# History of Australia/Chapter 4

CHAPTER IV.
GOVERNOR HUNTER.
In Sept, 1795 Governor John Hunter reached Sydney by H.M.S. Reliance, in which George Bass was surgeon and Flinders was midshipman. The interest he displayed in the colony and the recommendation of Lord Howe procured for Hunter the appointment of Governor, although the retiring Phillip suggested that King was the fittest man for the office. Hunter took back to the colony Bennilong, the native taken by Phillip to England. He received Royal instructions in England, with a provident despatch from Mr. Dundas, as to Ins multifarious duties as Governor.
It does not appear that be was able to stem the tide of drunkenness and debauchery which was sweeping over the land. There was indeed a curious mixture of reprehension and encouragement in the conduct of the government with regard to the love of spirits. The minute journal of Collins informs us of "the strange design" of some persona to apply to the Governor for a license to distil spirits. "A practice so iniquitous and ruinous, being not only a direct disobedience of His Majesty's commands, but destructive of the welfare of the colony in general, the Governor in the most positive manner forbade," and several stills were found and destroyed. At that very time the same chronicler informs us that the Governor could think of no better way to arrest a bushranger than by offering "as a reward five gallons of spirits."
Hunter seems to have been conscious of want of decision, and vainly to have tried to produce an impression that he ​ was firm. On one occasion, Oct. 1795, he ordered that none of the military and others who had huts near the stream of water which supplied Sydney should presume to open the protecting palings and make paths which conducted filth into the stream. The penalty of the breach of the order was the pulling down of the offender's house. Little or no attention was paid, and in Jan. 1796 Hunter "declared in public orders to every description of persons, that when an order was given by him it was given to be obeyed." He would have been believed had he made an example without talking about it. He allied himself as closely as he could to the military power by making Captain Johnston of the New South Wales Corps his aide-de-camp. He endeavoured to check drunkenness by issuing "to deserving persons" licenses to sell spirits, and so to limit the traffic. He failed, and "robberies now appeared to be committed more frequently than formerly." He then forbade the bartering by these licensed persons of spirits for grain. With the power that he possessed of withdrawing convict servants from settlers and from officers, he might perhaps have restored decency; but though he threatened to withdraw assistance from offenders, he threatened in vain, and when he acted his acts produced no general results. To promulgate his orders more effectively, he brought into use a small printing-press which Phillip had imported, but which had been idle until Hunter assumed the government.
The immoralities of the time, if they had failed to shock the community as a whole during the rule of Grose and Paterson, had nevertheless aroused the consciences of many. A contemporary account relates that on the first Sunday after Hunter's arrival the Rev. Mr. Johnson in his sermon at Sydney boldly denounced the shameless proceedings of the military government under Grose and Paterson, and congratulated the colony on the restoration of civil law, which Hunter was commanded to re-establish. Hunter revived the civil law on his arrival in Sydney. At Parramatta he retained for a time as military commandant John Macarthur (who became a captain in 1795).
When David Collins (Judge-Advocate) left the colony, Richard Atkins, previously an officer in the army, was ​appointed in his place pending His Majesty's pleasure. A new Judge-Advocate, Mr. Richard Dore, arrived in the colony in May 1798. He officiated in the magistrates' as well as in the higher Civil and Criminal Courts. In the Supreme Court Library in Sydney is preserved a small vellum-bound book which records many of Dore's decisions in the petty sessions.
The entries are sometimes strange. A man is charged "with neglect of duty, and as it appeared that he was of an indifferent character, the gaoler was ordered to give him twenty-five lashes and discharge him." Two women appear; one, charged with "cruelly beating the other with a glass bottle and cutting her head, pleading a provocation in mitigation, the magistrates recommended the parties to withdraw, and accommodate the matter between themselves." 24th Oct. 1798.—A convict was brought, charged
"on a violent suspicion of feloniously and privately stealing from His Majesty's public stores in Sydney a cake of soap, and secreting about his person in order to take away the same. The soap was produced, and proved to be of the same quality as that belonging to the stores; but as the act and fact of stealing was not sufficiently established in law, the said was sentenced to receive fifty lashes and to be discharged, in order to return to his duty as a servant of the government."
Another man is charged with "embezzling some stone, the property of government; but as there seemed something of rancour and malice in the accusation, the prisoner was ordered to work out an equal quantity of stone as that carried away. A woman was accused of stealing a flat-iron from a "house (into which she had come on Sunday last under pretence of lighting a pipe) during Divine service, and the property having been found upon the prisoner, and no defence being set up, she was ordered to have an iron collar round her neck for a fortnight, and to sweep the gaol for a month from this day." Another woman, pleading inability to pay (the jurisdiction of the magistrates was limited to £10) on account of "various misfortunes and illness which prevented her attending on Saturday last, it was ordered that the debt be paid in the next corn harvest." On the 15th Sept. 1798 Dore and his brother magistrate Balmain sternly ordered the discharge of a prisoner arrested "without a specific charge," and the gaoler was peremptorily commanded on no "account what​ ever in future to receive or detain any prisoner in custody without some particular charge, or by virtue of a magistrate's warrant."
