Colonial Despatches

A catastrophe of the most melancholy kind has rendered it imperative on us, as a Committee elected, to act in the matter on which we have the honor of addressing you, by our fellow Colonists, to wait upon your Grace with the prayer of the independent residents of this Island for protection from the arbitrary and unconstitutional enactments of the present Governor.

Situated as we are at so Great a distance from the Imperial Government, & feeling that the most certain and speedy way of laying a clear statement of our grievances before Your Grace, would be by securing the presence in England of some member of our Community to whom we might entrust our Cause, the Colonists, at a meeting held on the 4th Feby (Ulto) for the purpose of arranging the preliminaries of the proposed step, unanimously selected the Revd R.J. Staines, Chaplain to the Hudsons Bay Co for this Island, as the most proper person to proceed to England for the purpose of waiting on Your Grace.

This Gentleman, at the earnest request of the Colonists, undertook the Commission, & sailed hence for San Francisco, in route to England, on the 1t March (Ulto), but never, as it has pleased the Almighty, to reach his destination, the vessel having been discovered some short time since by a passing Ship in a waterlogged state, & but one of the crew surviving to tell the sad fate of his fellows.

Deeply regretting as we do the untimely end of one who had the interests of our infant Community so much at heart, & than whom none could more efficiently have depicted the crushing effect of the incubus under which our energies are paralysed, we at the same time are so well assured of Your Graces earnest wish, as ever shewn, for the protection of the true interests of this Colony, that in laying before you the Documents with which our Delegate would have been charged, we do so with a perfect Confidence that they will meet from Your Grace every Consideration & attention, their importance entitles them to.