strangways

Henry Jickling                                    Chas. Mann

Henry Jones                                       J. H. Fisher

G.O. Ormsby                                Geo. Stevenson

Alfred Hardy Charles                     B. Howard, Clk

George C. Lewis                             Osmond Gilles

Charles Nantes                            Y. B. Hutchinson

W. Williams                                      Thos. Lipson

Oscar J. Lines                      Boyle Travers Finniss

William Wyatt                         Thos. Young Cotter

E. Webster                                      Edwd. Wright

L, Powes                                        P. M. Richards

F W. Allen                                     John Morphett

Thomas Rogers                           Henry R. Wickley

John White                                 Fredk. Handcock

J. Woodforde                          J. W. D. Blenkinsop

Robert Thomas                         J. Hindmarsh. Jun

S. Sievres                                        J. E. Barnard

Sunday, 15th October, 1837

I was greatly pleased earlier this week to see that Jeffcott had returned from Van Diemen's Land where he has been visiting his fiancee, Miss Kermode.

I was expecting to receive a hearty pat on the back from him when he saw how I had handled the running of the Colony in his absence, but in this I was gravely disappointed. 

Instead I received a hearty bollocking from him the which was not at all what I was expecting. 

I had, he said, caused the Colony to be fairly well ungovernable and had split the Council into factions that could only result in my making enemies that would work against me to weaken my hold on whatever power I hoped to have.

He went so far as to suggest that the colony would, as a result of my actions, become the scene of anarchy and most frightful confusion and a prey to the most dreadful dissensions ere long.

He told me that Brown was the last man whose appointment I should have tampered with because of the nature of his appointment and that Fisher who was, he said, a wily attorney and without doubt, the worst class of person that could have been selected for his office, would waste no time in using my actions against me to put me into a false position to his advantage.

He informed me that my relying on Mann for legal opinion was ill advised since Mann had recently married Brown's sister (I was not aware of this) and could therefore only be relied upon to provide opinions of the most partial nature.

Of course, he said, all parties had appealed to him and, as soon as his courts sits he would be inundated with all the questions which had been agitating the place would come before him in the form of ex-officio informations, indictments, and actions for libel and defamation innumerable. This mass of misery he will have to encounter, he said, was disgusting and quite unsuited to his habits and feelings and he wished to God to be clear of them and back in Hobart Town.

He assured me that he had nothing but compassion for me because it was clear that I, as a bluff and straightforward sailor and not well equipped to deal with such politic players and Fisher and his party. He regretted that he had not been with me, because then I might not have got myself into such scrapes.

I was, you may be sure, set back on my heels by such a broadside and left speechless by it. But the truth of the matter was that I could see that there was much in what he said and so my first word was to ask what could be done?

His advice was for me to drop my actions against Fisher and Gouger and then leave the rest to him.

Well, I don't know what sort of miracles he worked or what promises he made, but within a day  he had spoken to Fisher and Gouger and Gilles and the whole tangled web of threat and counter-threat dissolved and vanished.

The man is a magician. He even produced a solution to the Black Alick problem. He proposes to take the unfortunate native from McLaren's barrel and bring him to the mainland, then place him in room which, for the purpose, we can call a gaol cell, leave the door open and turn our backs for a while. His view is that a few weeks of David McLaren's hospitality is probably punishment enough and if the native "escapes" we have rid ourselves of a problem and can throw our hands up in horror and say "how can this have happened"?

But to other matters, in particular, regarding WIlliam Light. Now I have nothing but the warmest feelings for dear old Light and will not hear a word said against him. 

But the whispers I have begun to hear about town of him being a man we owe all to and a visionary genius leave me more than somewhat bemused

Some five or six years ago a steam railway service began to run between the cities of Manchester and Liverpool with speeds attained of up to twenty-five miles an hour (yes, I know it seems difficult to believe, but I am assured that this is indeed the speed) over a distance of more than thirty miles. Imagine travelling thirty-five miles in a little over an hour!

