Of course this was taking a heavy responsibility upon himself. Even
colonial governments nowadays, elected by "one-man-one-vote," scarcely go
so far, but the state of the settlement must be remembered. There were no
shops then, and the general public of the colony, with very few
exceptions, was made up of Government officials and prisoners of the
Crown. But the step was a serious interference with trade--that is, the
rum trade; in consequence those in "the ring" were exasperated, and its
members only wanted Bligh to give them an opportunity to retaliate upon
and ruin him.

MacArthur, now a landed proprietor and merchant, soon after Bligh landed,
paid him a visit, and reminded the new governor of an instruction sent to
King that he (MacArthur) was to be given every encouragement in his
endeavour to develop the pastoral resources of the colony. "Would Governor
Bligh visit his estate on the Cowpasture river" (now Camden), "and see
what had been done in this direction?" to which Governor Bligh, according
to the report of Major Johnston's trial, replied, and with oaths: "What
have I to do with your sheep and cattle? You have such flocks and herds as
no man ever had before, and 10,000 acres of the best land in the country;
but you shall not keep it." Here then was a declaration of war--MacArthur,
too much of a trader to be a soldier, and politician enough to have
enlisted on his side the English Government--which had announced its will
that he should be encouraged as a valuable pioneer colonist--_versus_
Bligh, so much of a warrior as to have fought beside Nelson with honour
and so impolitic as to have lost his ship to a body of [Sidenote: 1807]
mutineers, some of them officers, of whose discontent, according to his
own showing, he was unaware until the moment of the outbreak.

[Illustration: CAPTAIN BLIGH. From an engraving after J. Russell, R.A.,
in Hugh's "Voyage to the South Sea" [London, 1792]. _To face p. 256._]

The fight began in this fashion. MacArthur had taken a promissory note
from a man named Thompson. When the note became due, a fixed quantity of
wheat was to be paid for its redemption; but, subsequent to the drawing of
the note, came the great flood before mentioned; wheat went to ten times
its former value, and MacArthur demanded payment on the higher scale.
Thompson refused payment at the current rate, alleging that he was only
bound to pay for grain at the rate he received it, although his crops had
no