Erith, James Thomas

Waaye Platz, April 14 1822
May it please your Excellency

The difficulties connected with the formation of a new
Settlement at a remote distance from its parent state and the comforts of life
are in themselves of no trifling magnitude, especially if we take into consideration
the entire failure of Two successive Harvests which your
Excellency knows has been experienced in this country during the
short period we have resided here, but when facts allow us to add to
them, the loss of servants (for whom a great expence had been incurred)
under the sanction of an Office which ought to be a terror to evil doers
only from motives, which their future employment and the profits
attached to their labours (as unfolded by a certain Ledger) have rendered too
plain and obvious to be mistaken, and those very servants allowed to strike
the man who feeds and clothes them, without obtaining any redress from
the local authority after repeated applications, while he himself is wantonly
dragged from his bed upon which he was stretched in a state of great bodily
weakness, as a vagrant of the lowest and worst description, exposed to
all the inclemency of the Evening air, and placed upon a swamp (which
the pencil of an Artist has clearly exhibited) with two unoffending children
during the absence of their Mother, the burden becomes too intolerable for
the shoulders of a freeborn British subject to endure, and he cannot supress
the anxious and increasing desire of returning to that Land where
Justice ever sits on her throne of state in splendid robes of unsullied white,
nobly supported by Twelve disinterested men, when he cannot trace
her footsteps in an English Colony, and such your Excellency were
the feelings which dictated the various statements of my unfortunate
situation which from time to time have been handed to General
Sir Rufane Shaw Donkin during the absence of your Excellency
and supported as I am by the Official documents which I have
received at various periods of my short but lamentable History in this
Colony I dare affirm that the whole case has never been fairly nor
fully met or replied to, while evasions of certain points, abound throughout
the whole of the correspondence, and promises solemnly made which
have never been realized, and in consequence of which I was induced
as soon as your Excellency arrived on this part of His Majestys
foreign possessions in your high and exalted station to hand you
a statement of my grievances, and duplicates of my proceedings and
which although briefly entered into, occupied a considerable number

of sheets, but for which I know your goodness would not require an apology
and therefore I was not surprised to hear from Mr Phillips ( our late worthy
and much respected Magistrate) that the Honourable Captain
Somerset had told him that your Excellency had expressed (in his
pressence) a determination to bring to Justice the author of the
misfortunes of which I had complained to you whether it were
General Donkin or Captain Trappes and that your Excellency
had dispatched a duplicate of my Memorial to England, but your
Excellency will Judge of my Surprise after the arrival of such
intelligence through so pure a channel of conveyance, when I
received an Official communication from Colonel Bird immediately
afterwards, dated at the Colonial Office Feby 13 1822, stating
that you had received my Memorial and perused it with the greatest
attention, and having done so had called upon Captain Trappes
to reply, to the grave accusations, which I had again thought proper
to bring forward against that Gentleman, and that therefore he was
instructed to inform me, that the explanations which Captain Trappes
had given upon every point of the statement I had made, had
entirely satisfied your Excellency, that Captain Trappes had in no
sense done me any wrong, or could be considered as having
acted towards me with any other feeling than that which the
duties of this situation required but this declaration however,
does not appear to me, to savour of that wisdom and Justice which
your Excellency is known to possess, and this impression has been
strengthened by the following suggestions which have spontaniously
presented themselves to my mind, and first, Captain Trappess
mere reply, I conclude would have no more satisfied your Excellency
(however plausible and well arranged) than a declaration of
Innocence made by a person under serious charges in an English
Court, would induce the venerable Judge on the Bench to dismiss
the case, from the mere defence of the prisoner, without the examination
of witnesses, or hearing that Plaintiff in reply, and secondly
because such a declaration would prejudice my case in the
circuit Court where I intended to have brought it on an Action
unless your Excellency was pleased to point out any other way of my
obtaining impartial Justice for the injuries which have been done
me, Thirdly because the Letter of Colonel Bird does not contain
an answer to the whole of my Memorial and is totally silent in
respect to the deposit which I made in England under a solemn
promise from His Majestys Government that the whole should
be returned in Three Months after my having been located, which
has not been done and a considerable sum is now due to me,

while a supply of rations for myself and family have been denied
me for no other reasons that I know of, that because I refused to
sign away my property, It is therefore but reasonable that they
return me the balance, and which I have no doubt your
Excellency will soon direct to be done, ______ Fourthly
because the Letter from Col Bird is at variance with the
declaration made by the Honourable Captain Somerset to
Mr Phillips which I have previously stated, and confirmed in
a subsequent conversation with Mrs Erith, and who appeared
much surprised when he read the Letter from the pen of Col
Bird, and throwing it on the Table, again repeated what he had
heard your Excellency assert upon the subject, and therefore
I cannot refrain from stating that every person here to whom
I have mentioned the case (and the number is considerable)
conceive that your Excellency probably knows nothing of the
document to which I allude, and on that grounds I have to
entreat your Excellencys pardon for again troubling you on
the subject, but it appeared to be enveloped in such sable
clouds of mystery that I humbly conceived nothing short of an
appeal to your Excellency could disperse them. In the conclusion
therefore I humbly pray, that your will be graciously
pleased to order that a correct copy of Captain Trappess reply
to my Memorial be forwarded to me, and that you will
be pleased previous to your Excellencys pronouncing Judgment
to receive my replication to his defence, and allow me to hand
you Affidavits from persons regularly sworn before the Landdrost
and I do not prove to a demonstration all I have stated respecting
the conduct of Captain Trappes, I am content to sink under
the heaviest punishment which British Laws can inflict and am
Your Excellencys
most obt subject and Servant
Jas. Thos. Erith