The Manchester and Liverpool Railway

Last week I spoke to Light and suggested to him that such a railway line might solve our problems with the distance from the township to the ports. A railway down to Port Adelaide or to Holdfast Bay would be undoubtedly a boon to trade and to the colonists. Should we not, I asked him, embrace with open arms this transportation of the future?

He, however, was hardly sanguine. He had heard that the steam locomotives were unreliable. The cost would be prohibitive. Land would need to be purchased. The railways could not transport goods to where they were needed, but only to where the rails were laid. He had been told by friends in England that the railways were nothing but a passing fashion and common sense would soon prevail, and those in need of transporting goods would soon return to ox carts and horse transport as the more effective and practical system.

Visionary genius my arse!

It seems perfectly apparent to me that a railway would be a boon to the Colony, but it will not appear I imagine, because of nitpicking objections. I trust that this will not be the pattern for the future, with good ideas for change and improvement being stymied by the objections of those resistant to things that are new.

Sunday, 8th October, 1837

Deeply saddened this week to receive, by post from London, the news that our King, His Majesty, William IV of the House of Hanover, known as "The Sailor King", has died.

Well, to be completely honest, he died back in June and it has taken this long for the news to reach us, which means that the King's Birthday Ball we held back in August appears now to be in the poorest of taste, since the poor old devil was a month cold in his grave while we were all singing "Long live our Gracious King!" and drinking to his health.

I have recorded it in these pages, but I was presented to him before sailing for the Colony. A singularly unimpressive chap I thought, though I was struck by seeing how his wife's nose was startling in its prominence.

I am told that when the Commissioners were planning the Colony they begged permission to name the Capital City after the King - thinking they might call it Williams Town or Williamston or some such. Accordingly they petitioned the King to allow them to call the city after him "as he saw fit." See fit he did, and they received a note from the Palace informing them that "His Majesty would be greatly pleased to have the Capital of the new Colony of South Australia named in honour of Her Majesty the Queen." And so Adelaide it was.

In his youth, when Duke of Clarence, he had a multitude of illegitimate children by a well know actress, but produced no living heir by the Queen. And so his niece, the young Princess Victoria of Kent, is now our sovereign. 

Just 18, a mere chit of a girl, I can't see her lasting. At the moment she'll no doubt be the puppet of Lord Melbourne, who'll be the real power behind the throne and soon they'll probably marry her off to some Prussian or Dane or Swede and we'll all end up in a joint Kingdom or some such.

Her coming to the throne does solve one problem here for us though. When we were naming the streets we gave the large square at the centre of the plan the name "Victoria Square" after Princess Victoria, the heir presumptive. To be honest, the name hasn't really taken. Light himself still refers to it as "The Great Square" and everyone else seems to call it "that big space in the middle". Naming it after a little princess was hardly conducive to having settlers remember what it was called on the map.  But since it is now named after Her Gracious Majesty then I'll wager a turd to a shilling that all will remember to call it by its proper name. Victoria Square. 

Well it is good to know that we need expect no more problems with that space.

If we had more lawyers in the place they'd all, of a certain, be raking in the cash just at present. 

Gouger is still talking loud and long about his ten thousand pounds damages for wrongful imprisonment and is intending to return to London to pursue the case with the Commissioners.

I have put the kibosh on that plan by discovering that two thousand pounds that were in his keeping are missing and unaccounted for from the public funds. I have sought legal opinion (from Mann, so I don't hold out much hope) regarding these funds and if it is within my power to stop Gouger from leaving the Colony until said funds are recovered.

Fisher is still telling all and sundry that he will sue for libel regarding the anonymous letter published in the Gazette and Register.

I am pursuing a charge of seditious libel against Fisher for the handbill he published.

Fisher has a counter claim of libel against Stevenson for publishing my proclamation, claiming that it impugned his professional reputation as Resident Commissioner.

He also threatens to sue Gilles if OG pays Hutchinson a salary as Emigration Agent when, according to Fisher, Brown is still in the position.

