seditious letter to Joseph Holt. After the suppression of
the insurrection in New South Wales, when, on the dying
confessions of some who were executed and other statements, Holt's papers were seized on account of his alleged
complicity with the rebels, King sent to Collins (20th April
1804) "an attested copy of the letter, as it is necessary you
should know you have some such, if not many, of those
hardened and abandoned characters with you." Holt was,
he said, "a principal promoter of the late insurrection,"
and had been sent to Norfolk Island.
When Holt was permitted to return to his family from the island prison, he sailed by way of Hobart in a ship which carried a portion of the establishment in course of removal thither. Collins wrote:—
"A person of the name of Holt, proceeding to Port Jackson, having looked about him here, is so pleased with us that he has solicited my approbation of his coming here to settle with his family, and means to request your consent. I think from all I can learn of him that he would be very useful here, and therefore hope there will not be any objection on your part."
But even Collins had not a word to say for Maurice Margarot. In the same (private) letter he spoke of him as "a dangerous scoundrel, worse a thousand times than Stuart, vaurien as he is."
When King sent Colonel Paterson to Port Dalrymple he thought it necessary to explain to Collins (31st May 1804) that His Majesty's instructions were "positive for settling Port Dalrymple," and he could not hesitate to obey them. He gave the usual injunctions to Paterson about enforcing order amongst the inhabitants, and preventing any acts of violence against the natives, "enjoining all persons under your government to live in amity and goodwill with them."
Paterson's first report on the subject (26th Nov. 1804) may be given in his own words:—
"On the 12th, a body of natives, about eighty in number, made their appearance about 100 yards from our camp. From what we could judge they were headed by a chief, as everything given to them was delivered up to this persou. He received a looking-glass, two handkerchiefs, and a tomahawk. . . . The first hut that they came to they wanted to carry off everything that they saw, but when they were made to understand that we would not allow them they retired peaceably. From this friendly interview I was in hopes we would have been well acquainted with them
