[A few of the above names may not be correctly given, as the writing is indistinct in some instances and the ink faded in others.-G. M. T.]

[Office Copy.]

Letter from R. WILMOT HORTON, ESQRE., to
MR. THOMAS WILLSON.

DOWNING STREET, 14th May 1823.

SIR,—I have to acknowledge by Earl Bathurst's desire, the receipt of your letter of the 10th instant, and to acquaint you in reply to that part of it which relates to the Title of the Lands on which you were located at the Cape of Good Hope, that there is no intention on the part of His Majesty's Government of resuming possession of them under the Terms of the printed Conditions of 1819 if the Government of the Colony is satisfied with the efficiency of the Agency of the Revd. Mr. Boardman which is to be inferred from a Passage in the letter you have now transmitted from him stating that "Ten thousand acres had been granted to the Party." But with regard to Repayment of the Balance of your Deposit Money as again urged, I have received his Lordship's directions to refer you to the Answers which have already been returned to your former applications.

With reference to your request respecting the Enclosures transmitted to Earl Bathurst in your letters of the 21st April 1821 and 10th instant, I am to acquaint you that although it is not the practice of this Department to return Documents which belong to Letters officially transmitted, Mr. Boardman's Letter without date last marked as received on the 28th of April last, is herewith returned, and a copy of Colonel Bird's letter to you of the 19th April 1821, the original having been bound up with the correspondence of the Cape Government. I am &c. R. WILMOT HORTON.

(Signed)

[Original.]

Letter from MR. JOHN INGRAM to ROBERT WILMOT, ESQRE. 18 CECIL STREET, May 14th 1823.

SIR,-I doubt not but you will pardon the liberty I have taken in addressing you, but really the subject is so interesting to me it will plead my excuse.

I have been considering the conversation I had the honor of holding with you and the gentlemen yesterday, and I feel I should ill discharge my duty to you and the Government, were I not to communicate to them in the most candid manner everything that strikes me with conviction on a subject of such importance as the encouragement of emigration to the Cape from the South of Ireland. Experience is one of those great teachers by which we all ought to be guided, that I am induced most unhesitatingly to submit my humble opinion that if Government are known to encourage and assist Emigration it will be attended with the worst of consequences.

1st. Because if left to individuals they embark in the speculation themselves and on the fortune or misfortune of those whom they confide in, and have him to look to for support, but in my case they have the advice of their friends there to go out also.

2ndly. If Government interfere they will say we have been removed under the protection and at the expence of Government from our own country and they will be bound to support us because they were afraid of us at home and glad to get rid of us.

3rdly. I regret to say it has been universally inculcated in them by those who are inimical to Government that they do nothing for them but from some interested or sinister motive.

4thly. If it is supposed to arise from individual exertion, I doubt not but it will be the cause of turning the tide of Emigration towards the Cape with greater effect than if Government were supposed to interfere, because individuals are seldom induced to embark in a speculation of the kind without some strong hopes of profit.

I am led into these conclusions from the conduct of several of the Settlers who were sent out in 1819 always saying to the Masters: Government sent us here, you were at no expence; we

ought to be free to go where we please. And in several instances they refused to work and thought to break their contracts, but found by experience the Laws were too strong for them.

When I reflect on the ingratitude of the wretched creatures in Ireland (after the magnanimous conduct of the English nation last year), universally saying it was only to gull and deceive them, and to use the words of that truly respected divine, the Lord Bishop of Derry, that the poor about Galway considered the money, &c., &c. sent for their relief as a legacy from their own King James the 2nd, and I understood him to say they took legal advice, could they not recover against those persons the amount of £5 each and prosecute them for withholding it.

I lay these remarks with the greatest submission and respect before you and those Gentlemen who are so solicitous for the welfare of my unfortunate countrymen, and I am decidedly of opinion that individuals encouraged by Government will not only succeed better with them than if Government are known to interfere in the least, because they know individuals cannot support them unless they work hard, but Government can whether they work or not; and the expence will not be above one half what it was when done through the Navy Board.

This much I pledge myself to aid and assist with my humble exertions any plan which may be considered most prudent by His Majesty's Government. I am, Sir &c.

Letter from the Fiscal to the Colonial Secretary.

FISCAL'S OFFICE, 14th May 1823.

SIR,-In compliance with His Excellency the Governor's directions communicated to me in your letter of the 24th ultimo relative to a Memorial from one Mr. Alexander Macfarlane to His Majesty's Secretary of State, whereby he has requested to be informed on such points as will hereafter be detailed; I have the honor for the information of His Excellency to report as follows:

First, on the question proposed by Memorialist "whether or

no any investigation as to the death of his son the late Mr. Alexander Macfarlane ever took place in this Colony."

Subsequently to the wrecking of the Portuguese Brig Nostra Senhora da Guia in Table Bay, which took place on the 2nd May 1819, a report was circulating in this Town that one Mr. Macfarlane, who had left Batavia on Board the said Brig and had acted therein as Surgeon, should have been murdered on the voyage to this Colony, and that his being the proprietor of the cargo of the said Brig, or at least the principal part thereof, should likely have induced the Master and the Officers of the ship to commit the nefarious act, thereby to enrich themselves with his property.

As evidence was brought forward to prove that great part of the cargo, consisting of tea, had belonged to the late Mr. Alexander Macfarlane, who died on board the ship on the voyage from Batavia to this Colony, and that Mr. Macfarlane was a British subject, an action was instituted before two Commissioners of the Court of Justice for the confiscation of the ship and cargo. I considered this a favourable opportunity for making such enquiry as circumstances did allow, respecting the cause of Mr. Macfarlane's death, and I now beg leave herewith to annex a translated Extract from the Court's record in said case, whereby it will appear that the late Mr. Alexander Macfarlane's death has been unanimously attributed to what is called the Batavian disease, a kind of diarrhoea which in the course of the voyage has cost the life not only of Mr. Macfarlane but also of four other men belonging to the Brig's Crew.

Sometime after this enquiry the suspicion of his being murdered was renewed by a Chinese called Yan, who gave an account of some suspicious circumstances mentioned to him, as he said on the 8th August 1819 in the presence of witnesses. by one of the late crew of the Brig Nostra Senhora da Guia, also a Chinese. I therefore examined this man before one Commissioner of the Court, when I found that no circumstance justifying the suspicion of murder had been ever stated to him, though he heard that after the decease of Mr. Macfarlane money had been distributed among the crew on board the Nostra Senhora da Guia, as may appear from the translation of his examination, which I have the honor to annex. I afterwards examined all the Chinese belonging to the said crew in my office,