Gilles is still threatening to pursue a charge of assault against Gouger, Morphett and Mann over the beating he received at their hands.

Black Alick is still being kept in a barrel by McLaren until Jeffcott returns and sorts out his Murder trial.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Black Alick decided to sue McLaren because he wanted a nicer barrel.

Well, when the Judge returns from Hobart Town he'll have his work cut out for him. And the best of luck!

I was greatly pleased and gratified to receive notice of a public meeting held two or three weeks ago in which colonists gathered in Bob Cock's sale room and voted unanimously to say that Brown was an arse, Fisher a cheat and I was the loving father of the colony and held the colonists gently in my loving bosom.

That, at least, was the gist of their meeting.

They also sent me a delightful address in which they expressed their indignation at the manner in which I have been treated at the hands of the villains that surround me and not only made clear their gratitude for my expulsion of Brown, but also urged me to remove Fisher from office as soon as possible.

Of course, there is nothing I would like more than to remove Fisher from office, but sadly the thing is not within my power and I can only refer the matter to the powers in London and see what those particular fatheads might do.

It was pointed out to me the other day that under the Marriage Law, for a marriage to be legal, Banns must be read aloud in the Parish church of both parties for the three Sundays before the wedding. Since we have no Parish churches, to the strict letter of the law any marriage solemnised in the Colony is invalid.


 And so, when, in my darker moments, I talk of "the bastards who fill this colony" and mean it simply as a figure of speech; within a generation this expression might be no more than the simple truth!

Rectifying the situation would require a change to the Marriage Act and I can only imagine the howls of protest if I attempted that piece of quixotery.

No doubt the Howler in Chief would be The Reverend Charles Howard.

Under the act, for a marriage to be valid (unless you're something exotic like a Quaker or a Jew or Scottish) you must be married by a Minister of the Established Church. Since Charlie is the only such we have he has a monopoly on the marriage business sewn up.

And whilst he would no doubt counter a change to the Act with sound theology, one can not help but feel that him charging 5/- a skull for his services might be an influence.

Now, as delightful as a wedding service by Charlie Howard undoubtedly is (his sermon on "The Mysterious Sanctity of the Marriage Bed" drawing on Old Testament examples is said to be ninety minutes of rollicking hilarity) it might well be that a young dissenting couple - Baptists or Weslyans for example - might well prefer their own Minister of Religion to marry them rather than Charlie Howard. But to allow Dissenters to marry as they want would require a change to those Marriage Laws and I just don't have the stomach for it.

Resolutions and Address to His Excellency Governor Hindmarsh, K. H. agreed upon at a Public Meeting of Emigrants. Held at Mr. Cock's Sale Room on Monday the 18th September last, GEORGE MANTON, Baker, in the Chair.

Cutting from the Gazette and Register
14 October 1837

The following resolutions were unanimously agreed to.

Moved by G. Wills, seconded by J. Hart, -

That the delay in erecting the frame cottages sent out by the honourable Commissioners in the Coromandel, and other vessels, for the emigrants, whereby great suffering and inconvenience were sustained, is mainly to be attributed to the supine inattention of the Emigration Agent, and the Colonial Commissioner.

Moved by T. Wellbourn, seconded by T. Black, -

That it is the opinion of this meeting that the high price of provisions has been chiefly occasioned by the conduct of the Colonial Commissioner in selling the Stores to the Company, and adopting a system of favouritism to his own labourers, while the supplies were refused to other Emigrants.

Moved by R. Black, seconded by J. M. Glashan, -

That this meeting consider the inhuman conduct of the Emigration Agent, in refusing to give orders to have the body of the deceased emigrant, George Trollope, decently buried, is consistent with his neglect and conduct towards the emigrants generally, and they consider him unfit for any superintendence over them.

Moved by G. Emers seconded by R. Flack, -

That the Thanks of this meeting be respectfully offered to His Excellency the Governor for his promptness in suspending the late Emigration Agent, and for his unceasing kindness to Emigrants on all occasions.

