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[top of left margin] 30/982 - 6th February 1830

[written diagonally, in pencil] Register & put away

[written inside a rhombus] 30/982

[right of page] Kingston, Norfolk Island, 30th November 1829.

Sir,

I beg leave to enclose for your perusal a series of papers, Viz't : -

No. 1 - a Copy of instructions to Capt'n Wakefield, as President of a Court of Enquiry ordered to assemble on the 2nd Nov'r 1829, to enquire into certain circumstances connected with the Hospital at this Station.

No. 2 - Proceedings of a Board of Enquiry assembled in consequence of the above Order -

No. 3 - Commandant's Order, approving of the proceedings & publishing the opinion of the Court.

No. 4 - Mrs Macleod's Letter to Mrs Morisset, and

No. 5 - Mrs Morisset's Letter to

[on right] Mrs

[bottom of left margin]

To,

The Honorable

Alex'r McLeay Esq're

Colonial Secretary }

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Mrs Macleod -

In order that you may duly appreciate the nature of the causes which induced the foregoing series of malicious annoyances to which I have been subjected, it is necessary for me to acquaint you that, it appears from information I have received from a quarter of the credibility of which I can have no doubt, that very shortly after my arrival on this Island there had been a regular & systematic endeavor on the part both of Mr Macleod & his Wife to lower me in the esteem of the Commandant and his family; for I can bring the most indubitable testimony that, they were in the constant habit of villifying my character in every possible way long before the investigation of which I send you the particulars, and which has very justly recoiled on their own heads.

The motives, either for their behaviour prior to this business, or for their attack on me subsequently, I am at a loss to account; for I am unwilling to believe that human nature could

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be so depraved or so base as to find pleasure in endeavoring to wound the reputation and blast the prospects of an unoffending individual --- still I cannot with the utmost stretch of charity bring my mind to any other conclusion than that, it has been to gratify a base propensity to mischief that such endeavors have been made to injure me in the tenderest point; - and I can only congratulate myself that I have been enabled to come forth from the ordeal not only clean, but free from suspicion -

The only possible motive I can assign for the enmity of Mr Macleod & his Wife arises out of the following circumstance - Four Prisoners had been ordered by the Commandant to sleep in the Gaol for security, instead of their huts, in consequence of their [sic] being a strong suspicion of their having been concerned in stealing a Sheep Both Mr Macleod and another Magistrate conceived that the Men were illegally confined, and that as Magistrates their characters were liable to be impugned, if they did not make some remonstrance on the case, which being mentioned to me, I acceded to, not conceiving that this was but a

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portion of the enmity that was in existence towards the Colonel by at least one of the party a Letter was prepared and sent to Colonel Morisset, who considering himself perfectly justified in placing the men in security spoke warmly on the subject. Mr Macleod, altho' the principal [hidden by ink blot] of the business, and the [underlined] (writer) of the Letter in question, finding how matters went, and conceiving it necessary to regain the good opinion of the Commandant, sets his Wife on to make an attack on my character, while Macleod himself insinuates that, he was led into the act of sending the offensive Letter by [underlined] (my) persuasions, while it is well known that I had never even recollected such a circumstance until spoken to by him on the subject of sending [underlined] (a) Letter to the Commandant on the illegal detention of the Men.

Thus it appears that their sole motive for manufacturing & propagating such infamous falsehoods with respect to me, was in revenge for my not taking on myself the whole blame of sending the Letter; when the only part I took in the business was attaching my name to the Letter when presented for that purpose after being concocted by him.

I have the honor to be

Sir,

Your Most obedient

humble Servant,

[signed] AJ Ross Ass't S.

[written diagonally, in bottom-left corner]

Read

_____

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Mem'a [Memoranda]

The accompanying documents are merely intended for your own private information - as I have no wish that the matter should be carried any further - and have done so lest a Report of it might have been sent you of a different colour. -

[initials, underlined, on right] AJR

30th Nov'r 1829 ~

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