Thus summarily did the civil power assert itself after the excesses sanctioned by Grose and his military supporters. In civil matters Dore gave useful but much-neglected advice. One of his first acts was to implore the inhabitants to reduce to clear terms in writing all their contracts and agreements, duly witnessed and signed. Hunter, unfortunately, aided by Atkins, was involved in conflict with Dore.
Grose had assigned many more convicts to officers than had been allowed by Phillip or by the Secretary of State. Hunter was instructed to reduce the number, but Collins informs us that "notwithstanding it far exceeded the number which had at home been thought necessary, the Governor did not conceive this to be the moment for reducing it, much as he wanted men." Having thus abandoned his instructions lest he should offend the officers, Hunter displayed the same weakness as had been shown by Grose in checking the outrages of the worst of the soldiers.
In Feb. 1796 the master carpenter of the settlement while at work in a shed heard himself grossly abused-by a soldier who had formerly been a convict, and who left his post as sentinel thus to gratify his spleen. The carpenter, observing that the sentinel had left his arms at his post, took them to the sergeant of the guard. The sentinel was confined. The company to which he belonged, which contained many emancipists, or freedmen, went to the carpenter's house on the following morning, demolished the buildings and furniture, and maltreated the owner. The carpenter identified four of his assailants. A warrant was issued for their apprehension. The soldiers admitted the impropriety of their conduct, and offered to indemnify the carpenter for the damage done. The carpenter inter​ceded with the Governor, and the warrant was withdrawn. A golden opportunity of relieving the government from the shame previously cast upon it was thus lost, by failure to make an example at a fitting time. Meaner men may make mistakes with impunity. A Governor can never regain the position he loses by a want of principle, or of resolution to enforce what he knows to be right.
One Captain John Nichol, of the ship Walker, insisted upon and obtained justice. In 1799 he conveyed Colonel Paterson and Captain Abbott from England to New South Wales, supplying them and others with two-thirds of a full seaman's allowance of provisions on the voyage, in accordance with his charter-party. At Sydney the other third was demanded, and, to use Nichol's own language, as obstinately refused." Nichol was summoned, and compelled to supply the arrear provisions for eight persons. His charter-party was scouted as "only a copy, and that not attested. He obtained no redress from Governor Hunter. He deposed to these facts (28th Jan. 1803) before the Lord Mayor Price, at the Mansion House. Inquiry was made. The Transport Office wrote to Lord Hobart. Lord Hobart (12th March 1803) wrote to Governor King—
"Colonel Paterson ought to have known that it was contrary to the established rules of the service," . . . "and the Civil Court ought also to have known that the point in question should, instead of being brought under their cognizance, have been referred to His Majesty's Government for decision. You will therefore take immediate steps to recover from Colonel Paterson and the other persons, . . . and you will signify to Colonel Paterson my entire disapprobation of his having given the sanction of his name to such a proceeding."
​ In May 1796 Hunter appointed D'Arcy Wentworth assistant-surgeon to the settlement. Regulations were made as to carrying fire-arms. Convict servants were withdrawn from some settlers, other settlers were struck off the victualling books, a general muster of convicts was ordered, and many runaways and impostors (who, "being transported for life, had successfully represented themselves as transported for a less term") were sent to hard labour in the town and jail gangs. But no efforts of Hunter's succeeded in controlling the convicts. Two vessels were seized and carried off by them in 1798 and 1799.
The treatment of the natives at this time reached a pitch of brutality. Phillip's wisdom was gone, and Hunter's unwisdom and weakness asserted no control and gained no respect. He did, however, we are told, signify his intention of hanging the natives in chains as an example to others. He also referred to the Home government a case in which settlers murdered two native boys (peaceably living with other settlers), and were found "guilty of wantonly killing two natives."
It was characteristic of the natives, when they did not look on a man as an enemy (in which case deception was their approved mode of warfare), that, believing any one to be friendly, they would remain so towards him even when the conduct of his compatriots provoked them to retaliate. Thus, while natives were ruthlessly shot at the Hawkesbury, a freed convict named Wilson, who had abandoned his countrymen and lived almost entirely among the natives, was still received in the most friendly manner by the neighbouring tribe, and sometimes conveyed messages from them; "for" (says Collins) "they did not conceal the sense they entertained of the injuries which had been done them."
Hunter, who encouraged discoveries, availed himself of the services of Wilson on several occasions. There was a mythical story that this man, in 1799, with others, penetrated the Blue Mountains and discovered the Lachlan river.
The fact that Wilson reported the existence of a large river running inland has been urged as a proof that Wilson ​must have crossed the mountains. But the proof fails. Wilson could converse with the natives, and native tribes communicated one with another, and thus, by the presence of a native of a distant tribe, Wilson might easily learn the broad fact that from the western slope of the mountains rivers flowed to the interior.