Moved by G. Wills, seconded by W. Nash

That a petition be presented to his Excellency the Governor that it is the opinion of this meeting that the Colonial Commissioner is altogether unworthy of the situation he holds, and praying his Excellency to remove him, being not only prejudicial to the welfare and interests of this colony, but also a mover of sedition.

Moved by G. Wills, seconded by R. Black. -

That a petition be drawn up, and a deputation appointed to present the same to His Excellency the Governor, and signed by the Chairman on behalf of the meeting.

Moved by G. Emery, seconded by R. Black -

That the Thanks of this meeting be given to Mr. Robert Cock for the use of his room.

Moved by R. Black, seconded by G. Emery -

That the Thanks of this meeting be given to Mr. Manton for his able conduct in the Chair.

In compliance with the above resolutions, the following address was prepared and presented to his Excellency the Governor, by a Department of Emigrants.

To His Excellency the Governor:

With feelings of the deepest regret, we are compelled to approach your Excellency to solicit that attention which is denied us by those whose bounden duty it is to attend to our interests. We cannot find terms sufficiently strong to express our indignation at the manner in which your Excellency and the most honourable part of your Council have been treated, and by those persons who should have assisted you in your fatherly considerations for the benefit of the inhabitants of South Australia.

We, therefore, being the majority of the Emigrants under your Excellency's Government, cannot rest content with merely expressing our approval of your Excellency's decision in the removal of Mr. John Brown from his office as Agent of Emigration, but respectfully urge the expulsion of James Hurtle Fisher from his seat in your Excellency's Council, and finally from his occupation as Resident Commissioner in this colony, our unanimous opinion being that he is not only unfit for the responsible situation he now holds, but is a sower and cultivator of sedition.

In conclusion your petitioners beg to call your attention to the fifth and sixth resolutions, contained in the fourth column of the sixth page of the accompanying Gazette.

And your Petitioners will ever pray, &c.

Signed on behalf of the Meeting of Emigrants,

GEORGE MANTON, Chairman.

Adelaide, September 18th. 1837.

To which Address His Excellency was pleased to transmit the following reply:

It has been, and ever will be my care that the interests of the emigrants be attended to. Upon their good conduct depends the prosperity of the province. To secure their welfare, has been the main object of His Majesty's Government, and of the Colonisation Commissioners, and I feel it to be my duty to see their views carried into effect, by all means in my power.

I trust you will enable me to do so by a continuance of that orderly, peaceable, and industrious behaviour which, I am happy to acknowledge, has been, in so remarkable a degree, the characteristics of your conduct since your arrival in the province.

In suspending Mr. John Brown from his office of Emigration Agent, I believe I have only performed a painful duty.

The proceedings of the Resident Commissioner with regard to that officer will be submitted to the consideration of His Majesty's Government, with whom the power of removal from office rests, as well as to the Colonization Commissioners in England, who, I feel assured, will never sanction disrespect to the constituted authorities of the province by any individual acting under their instructions.

(Signed)

JOHN HINDMARSH.

Sunday, 1st October 1837

Word has arrived that Jeffcot is taking ship from Hobart Town very soon and will be arriving shortly here in the Colony. I have no doubt that when he arrives he will have nothing but compliments for me regarding my handling of the recent Brown fiasco.

My proclamation answering Fisher's piece of treachery has been printed and distributed about the town and will appear shortly in the next edition of the Register.
I was rather pleased with it.

Hindmarsh's proclamation as it
 appeared in the Newspaper.

I was even more pleased with my first draft, but Stevenson made some nimminy pimminy objections to some of my expressions, calling them "admirable in their enthusiasm, but possibly ill advised." And so my references throughout to Fisher as "a bastard son-of-a- whore" were deleted as was a passage in which I suggested that Brown was not to be trusted either with money or sheep. This is a pity, as I felt that my joke that "he would fiddle with either" was particularly witty. But no place for humour, it seems, in official documents and we are the poorer for it.

