Rebellion Spiced Rum, 70 cl

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After the end of the wars against Napoleonic France and the United States, the British Army disbanded many units for the sake of economy.

Governor King highly commended Major Johnston for his actions, even though King had to intervene directly to stop a military kangaroo court from hanging one in ten of the rebels.The enlisted soldiers were not much different than the convicts – unskilled or semi-skilled men with few prospects in England. The officers and men of the New South Wales Corps were stationed in the Colony to support the Governor.

In 1800 he charged Major George Johnston, who had also served as Hunter's aide-de-camp, with giving a sergeant part payment in rum at an exorbitant rate.

The administration of justice became farcical, and there were signs of strong discontent among the settlers. The coloured work depicts the hunted Governor being dragged from underneath a bed by the red-coated members of the NSW Corps, later referred to as the Rum Corps. Paterson, whose health was failing, then retired to Government House and left Foveaux to run the colony.

Note and coin money was in short supply, so a complex barter system developed which was controlled by those who had access to goods – particularly food, clothing and alcohol. Bligh was painted as a coward for this action, but Duffy argues that if Bligh was hiding it would have been to escape and thwart the coup. The first four governors, all navy men, had great problems controlling the army officers, who resented what they saw as the navy’s interference on land.The officers and men had come to the colony expecting better financial and living situations than they had had in England. After serving as a young marine officer in the American Revolutionary War, Johnston served in the East Indies, fighting against the French, before volunteering to accompany the First Fleet to New South Wales. You are free to copy, distribute, remix and build upon this content as long as you credit the author and the State Library of NSW as the source.