Wilson's statement that he had seen a mountain or cliff of salt deprives the whole of his tale of credit.
An account of Wilson's journey (in the spurious history ascribed to Barrington) stated that Governor Hunter, to deter the Irish from their attempts to walk to China, ordered four strong Irishmen to be selected and sent to explore the very worst and most dangerous parts of the country;" that three of them succumbed "at the foot of the first mountains;" that one went on with Wilson and the other guides; that the "face of a hill which appeared white proved to be a large cliff of salt, a sample of which they brought away;" that the Governor sent Hacking out to test the truth about the salt-hill, and that on his return Hacking "brought some samples of various veins of salt in different places of 10 to 12 feet deep."
The concocter of this tale was so ill able to make it coherent that a few pages later in the narrative we find that—
Hacking, when sent to the salt-hill last month, was accompanied by Wilson and another man, who were directed to penetrate as far into the country as the provisions they were able to carry would permit. They returned after an absence of three weeks, and said they had been 140 miles W. by S. from Prospect Hill. In their journey they . . . found more salt-hills."
​It is well that this idle tale bears with it such intrinsic proof of its untruth. All that Hacking did was known to the government which trusted him; but no government reported the finding of the salt as a fact.
It will be convenient to summarize the incidents of Australian discovery at this period, when (from H.M.S. Reliance) Bass and Flinders infused fresh life into it.
In Dec. 1789, Lt. Dawes, being sent to explore, returned after nine days. He had encountered ravines almost impassable, and failed to pierce the mountains. The same fate attended an expedition under an officer (Tench) in Aug. 1790. The Nepean River was seen in these excursions, and was named by Phillip. In 1793 Captain Paterson, by means of small boats, ascended the river, which he named (after the Acting-Governor) the Grose; he returned after ten days. In 1794 Henry Hacking, formerly quarter-master in the Sirius, with "a companion or two," boldly ventured "twenty miles further than any other European." He reached the mountains, and toiled over "eighteen or nineteen ridges of high rocks," and when he gave up the task "still had in view the same wild and inaccessible country." In Feb. 1795 Paterson, the Acting-Governor, sent Grimes, the surveyor, to explore Port Stephens, taking with him Wilson, the convict, who could converse with natives.
One Cummings, an officer in the New South Wales corps, on a small expedition to the south of Botany Bay, heard from natives that there were horned animals running in the interior, and hopes were excited of regaining the cattle lost from Sydney in 1788. Cummings vainly searched for them afterwards. When Governor Hunter arrived in 1795 he sent Henry Hacking, in whom he confided, to ascertain the truth. Hacking returned successful, and piloted Hunter, with Collins, Waterhouse, and Bass (18th Nov. 1795), ​ across the Nepean river, where the cattle had gathered in the district called, consequently, the Cow-pastures. There the Governor's party feasted their eyes on a herd of cattle, and felt security against future famine. Hunter dreamed at once of exporting food to other shores. But his ideas of value sustained a shock when, after killing a small animal, it was found that he could take away but a small part, and, to his great regret, the remainder was left to the crows and dogs of the woods."
Mr. Surgeon Bass in June 1796 started for the Blue Mountains, and by dint of hard labour ascended the highest point, whence he saw only "other ranges of mountains."
In the same month some fishermen made an accidental discovery. Driven into a small bay, which they did not know to be a river-mouth, they found coal lying on the surface of the ground where the town of Newcastle now stands at the Hunter River. Lieut. Shortland in the following year, searching for runaway convicts, discovered the river, and named it after the Governor.
Bass, foiled in his expedition to Blue Mountains, took to exploration by water. With Flinders he had previously, in a small boat, the Tom Thumb, 8 feet long, examined the George River in one voyage in 1795, and run great risk on the coast to the south of Botany Bay in another in 1796. In Dec. 1797 Governor Hunter entrusted Bass with a whale-boat and a crew of volunteers from men-of-war. Shoalhaven, Jervis Bay, and Twofold Bay were seen, and the heart of Bass beat high with the assurance that comforted Palinurus, as he turned westward after passing Cape Howe, and was convinced that he had discovered the straits which bear his name. Wilson's Promontory and Western Port, so named because it was the farthest westerly point he then attained, were visited."
On the 1st March 1798, Governor Hunter reported to the Duke of Portland the boat voyage. H.M.S. Reliance being under repair, Mr. George Bass, her surgeon, "a young man of well-informed mind and active disposition," offered his services to the Governor. Hunter furnished the boat and the volunteers. Bass "sedulously examined ​ every inlet," and at the extreme westerly point attained, "found an open ocean westward, and by the mountainous sea which rolled from that quarter, and no land discoverable in that direction, we have much reason to conclude that there is an open strait through."