Fisher, who has heard, no doubt, of my intention to take action against him for seditious libel, has been acting with unaccustomed smoothness towards me. "As smooth as a bucket of snot" as I said to Strangways. (And once again he recoiled in a way that suggested to me that he will find it difficult to find a place in the familial bosom.) Fisher has written to me to assure me that he acted "without the least intention of personal disrespect towards your Excellency, but as a matter of imperious duty on my part."

Imperious fiddlestick!

His only intention towards "your Excellency" is to get rid of him so he can run the colony for himself and to his own advantage. I fear that increasingly he sees himself as a Robespierre - or worse, as a Bonaparte - and hopes to have a republic here before too long.

Well, I helped to defeat the real Napoleon and I have no fear of this poor impersonation.

On a lighter note, it appears that Mad Menge, the German Rockhound has disappeared. As recently as three weeks ago he announced the discovery of a huge deposit of coal under Victoria Square, but since his increasingly fantastical discoveries have been greeted with ever greater scepticism, no-one seems to be taking all that much notice of him any more.

I trace this disbelief back to his announcement in July of the world's largest iron ore deposit in Hurtle Square. A group of investors, certain of making their millions, quickly formed a consortium and began digging furiously, but when they discovered not a thing and had nothing to show for their money save a large collection of shovels, they turned on Menge and denounced him for a charlatan.

I was forced to step in and explain that Menge was no charlatan. Rather he was a Lunatic and not to be held responsible. SInce that time people have simply been ignoring him and letting him harmlessly draw his company salary. I understood that he had been dismissed from the company, but it seems that due to Sam Stephens's ineptitude he was dismissed, but not removed from their payroll.

And now he has disappeared entirely. Perhaps he has gone back to whatever world he came from for I cannot believe that he was of our natural order.

And speaking of the unnatural, Widow Harvey's daughter Harriet has taken her first steps. Mrs Hindmarsh was in a transport of excitement at "our baby walking". I have a suspicion that the lazy pudding has been able to walk for some time, but just couldn't be arsed. I have never seen a child who so resembled a blob of bread dough in my life. Soft, white and shapeless. Broad at the base and coming to a point at the top. 

Little Harriet Harvey in a
skin tight smock.

I believe that the only reason I have not yet placed the brat in the oven by mistake is that every time I go near her she screams like a banshee from the deepest pits of Hell. And then Mrs Hindmarsh inevitably appears screeching "What have you done to that child now?" as though I would touch it with a barge pole. And then we get "Don't you like the big silly Navy man? Don't you? Don't you? No, you don't! Do oo! Do oo!"

The woman has taken leave of her senses.

I can assure her that the child's dislike for me is as nothing compared to my distaste for the squealing, puking unholy terror.

Sunday, 24th September 1837

When, oh when will I learn that the moment I write "I can rule a line under that incident", or, "I expect that all will be quiet now", it is almost certain that Pandemonium is about to break loose all about me?

Earlier this week I was just settling down to a post luncheon nap at my desk when Strangways burst into the room, brandishing a printed broadsheet. The boy is very sweet on Jane, my daughter. Indeed, he has asked for my permission for her hand and since I was too shocked to say "no" he now considers himself her intended. But if he intends to be my son-in law then he had best learn to knock and see if I am sleeping before he thunders into my office again.

He seemed most excited and thrust the broadsheet into my hands. I looked at it and uttered an oath. Well, a number of oaths really and from the look on Strangways's face I gather they were oaths he had not heard before. Something else he had best learn about if he is intending to marry into the family.

The sheet was printed by the order of no less than James Hurtle Fisher and told - no, commanded the Colonists of South to ignore any Vice-Regal order of which they might have intelligence and continue to treat Mr John Brown as Migration Agent for the colony.

Ignore a Vice-Regal order!

Well this is nothing but sedition and republicanism and reminds one of the worst excesses of the French Revolution. And I presume we understand what that unfortunate movement led to? 

I have instructed Gilles to stop Brown's pay from the date of his dismissal. Fisher has threatened Gilles with legal action if he does so and if he starts paying Bingham Hutchinson. 

