“Francis continued saying, ’I’ll tell you how it is to be done; the whole is left to my management, and the best time will be the first Saturday after the arrival of any other vessel than the Sirius.  Most of the marines and free people will be a-cabbaging*, and as Mr. King generally goes to the farm twice a day, in his absence I will step into his house and hand out the arms** to my men; then I will go out and take Mr. King, and after that the other officers, and what marines are in camp, and the rest as they come in from cabbaging:  we will then put them all in irons, two and two together, when they will be as helpless as bees.  We will then make the signal for a boat, and when she lands, we’ll nab the boat’s crew; then send the coble off with Mr. King’s compliments, and request another boat may be sent to carry off plank, as the first boat was stove, and the coble could not carry luggage:  when the second boat comes, the people belonging to it will be nabbed, and the two boats with the coble will be filled with our people (the convicts) and the women, and take possession of the ship.  Three of the sailors might remain, if they were willing, and one officer should be kept to navigate the ship; the rest of the officers and ship’s company will be left on Nepean or Phillip-Island, with the coble, from whence they might go to Norfolk-Island and liberate the commandant.

[* Getting the wood-cabbages.]

[** The marines arms were kept in my house.]

“Elizabeth Anderson then expressed her wishes that it might succeed, and Francis left her.”

The taking Webb and Anderson’s depositions, and interrogating them, took up two hours; and it being Saturday, most of the convicts were out getting cabbages:  there was a possibility that the accusation against William Francis might be an invention; yet, having received that information, it became necessary to use every precaution against a surprize; I therefore ordered a constant guard of three privates, to be commanded by Mr. Dunavan, the serjeant, and corporal, and a guard-house was built between my house and the surgeon’s, in which the provisions and stores were deposited.  The store-house occupied by the marines, I removed from the water side nearer to my house.  Every person, without exception, was ordered to live in the town, or camp, and I recalled the party who had been sent to Ball-Bay.

Being still desirous to obtain fuller proof the criminality of the parties concerned in this diabolical scheme, I desired Messrs. Dunavan and Jamieson to watch the return of John Bryant, a convict, who had always behaved very well:  they were to interrogate him respecting the plan laid by the convicts, and to assure him of a pardon, if he would discover all he knew.  I also sent to the house of William Thompson, in the Vale, to search for any written agreement that might have been drawn up, but none was found; however, the persons employed in this search found a quantity of Indian corn in a chest in Thompson’s house, which, from its not being quite hard, must have been stolen from the King’s grounds in Arthur’s Vale, as there was no other on the island.