Want of provisions compelled Bass to turn back from the "very good harbour," Western Port, he had found. Bad weather had impeded the cruise, or Bass with his whale-boat would probably have discovered Port Phillip. At Western Port he was compelled to repair his battered boat. Returning, he found on an island seven white men, part of a gang of fourteen convicts who had escaped from Sydney in a boat. "These poor distressed wretches were chiefly Irish." Their companions had treacherously abandoned them. Bass could neither give them room in his boat nor spare much food. He put them on the mainland, gave them a musket, ammunition, a pocket compass, fishing lines, and hooks. Two who were ill he received into the boat. He advised the five to follow the coast in order to obtain food more easily. "He shared his provisions with them." When they parted with Mr. Bass and his crew, who gave them what clothes they could spare, some tears were shed on both sides."
"After an absence of twelve weeks," Bass (24th Feb. 1798) delivered to Hunter "his observations on this adventurous expedition."
About the same time a vessel, the Sydney Cove, was wrecked on Preservation Island, in the Furneaux group, and Hunter sent Lieut. Flinders of the Reliance in the colonial schooner Francis, which was commissioned to save property from the wreck. Flinders, wistfully looking westward, persuaded the master "to make a stretch" westward so as to solve the doubts about the unknown latitudes (of Bass's Straits), but, "the schooner not being at his disposal," was fain to return where, on the 9th March 1798, the exploit of Bass was made known to him.
In after years he wrote thus of his friend:—"A voyage expressly undertaken for discovery in an open boat, and in which six hundred miles of coast was explored, has not perhaps its equal in the annals of maritime history. The public will award to its high-spirited and able conductor​ alas! now no more—an honourable place in the list of those whose order stands most conspicuous for the promotion of useful knowledge." There seemed to "want no other proof of the existence of a passage between New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land than that of sailing positively through it." Governor Hunter deserves gratitude for entrusting to the gallant friends the task of positive proof.
On 7th Oct. 1798, with Bass and a crew of eight volunteers from King's ships, with Flinders, then twenty-four years old, sailed in the Norfolk sloop, twenty-five tons, with twelve weeks' provisions. Buffeted by adverse winds, the little band persevered. The Tamar was entered, and Port Dalrymple was named. A gale drove the Norfolk back to Furneaux's group (21st Nov.) It was not till the 3rd Dec. that she could work to the westward again, and then the allotted time for the voyagers had nearly expired. Nothing daunted, on the 6th they discovered Circular Head. On the 9th a vast crowd of sooty petrels, the birds of Providence at Norfolk Island, passed over the voyagers in a stream from fifty to eighty yards in depth and three hundred yards or more in breadth. "On the lowest calculation" Flinders thought the number "not less than a hundred million."
On that day, while passing between Van Diemen's Land and Three Hummock Island, "a long swell was perceived to come from the S.W.... Although it was likely to prove troublesome and perhaps dangerous, Mr. Bass and myself hailed it with joy and mutual congratulation, as announcing the completion of our long-wished-for discovery of a passage into the Southern Indian Ocean.
Cape Grim was named on that day. The west coast was traced, and on the 21st Dec. the sloop was anchored at the mouth of the Derwent. On the 22nd she was taken twelve miles up the river. On the 3rd Jan. 1799, the brother heroes put to sea, and in eight days they were safe in Sydney. No unworthy jealousies marred their renown.
"To the straits" (Flinders wrote), "which had been the great object of research, and whose discovery was now completed, Governor Hunter gave ​at my recommendation the name of Bass's Straits. This was no more than a just tribute to my worthy friend and companion for the extreme dangers and fatigue he had undergone in the first entering it in a whale-boat, and to the correct judgment he had formed from various indications of the existence of a wide opening between Van Diemen's Land and New South Wales."
There is so little to praise in Hunter's career that it is grateful to chronicle his patronage of Flinders and Bass.
He was called upon to interfere in the economy of the settlers in a manner which drew upon him the lash of Sydney Smith in the "Edinburgh Review."
In March 1797 he notified that at the particular wish "of settlers in every part of the colony who have long suffered themselves to be most shamefully imposed upon by such people as they have had occasion to hire," he had thought proper, "in order to deliver them from a practice so injurious to their industry," to obtain information from the settlers as to the advisable rate of wages. He had accordingly fixed "a mean rate which he conceived to be fair and equitable between the farmer and the labourer." The rates per acre for "falling timber," for clearing, burning off, "breaking up new ground" (£1 4s.) chipping in wheat (7s.), planting Indian corn, "hilling" it, reaping (10s. per acre), sawing timber, were severally fixed. Ploughs were not in use, and the hoe was the subduer of the earth. Yearly wages were fixed at £10; a day's wages with board at 1s., without board at 2s. 6d. The prices of axes, hoes (1s. 9d.), sickles, and the rate for hiring a boat to carry grain, were established by order.
In spite of such interference, cultivation increased in a land where starvation had been familiar, and settlers were provided with forced labour. The government, not callous to the taunts thrown out in the House of Commons as to the enormous cost of feeding a colony at the antipodes, urged successive governors to promote agriculture and grazing.