I'll give him bloody legal action!

Jeffcott has not yet arrived back from Hobart Town, where he is, no doubt, dallying with his fiance, Miss Kermode and so I have demanded from  Mann, the Advocate General, that a writ of seditious libel be served on Fisher -  the Jacobin Revolutionary! Ignore a Vice-Regal order indeed! And encourage others to do the same! The miserable, traitorous bastard! 

No doubt he sees himself as some kind of Robespierre and me as King Louis, but in truth he is nothing but an impudent puppy and I will be the one to rub his nose in it. I have made inquiries with Mann to see if Naval Discipline might not be invoked? A taste of the cat would surely put the miserable Mr Fisher back in his place! Sadly, Mann seems doubtful, but I might ask Jeffcott when he returns.

Now I know how poor old Bligh felt in Tahiti. And no doubt Fisher sees himself as Fletcher Christian and is looking for an open boat to cast me adrift in. He'll be setting up a Republic next. Or worse still a dynasty and populate the government with his own loathsome offspring. No wonder he has bred up so many of the foul whelps!

Didn't this sort of thing happen a few years ago in Paris when barridades were set up in the street and students kept demanding to know if you could hear the people sing? I will not have Victoria Square turned into the miserable Rue Sainte Martin.

I have issued a Proclamation of my own confirming Bingham Hutchinson as Migration Agent and I will not brook argument from the Hurtle Fisher camp! I will have his resignation as a man unfit for office and if necessary will have a gaol built specially to hold the rebellious creature. Perhaps his multitude of children can be pressed into service as a workforce to build the thing!

I also asked Mann for a legal opinion regarding Fisher's immediate dismissal as a Magistrate. Mann has hummed and ahhed about the legal niceties of a "presumption of innocence" and needing to test the case before a jury, which is just typical!  More humming and ahhhing has been produced regarding the nature of Brown's appointment. It seems that he was originally appointed by the Company, but then the Crown, knowing what a slimy, miserable, slippery piece of work he is, included his name amongst the lists of Crown appointments, as so that they could dismiss him more easily if needs arose. So I have a perfect right to dismiss his as I please, but Robespierre Fisher has decided otherwise.


Well, we wiill see about that!

Sunday, 17th September, 1837

After last week I was very worried to hear that Fisher has declared that he has found the solution to what he says is "the greatest problem that the colony faces at present".

Since it is pretty clear that Fisher thinks the greatest problem faced by the colony is me it is understandable that I was, to say the least of it, concerned at what he meant.

But it seems that Fisher actually means that the great problem faced by the colony is the lack of horses. Naturally this comes as a relief to me and he does have a point. My arm is still sore after I fell off that damned donkey and a few more decent horses about the place would be most welcome. And anyone who has pushed a handcart up from Holdfast Bay would hardly argue that more horses is a bad idea.

But of course FIsher cannot allow himself to do something without doing it to excess (For proof try and count the number of his children) and plans to solve the issue in one fell swoop by chartering a ship from McLaren and the Company and have it sail to Timor where he will fill it with as many Timor Ponies as he can cram on board and bring them back to the colony.

A Timor Pony

   

It seems to me to be one of those plans that appears well on paper, but is attended by such a multitude of impracticalities that in reality it cannot succeed. To begin with, it is all very well saying with insouciance "I'll charter a ship from the company", but the company is not so flush with ships that it can afford to lose one for six months or so while Mr Fisher uses it to go shopping. And where is the money for all this coming from? And how is he planning to ensure the safe and healthy passage of dozens of ponies? 

No, the whole thing seems like a joke to me, but Fisher will not be told.

Surely there are horses to be had more easily in Van Dieman's Land? Why not bring in a few mares and a stud horse and breed ourselves some horses. It might be a slower process than playing Noah's Ark in Timor, but given Fisher's green thumb when it comes to breeding (Once again, for proof try and count the number of his children. If not his thumb then some part of him is green.) we would have horses enough in a few years. 

