This paper of directions will warrant my suspicion that some wicked and
disaffected person or persons lurk somewhere in this colony, and I have
done all in my power to discover them, but hitherto without success.
Having received early information of the intention of this party, who
were said to have increased to about sixty, I planted a party of armed
constables, on whose vigilance I could depend, and they secured a gang
of these Defenders of about twenty and brought them to prison. The next
day I spoke to them, but observing a considerable degree of obstinacy
and ignorance about them, I conceived there could be no better argument
used to convince them of their misconduct than a severe corporal
punishment, which was inflicted, and they have since been strictly
looked after at their work. Some of those fellows had been provided with
a figure of a compass drawn upon paper which, with written instructions,
was to have assisted them as their guide. The ignorance of these deluded
people, my Lord, would scarcely be credited if such positive proof of it
were not before us, and yet (which seems to imply a kind of
contradiction) it is extraordinary with what art and cunning they form
their horrible plans of wickedness and villainy.
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