Under these circumstances cultivation of the soil was ostensibly encouraged during Hunter's reign. He still allowed to the farming officers ten convicts for agriculture and three for domestic purposes, although he knew that such an allowance was forbidden. To some settlers who arrived by the Surprise (Oct. 1794) he allowed five convict ​ servants; to superintendents, constables, and storekeepers, four; to marines who had settled, and others who had never been convicts, he gave two; to emancipated settlers and to sergeants of the New South Wales Corps, one. It is to be borne in mind that provisions for these convict servants were supplied from the government stores.
Yet out of 10,800 acres cleared only 7195 were cultivated in 1800. The debauchery of some settlers, the high prices extorted for wares, and especially for spirits, had desolated many farms. The state of the colony may be gathered from the words written by Governor King, who superseded Hunter, and had to contend with the evils permitted, if not created, by Grose, Paterson, and Hunter. In a long despatch (31st Dec. 1801) to the Secretary of State, he says of "settlers who have been convicts":—
"It is notorious that since Governor Phillip left this colony in 1792, the utmost licentiousness has prevailed among this class, although they have used the most laborious exertions in clearing land of timber. Unfortunately the produce went to a few monopolizing traders who had their agents in every corner of the settlement, not failing to ruin those they marked for their prey, by the baneful lure of spirits. So wretched has been this class, that previous to Governor Hunter's giving up the command, forty-seven of them had assigned their farms and growing crops to satisfy their rapacious creditors, and many were compelled to leave their families destitute of the necessaries of life. . . . It can scarce be credited that in a soil and climate equal to the production of any plant or vegetable, out of 405 settlers scarce one grew either potato or cabbage. Growing wheat and maize, which are the articles required by the public stores, was their only object, and when that has been attained it has often occurred that one night's drinking at the house of one of those agents has eased them of all their labour had acquired in the preceding year. . . . I do not mean to exculpate the settlers from their share of censure; the warnings of former Governors have been of little service, nor indeed could it be expected while the cause of evil abounded so much, and while the trading individuals charged and recovered the extortionate charges they made without any check. Eight pounds sterling per gallon for spirits were recovered at the Civil Court before Governor Hunter's departure, and the verdict was confirmed in an appeal. . . . Only one settler has reserved the produce of the ewes given him by Governor Phillip, the rest having been suffered to sell theirs a few hours after Governor Phillip left the colony."
When King arrived in 1800 to supersede Hunter, there were more than 20,000 gallons of spirits in the colony, and the price was £2 a gallon. The drunkenness and immorality in which the community was steeped was appalling. ​When the soldiers of Grose's corps offended he supported them against the civil power, and he took no pains to encourage morality amongst the officers. Trafficking in spirits was unchecked amongst them, and was not considered blameworthy.
It has been mentioned that on Hunter's arrival the colonial chaplain commented upon the immorality which had disgraced the settlement under Grose and Paterson. The church raised by Mr. Johnson's exertions in 1793, and used in the week as a school for two hundred children, was burnt down in 1798, and it was thought to have been burnt designedly, to make useless a recent order enforcing attendance at Divine service. The Governor, indignant, declared that if no place for service could be found, the convicts should spend their next Sunday in building one; but a large store-room rendered this labour unnecessary. To aid the Governor, the Judge-Advocate Dore, in a document entitled "General Privy Search," "deemed it compatible with his official situation to issue a general warrant to empower the constables" to make diligent search in all public-houses "and all suspected haunts for people of every description who may be tippling therein during the hours appropriated for Divine service, or in any other respect breaking the Sabbath."
Some missionaries fleeing from troubles at Tahiti took refuge at Sydney in 1798, and exercised a wholesome influence. It was sorely needed, not only amongst the criminal class, but amongst their guardians. Officers of the New South Wales Corps, which provided the colony with its acting Governor, caused scandal by their immorality.
It would be easy to accumulate instances of the depravity which unrestrained power and remoteness from the checks of civilization and religion permitted or fostered in the colony. The men of that time were probably not naturally worse than any of their successors. They furnish proof, if proof were wanting, of the need by the human mind of the restraints of law and the elevating principles ​ of Christianity. Such corruptions are the shame of humanity, but it is the glory of religion that they vanish before it.
But though Hunter was incapable, it was during his government that John Macarthur laid the foundation of the material prosperity of New South Wales. Quick to observe and prompt to act, the firstlings of his heart were at once shaped by his hand. The tale may be succinctly told in his own words. The following evidence was furnished by him in 1820 to Mr. Commissioner Bigge:—
"In 1794 I purchased from an officer sixty Bengal ewes and lambs which had been imported from Calcutta, and very soon afterwards I procured from the captain of a transport from Ireland two Irish ewes and a young ram. The Indian sheep produced coarse hair, and the wool of the Irish sheep was then valued at no more than ninepence per pound. By crossing the two breeds I had the satisfaction to see the lambs of the Indian ewes bear a mingled fleece of hair and wool. This circumstance originated the idea of producing fine wool in New South Wales."