But not content with being half man half rabbit, Fisher now seems to have notions of being a sort of Easter Hare and appear with gifts for all.

I am delighted to say that Brown has been removed from his office as Emmigration Agent and good riddance to him. Bingham Hutchinson, the alpine explorer, has accepted my suggestion that he take up the position, so I believe that I can rule a line under that trying episode in Council.

Jeffcott has headed over to Hobart Town to sort out some private affairs, leaving the various magistrates to deal with any legal matters in his absence. Since most of the magistrates have less legal knowledge than Widow Harvey's backside they are ill equipped to deal with the case that will soon come before them.

It is alleged that at Encounter Bay a Native, known to the locals as "Black Alick" (though his real name seems to be something like "Repping Jerry") has killed one of the whalers at the station there.

The Whaling Station

Now I have met a few whalers in my time and "scum of the earth" does not begin to describe them. Indeed, I believe that the scum of the earth have let it be known that they wish to disassociate themselves from whalers for fear of the damage such association might make to the scum of the earth's reputation.

So by causing the world to have one less whaler in it, Black Alick could be said to have done a public service. Certainly I do not doubt that if he killed the man then it was not without provocation and the whaler was as much to blame as the native. 

Since the natives seem to make a practice of swift and certain retribution amongst their own when a life has been taken, I suspect that if the dead whaler's companions had biffed Black Alick on the noggin with an axe handle on discovering his guilt then his relatives would have considered it quite in the way of business and thought no more of it. 

But oh no! For once in their lawless lives they decided to "do the right thing", lay charges and have him arrested. 

God damn them and their rum pickled, pox ridden souls! From whence comes this mania for doing the right thing amongst men who wouldn't know a moral scruple if it bit them on the arse?

Where the hell do you keep a prisoner at Encounter Bay? The answer, of course, is "nowhere" and so the man was put on board ship and taken to Kingscote. God knows what the poor chap felt - having probably never been further than a few miles from where he was born and having done nothing wrong, at least, nothing wrong by his native ways - to be bound hand and foot and hauled off by strangers to Heaven only knows where.

In fact, he made his feelings pretty clear by breaking his bonds three times and trying to escape at every opportunity.

Of course there is nowhere to keep a prisoner - particularly one who does not want to be kept - at Kingscote either, so McLaren declared that he would be kept on board ship.   But even here he remained difficult and tried to escape several times.

McLaren devised a scheme for keeping Black Alick restrained. He found a large barrel, placed the native inside, put on the lid and kept him in there, passing food in through the bung hole.

I doubt that I am alone in finding this a less than completely humane solution to the problem that Black Alick presented. Add to that the bill McLaren has presented to the Council for 20 shillings a week for the care he is providing to the prisoner and I find it all more than a little over the fence.

But these are just minor problems compared to the legal challenges that the native presents. We have declared that the natives are British Citizens and are entitled to the protection of British Justice. I stood under a gum tree nine months ago and proclaimed just that to all and sundry. So, since he was arrested, Black Alick is entitled to a fair British trial. And there is the problem.

If we're going to try him the he needs to swear the Oath "so help me God".  How do we get him to do that when we aren't even sure if the natives have a God of their own, let alone know about the Saviour. Only the other week old Charlie Howard was happily preaching (at length) to us that the natives live in the darkness of ignorance about God and his scriptures. So do we seriously expect Black Alick to put his hand on the Bible he knows nothing about and swear an oath to a God he is ignorant of that he will tell the truth? It is not going to stand in a court of law I fear.

Even greater is the problem that the fair British trial Alick is entitled to requires him to say his evidence and then be questioned on it and defend himself.

Need I add that since Black Alick understands not a word of English this sems impossible to achieve? 

And a fair British trial requires the evidence of sworn witnesses. When I say that the only two witnesses to the alleged murder are two native women who also speak no English then the problems of giving our barrel dwelling native the fair British trial he is entitled to seem insurmountable.

Let us hope that Jeffcott has some ideas when he returns or else Black Alick may be spending much time in his barrel.