[Office Copy.] Letter from LORD BATHURST to MAJOR GENERAL LONDON, 30th October 1820. SIR, I transmit to you enclosed a Copy of a letter which has been received by my Under Secretary from the brother of Captn. Synnot who has proceeded to the Cape of Good Hope with a number of persons to settle there under his direction; and I have to request that you will enquire into the truth of the Allegations set forth in Captn. Synnot's letter, and redress his grievances if they should prove to be founded. I send to you at the same time a Memorial from a person who accompanied Captain Synnot to the Cape, complaining of breach of faith in his pecuniary engagements; and altho' the settlers were repeatedly told previously to their departure from England that His Majesty's Government could take no Cognizance of their private agreements, I should nevertheless entertain no objection to your using your good offices in this and in other Cases where you might think it expedient to appease any differences existing between the subordinate Settlers and those under whose direction they have placed themselves. I take this opportunity to forward an application which has been received from a person who is interested in the fate of a Settler, and I request you will take the necessary measures to enable me to answer his enquiries. I have &c. Letter from SIR RUFANE SHAWE DONKIN to EARL BATHURST. GOVERNMENT HOUSE, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, October 30th 1820. MY LORD,-Amongst the Settlers who have come out to this Country is a Mr. William Parker, from Ireland, whose proceedings towards his followers and this Government have been so marked by neglect and dishonesty towards the former, and by extravagant and inadmissible demands on the latter, that I have been obliged to break up his Party and to permit the Individuals of it to choose their own Head, in order to ensure their Settlement and future maintenance. I should not have resorted to a measure of this nature, had it not become my duty to rescue the unfortunate persons who have trusted themselves to Mr. Parker from the misery into which they were rapidly sinking from his total neglect of them, and, from his having finally abandoned them to come and reside at a place called Bonteberg, near Cape Town, at a distance of full 100 miles from his place of Location. He forced me to know and to notice this his entire desertion of his party by a letter, from which I have the honour to enclose an extract, and I have in consequence taken these poor people under the immediate protection of this Government, and, I have sent Instructions to the Deputy Landdrost of their District how to proceed, of which Instructions as well as of the letter written to Mr. Parker on the occasion, copies are enclosed. I should not have troubled Your Lordship so much at length concerning an Individual, were it not that Mr. Parker very early began to menace this Government with the consequences which would ensue if his demands were not complied with, and, amongst those consequences was the bringing of his case before Parliament, which from certain Correspondents he appears to have, he might perhaps find means to do; it becomes therefore my duty to enable His Majesty's Government to answer any questions or statement which may be made in Parliament, which I now beg leave to do, by assuring Your Lordship, that any member of His Majesty's Government may distinctly and clearly assert that every possible attention has been shewn to Mr. Parker ever since his arrival in this Colony; that a strong disposition existed on my part, and on that of the Public Officers of this Government, to assist Mr. Parker; and, that this disposition, as well as everything which has been actually done, or has resulted from it, has been rendered wholly nugatory by Mr. Parker's want of faith towards his people, his visionary and monstrous schemes, his unreasonable expectations, and finally, by his utter abandonment of those unfortunate persons who trusted to him. I advance all this on my own responsibility, and I pledge myself that any assertions to the above effect, which may be made by His Majesty's Government, shall be amply and fully made good by abundant documents from the Colonial Office here. I have said nothing of the arrogance and disrespectfulness of Mr. Parker's style of correspondence with this Government, and I can assure Your Lordship, that it has not been permitted to operate in the least to his prejudice, although his letters have been highly offensive, as your Lordship will perceive, should it hereafter be necessary to send documents from this to repel any statements made by Mr. Parker. A strong opinion prevails here, that this Individual is suffering under a degree of mental derangement, and I have sometimes been disposed to adopt this opinion; which, however, it is difficult to reconcile with the persevering consistency with which he has all along kept his own interests in view, to the total disregard of those of his followers. I have &c. SIR,-I had this day the honor to receive your letter of the 30th Ultimo, and in reply have the honor to state that nothing can be more desirable than to have a military Chaplain stationed at Graham's Town, which is the Head Quarters of the Military on the Frontier of the Cape Colony, and within from 5 to 25 miles of the largest proportion of the new Settlers. There is at all times a force of from 250 to 350 men at Graham's Town. I shall be extremely obliged if you can effect the early appointment of a respectable clergyman as military Chaplain on that station. [Office Copy.] Letter from HENRY GOULBURN, ESQRE., to LONDON, 9th November 1820. SIR, This letter will be delivered to you by Messrs. Thomas and Frederick Perry, who are proceeding to the Cape of Good Hope with views immediately connected with that Branch of the Medical Science which is their profession; and as they have been represented to Earl Bathurst to be young Men of respectable character, I am desired by his Lordship to request that you will afford to them your protection. I have &c. Letter from the Deputy Colonial Secretary to the COLONIAL OFFICE, 9th November 1820. SIR, I am directed by His Excellency the Acting Governor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 21 ult. giving cover to an application from Mr. C. Gurney, and I have it in command to inform you that His Excellency has been pleased to permit Richard Claringbould and John Darby to proceed to England for the purpose of procuring sundry articles and assistance, necessary to the better conduct of the Fishery at Port Elizabeth, I have &c. [Original.] Letter from the REVEREND FRANCIS M'CLELAND to CAPE TOWN, November 9th 1820. MY LORD,-It had been my intention to pass over in silence the conduct of Mr. Wm. Parker to myself and my lady, during our voyage with him to this country, but it appears that after using every possible means to blast my reputation with the Government here, and thereby ruin my prospects, he has, as a last resort, written to the Government in England, and also to many individuals of exalted character, bringing charges against me seriously affecting my reputation as a man, more particularly as a clergyman, and complaining in pointed language of the little regard paid to his complaints by the authorities here. Respecting the origin of Mr. Parker's persecution of me I am totally unable to assign any adequate motive: 'tis most true that on my learning his shameful transactions in money matters with Messrs. Aspinall and Jackson, respectable Solicitors in London, as well as the means he had recourse to, to procure the amount of his settlers' deposits after he had spent upwards of the one third of it, I ceased to look on him with that deference and respect which his talking of religion and his apparent zeal for the good of the poor had previously required. It is most fortunate for me that I do not stand a solitary instance of Mr. Parker's bad treatment, no, my Lord, everyone whether friendless or destitute that dared not to cringe to his haughty mandates, and that had spirit enough to resist his arbitrary and tyrannical conduct, was soon convinced that in this seeming friend to religion and virtue, there was a most malignant heart, and a disposition that would studiously embrace every possible means of ruining his fellow creatures when they presumed to have an opinion contrary to his own. Whether I look at Mr. Parker's conduct in proposing to his Settlers to allow him to hire waggons for their conveyance to the interior at three times the price that Government would do it, and for reasons which cannot be mistaken, whether I look at it in withholding Mr. Woodcock's deposit in payment of a mess account contrary to his own express agreement, whether I look at it as connected with Miss Cayle, an unprotected female, that embarked at his |