In the year 1796 the Supply and the Reliance, sloops of war (under Captains Kent and Waterhouse), "were sent to the Cape of Good Hope, and as their commanders were friends of mine, I requested them to inquire if there were any wool-bearing sheep at the Cape." It happened that at the Cape there were some Merino sheep derived from animals of the celebrated Escurial flock presented by the King of Spain to the Dutch Government, and sent by the latter to the Dutch colony at the Cape. The flock was under the control of Colonel Gordon, a Scotchman, who held high office under the government. When he died there were differences between his representatives and the Dutch government. The value of the sheep was not understood by the latter. When Macarthur's friends reached the Cape some of the sheep were about to be sold by order of Colonel Gordon's widow.
"At the period of the arrival" (of Kent and Waterhouse, Macarthur continued) there was a flock of Merino sheep for sale, from which about twenty were purchased. Of these I was favoured with five ewes and three rams. The remainder were distributed amongst different individuals who did not take the necessary precautions to preserve the breed pure, and they soon disappeared. Mine were carefully guarded against an impure ​mixture, and increased in number and improved in the quality of their wool. In a year or two after I had an opportunity of augmenting my flocks by the purchase from Colonel Foveaux of 1200 sheep of the common Cape breed."
Thus there was no element of accident which favoured Macarthur, except the fact that when he desired his friends to obtain "wool-bearing sheep," the unappreciated Escurial flock was thrown on the market at the Cape. Captains Kent and Waterhouse carried many more sheep to others than they took to Macarthur. But ignorant settlers would breed for no other purpose than for the meat market. Priceless animals were wasted, and—in Macarthur's language—"disappeared."
He having received his precious purchase in 1797, was able to carry with him to England three years afterwards such proof of success as to stir manufacturers as well as the government to aid him in his enterprise, on account of which his friends fondly called him the "father of the colony."
The Secretary of State (Dundas) had, in 1794, thrown his weight into the scale to encourage farming and pastoral pursuits. He wrote to Governor Hunter (who, however, did not arrive in the colony until 1795) that he was displeased at hearing that "the settlers had sold all the stock distributed among them by Governor Phillip."... "In order to avoid the dissipation of the animals, they should have been taken from the individuals (by Grose) the moment they evinced such a disposition, and should have been instantly added to the public stock, the conditions under which they were given not being complied with" by the settlers.
Mr. Dundas had in 1793 written to Grose—"In consequence of Governor Phillip's last despatches, and of the personal communication I have had with him," grantees must reside on their land, otherwise the grants will be void. At the same time he limited the convicts to be assigned to officers, civil and military, as such, to two. This instruction neither Grose, Paterson, nor Hunter had resolution to enforce; nor an accompanying order that the clandestine sale of spirits should be "strictly prevented." If officers should desire to become settlers, Hunter was authorized (June 1794) by Dundas to grant one hundred acres to each, or even more to the "peculiarly well-deserving," reporting ​ "the matter for approval immediately." Emancipated convicts desiring to become farmers were to be similarly encouraged.
The horrors of the passage for convicts continued during Hunter's reign, and he remonstrated against them, as Phillip had remonstrated before. Close confinement, poverty of food, and consequent disease swept away large numbers. An agent for transports accompanied the ships sometimes, but even in such a case (as that of Lieut. Bowen, R.N., in 1791, in the Albemarle) his functions were resolved into additional sternness when mutiny occurred. Hunter requested that a naval officer should accompany each ship, and hear appeals from the convicts as to their treatment.
In 1796 information of intended mutiny was given to Hogan, the captain of the Marquis of Cornwallis. He acquainted the soldiers and the crew, who desired to execute the ringleaders.
"It was not without much difficulty I was able to get their lives spared, by promising the seamen and the honest part of the soldiers that each man should take his part in flogging them at the gangway. . . . At 11 a.m. we commenced flogging the villains, and continued engaged on that disagreeable service till forty-two men and eight women received their punishment. (On a subsequent day) "I heard dreadful cries in the prison, and found those who had not been punished were murdering those that gave any information, which were now about twenty, too many to keep on deck. To rescue these from the vengeance of the others, I was obliged to fire amongst them with blunderbusses and pistols; and on appeasing their rage, I hauled out some of the fellows they were destroying, almost speechless. Some of the convicts were killed on this occasion, but many of them dangerously wounded. On this day, punishments being over, and sufficient proof being established against the sergeant, corporal, and James Bullock, as will appear by the following informations, I ordered them to be chained together and put in the convicta' prison on convicts' allowance, with an intent to prosecute them before the Civil and Military Court at New South Wales."
The critical position of a ship in which a sergeant was in league with mutineers without doubt conduced to the approval accorded to the captain after inquiry in Sydney.
Hunter found the government of female convicts more disheartening than that of the men. He wrote in 1796—
"I must express my hope that the three hundred (expected) are all men, and not part men and part women, for of the latter we have already enough. We have scarcely any way of employing them, and they are generally found worse characters than the men;"—(in 1800) "they are far ​worse than the men, and are generally found at the bottom of every infamous transaction that is committed in the colony."
