John Hunter confronts the New South Wales Corps

John Hunter returned as governor after two years in which military officers had gained control over the liquor trade, land, public stores, courts, and convict labor. John Macarthur became a determined defender of the commercial interests that Hunter was trying to restrain. Sending the implicated officers home under arrest risked the kind of military rebellion later faced by William Bligh, leaving Hunter with little effective power to restore civil administration. Anonymous letters accused him of participating in the abuses he opposed and helped secure his recall. Hunter answered with a printed defense whose claims may have been sharpened to support his case. Philip Gidley King later described Hunter's intentions as upright, and the government recognized his service with an annual pension.