AustLit

According to an undated letter from Grant to his mother and sister this poem was written on the occasion of the departure of Sir Henry Hayes and Mr Maurice Margarot's departure from the colony at the instruction of Governor King. Grant notes that he was"so shocked that I refused all food from animals. I lived entirely on a vegetarian diet and my sensibilities were so much affected by their hasty reading of this Bond of Union that after having finished I took up my Pen and, before their eyes, composed the [poem]".
(Source: This Beauteous, Wicked Place : Letters and Journals of John Grant, Gentleman Convict. John Grant, edited by Yvonne Cramer.)