THE AUSTIN PAPERS. 1203 understood out of this Colony and for this reason I am no doubt frequently blamed where I would not be if the facts were known- My task has been a very complicated and difficult one-the Gov' have added to my dificulties by not compelling the Commissioner to remain here untill the business was completd. and thus throw- ing the whole burthen and responsibility on me alone unaided by any support whatever other than such as I could draw from the slender resources of my own judgement-for I have not been fur- nished with any code of written laws, any detailed instructions- 1.'Iy authority it is true was very full and ample, too much so for it vests me with discretionary powers in regard to the reception of settlers the Gov' of the Colony the distribution of lands which necessarily · subjects me to sencure jealousy or envy from some quarters, let me act as I would those powers were also under the control of a superior power, so that I have in many instances been compelled by the most imperious circumstances to deviate even from my own judgement-that I have committd errors I readily admit, indeed I must have been more than human °bad I not committed any placed in the situation in which I have been. in some instances I have yielded up my own judgement in an individu.al case to what I considerd the Gen 1 interest of the Settlement, perhaps it was an error to have done so, but the motive was a good one. Some of these cases have been taken hold of in the abstract and have drawn on me sencure and misrepresentations-One great difficulty under which I have labord is that the Settlers are unacquainted with the language and nature of this Gov'-There are no interpreters but myself and my secretary and consequently no way for them to know the orders of the Gov' but through one of us-this places me in a truly un- pleasant situation for you know that it is innate in an American to suspect and abuse a public officer whether he deserves it or not- I have had a mixed multitude to deu.l with collected from all quar- ters strangers to each other, to me, and to the laws and language of the country, they come here with all the ideas of americans and ~xpect to see and understand the laws they are governed by, and many very many of them have all the licentiousness and wild turbulence .of frontiersmen added to this when they arrive here the worst of the human passions avarice is excited to the highest ex- tent and it directs the vangt'ia1·d in their_ attacks on me, jealousy and envy direct the flanks and maliciousness lurks in the rear to operate as occasion may require. could I have opposed them by showing u law defining positively the quantity of lund they were to get and no more and a code of written laws by which they were to be gov- erned I should ha.ve had no difficulty-but they saw nt once that my powers were discretionary, and that a very great augmentation to
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