Transcription

very extensive fortune or at least the appearance of
it, and they have suffered themselves to be led by this
man into a litigation that has drawn into its vortex
several officers, and proceeded such lengths that I have
been obliged although, with extreme reluctance to order
[officer?] Grimes, (who acted as judge advocate after the
[indecipherable] to take my dispatches in
arrest to prevent an insurrection of the inhabitants and
to secure him and the persons he confided in from
being massacred by the incensed multitude, or if
the Governor had escaped so dreadful an end and
retained his authority to see his Majesty's benevolent
and paternal government dishonoured by cruelties
and merciless execution.
A very awful impression was made upon the minds
of the inhabitants, as I have been informed when they
saw Mr. McArthur taken to the Goal, many respectable
persons hastened to him, and when the Court
assembled at 10 o'Clock, his two bondsmen presented
a copy of the warrant and a deposition from
themselves.
Whilst the search was making for Governor Bligh,
I was entreated by the civil officers and inhabitants
to proclaim Martial Law and this request [enacting?]

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