In all accounts of the early days of the colony the arrival of convicts called "the Scotch Martyrs" finds conspicuous place. They are described as if they were all equally amiable, equally ardent for the good of mankind, and martyred through an ignorant panic which seized the British government, and blinded them to the fact that the Martyrs merely sought for parliamentary reform. Even the sober page of history has assumed that they were speculative philanthropists, who were brutally transported in the company of felons. In a more ephemeral work, entitled "Reminiscences of Glasgow," it is gravely stated that "Margarot was a light-hearted Englishman, with a sprightly wife who died in grief soon after his banishment;" and on a monument at Carlton Hill in Edinburgh is to be seen an inscription linking together the names of Muir, Palmer, Skirving, Margarot, and Gerald.
Those who have waded through the records of the time, and the MSS. which serve to explain them, must smile at the facility of belief extended to gross errors. It is true that Muir, Gerald, and their associates laboured ostensibly for reform in Parliament, but it is equally true that these associates mapped out Great Britain in departments, that they invited representatives in Convention after the fashion of the French Revolutionists, that they corresponded with the most fervid French anarchists, and that they eagerly awaited (to use their own language) an invasion of England "by the hero of Italy and the brave veterans of the great nation."
The question, however, as to whether Pitt and Dundas were wise in their treatment of the London Corresponding Society, the Edinburgh British Convention, and similar associations, is rather for English than Australian history. It was a declared struggle for life or death, for the maintenance or the uprooting of the constitution. Pitt succeeded, and his defence of his conduct may be read in his speech in the House of Commons on the 7th May 1793, while the strife was at the hottest. The allegations that the Scotch Martyrs were ill-treated after conviction are refuted by their own words. Muir, Palmer, Margarot, and Skirving arrived ​ in Sydney in 1794, while Grose was there, and they said, in a petition to Grose (1794):—
"For obvious reasons your petitioners did not wish to come out at the expense of government; they accordingly caused to be paid to the said Patrick Campbell (master of the Surprise), for their accommodation as cabin-passengers, a sum of money greater than that allowed by government for those in the same ship, either in its immediate employ or those who have come out as settlers."
The Record Office in London (New South Wales, vol. ix.) contains proof that kind treatment of the exiles was enjoined. A complaint from the Surprise transport at Spithead (21st April 1794) was sent by the surgeon, by a passenger, and an ensign of the New South Wales Corps, who objected to being associated with Margarot in the officers' cabin. Margarot's wife being free, and the captain having received an order from Mr. Dundas for her free passage in the ship, they did not remonstrate against her presence, but they objected to his. Campbell, the master, however, saw no objection, having (he wrote) "high authority to make these people as comfortable as possible.
Nevertheless Pitt has been repeatedly reviled for associating the Scotch Martyrs with burglars and felons. Gerald was sent out subsequently. Muir, Palmer, Skirving, and Margarot had some trouble in the Surprise, but it was due to Margarot's intrigues. To ingratiate himself with the master, he accused Palmer and Skirving of conspiring with the convicts to seize the vessel and take her to a French or American port. Another Scotch convict, exiled for forgery, told the captain that he heard some Irishmen speaking in Erse of the plot, and that his acquaintance with Gaelic enabled him to understand them. Margarot the abettor, if not the concoctor of the scheme to injure his companions, was profusely praised by Campbell. A guard was put over Palmer and Skirving, and others were confined in irons. Palmer and Skirving repelled "with horror" the accusation of complicity in the plot; they even averred that Margarot ​ was its instigator, and in a published letter, which may be seen in the British Museum, they warned him not to "presume to expect to pollute the holy and immortal cause of liberty by the association of his name with those of its purest defenders. He knows well, and it is meet that the world at large should know, that upon the justest grounds he stands a man rejected and expelled from our society." They petitioned for an inquiry in Sydney.
Muir, it appears, was not on good terms with Palmer until the latter was unjustly accused, but then warmly took his part. Margarot seems to have eluded inquiry. Grose declined to investigate the matter, and released Palmer and Skirving, telling them that they would receive every indulgence that in their unfortunate situation could be consistently granted, and in Palmer's narrative we read—"All idea of our trial was soon given up. We had houses appointed to us contiguous to each other, and myself, Skirving, and Mr. Muir have no cause to complain of any want of civility or attention. Margarot wrote a pompous letter to Grose, demanding his release on the ground that his sentence was fulfilled on his arrival in Sydney. Grose told him that "he might rest assured I have not the smallest doubt, neither shall I have the least hesitation, of forcing as much good order from you as from any other prisoner in the place."
Although the "Reminiscences of Glasgow" state that Mrs. Margarot died of grief when her husband was banished, all these records about her still exist, and in July 1801 Margarot applied for the advantages of a free settler for her, alleging that she "came here in the ship Surprise in the year 1794;" but Governor King merely indorsed the application—"Mr. Margarot respecting his wife."
