Dear Mr Darwin

I have been forcibly ejected from my quarters in the Museum by order of some of the Trustees who desired to be revenged because I proved them a pack of imposters¹ The whole story is too long to be told at present   let it suffice therefore when I inform you that without a moments notice I was pounced upon and with my servants and visitors including my little boy I was dragged out of my house & put into the street. Two doors were broken to pieces to get at me and a couple of price fighters were employed to do the deed   Acting under legal advice I did not resist more than was necessary and I was carried out bodily on the chair I was sitting on till the burden became to heavy for the men & they dropped me.—

My wife² (of Scotch descent but born of free parents in this Country of rogues and vagabonds) had rushed off to the Colonial Secretarys office to tell Mr Parkes what was about to take place

Mr P would not believe it, said it could not be done but it was done after all!

The Government appointed me at the recommendation of the Trustees and being appealed to by that body to sanction my dismissal they (the Government) refused to do so   The Trustees then got very angry & took the law into their own hands defying the Government   They did not and could not apply for a writ of ejectment & they simply signed an order to some man to put the late Curator his family & goods & Chattels out! They retained, however, all my papers books & furniture they retained my medals and orders opened all drawers and ran riot over the place a fellow named Edward S Hill, brother in law to Sir Daniel Cooper Bart. was the executing officer³   Hill is a butcher by trade and manages Sir Daniel Coopers affairs here he is a member of the Board & on their authority he did all these things. It is difficult to get justice done & having no money I may have to drop the law suit I have commenced against these men.—

If I had acted against the wish of the Gov^t. I would not complain but as I took the advice of the Col Sec^try on the matter who through his under Sec^try told me to remain in my quarters I am at a loss to conceive how I could be put to all the trouble and distress I have suffered.—⁴ The most curious part of the matter is that there was a Constable in Charge of the premises & that when the doors were broken open & I was assaulted by Hill and his pricefighters this guardian of the peace shrugged his shoulders like the gentleman in your “Emotions” saying as far as I could conjecture “non possumus”⁵ The Police is under the Col Secty^s directions and I was rather surprised that such non-intervention should have been sanctioned. Everybody tells me that I could have “settled” every man who crossed my threshold but you know what a mess a person gets into who kills a fellow creature. I am told that heavy damages await me that I shall return to my old home and be comforted but I can assure you that I have become so disgusted with the people for whose instruction I sacrificed the best years of my life that I am determined to leave the Colony as soon as I can muster sufficient funds to go elsewhere.⁶ It is a hard thing to leave such a collection behind as I brought together and it will take my successor a long time to understand it because no man with a grain of honor in his composition would ever accept the place after I leave it

Will you kindly do what you can in my interest I am only one against many and you know that law is expensive and only made for the rich   Had I been an Englishman by birth had I humbugged people, attended at Church and spread knowledge on the principle that the God of Moses and of the Prophets made “little apples” I would have gained the day but a true believer in the theory of developement I am hounded down in this Paradies of Bushrangers’ of rogues Cheats and Vagabonds

and I remain | dear Mr Darwin | ever truly yours | Gerard Krefft