​ The fate of Muir, Gerald, Skirving, and Palmer may be told here. The author of "Reminiscences of Glasgow" asserted that the United States government despatched the Otter for the "relief of Thomas Muir in particular, and his fellow compatriots, if they could be found." Whatever may have been the agency, it is true that Muir, with other prisoners, escaped (18th Feb. 1796) in an American vessel, the Otter. After mishaps he reached France, and busied himself in intrigues with Wolfe Tone and others about the invasion of England. Tone says of him-"Of all the vain, obstinate blockheads I ever met, I never saw his equal." Gerald (whose defence of himself may still be read with admiration) reached Sydney (5th Nov. 1795) in ill health, and died in the following March. All persons spoke of him with sympathy. Skirving also died a few days afterwards, amidst the kindly feelings of all around him. Palmer, who had been transported for seven years, arranged for the purchase of a ship in which to return to England. A young friend," Mr. Ellis, who had been permitted to accompany him in his exile, still clung to his fortunes, and joined him as part-owner of the ship. They sailed to New Zealand for timber to take to the Cape of Good Hope, and were compelled to seek provisions at Tongataboo, where native wars frustrated their plans. They obtained supplies at the Fiji Islands, and ran on a reef at Goraa, but with the help of the natives repaired their crazy vessel. They sailed for China, but their provisions failing and their ship leaking, they took refuge in Guam, where (a year after they left Sydney) the Spanish Governor made them prisoners of ​ war, declining to give supplies to the enemies of his country. They were personally treated with courtesy. Palmer, however, became ill, and died in June 1802 at Guam.
Though not Scotch, and though a false witness, Margarot was the only so-called "Scotch martyr" who returned to England. False alike to friend and foe, by turns an obsequious flatterer and low intriguer, ever busy and never honest, he wanted but more ability or a fitting occasion to have been the Barere of his party. When his MS. papers were seized in 1804 they were found to contain such entries as these:"Gerald broke open a letter directed to me; he took out of it a ten-pound note, for which he never accounted." In a published letter which Margarot sent to England he said of Gerald—"He has fled from my habitation and the fraternal reception I gave him, to join others who may, perhaps, in return for those good things he has brought with him, encourage his failings, and feed his vanity with insidious praise. He will soon feel, the destructive effects."
Is it a retributive justice upon Gerald's memory, that for having allowed himself to be associated with Margarot as a delegate from the London Corresponding Society to the British Convention in Edinburgh, their names are now linked together on the monument on Calton Hill? Though all the other Scotch martyrs shrank from Margarot in Sydney, they are herded with him in the inscription from which it might have been hoped that his name would have been excluded by all sensible people in 1844. It is consoling to reflect that Macaulay refused to join in making a demigod of a rascal, and would take no part in laying the foundation of the Calton Hill monument.
Margarot reviled his fellow prisoners as "dealers in land and in human flesh," as "inmates and intimates" with their gaolers; he called Mr. Ellis "Palmer's man," and left on record many accusations against Palmer which it is unnecessary to repeat, but which are manifestly false.
His communications to governors may be mentioned. He forwarded a grandiloquent petition (Oct. 1795) impugning the validity of his sentence on constitutional grounds, already discussed and rejected in the House of Commons. ​ Hunter could not entertain them, and Margarot made defamatory entries about him in his journal although, when King became Governor, Margarot addressed him thus:—
"Sydney, 13th May, 1800.
"Sir,—Hazardous as is this step, my duty to society urges me to take it and to confide in your discretion; otherwise delicacy towards His Excellency Governor Hunter, whose most sincere well-wisher I am, would prevent my paying my respects to his successor until, by his departure, and by the introduction of Mr. Commissary Palmer, I could do so more conformably to rules and forms. As I am much confined by sickness, unless you are possessed of any private orders of ministry relative to me, and require my attendance to impart them, there is little chance of my having the good fortune to meet with an opportunity of conversing with you. Yet if you feel inclined to give birth to any accident which may occasion you at any time to enter my habitation, you shall find that an hour will not be there spent unprofitably, and that I can throw light on several of the transactions of this colony which may not perhaps have reached you in the shape they will then assume. I, moreover, will then submit to your perusal several papers the contents of which it is important you should be early acquainted with.
"Maurice Margarot."
King paid no attention to this missive, and Margarot in his secret journals coarsely assailed the Governor and his family. Mr. Commissary Palmer fared no better. Constantly Margarot records the receipt of kindnesses from Palmer, but as constantly records false charges against him. Margarot wrote:—"1801. May 9. La courte ration commença. May 19. Palmer m'envoya sept livres de beurre et quatre et demi gallons de Rum; Smith m'envoya demander une B de Rum!!!"
The wife, who is stated by the Scotch writer to have died of grief, was sometimes a thorn in the flesh to the "martyr," for we find him writing-" Jour maudit de blanchissage" and "Betsey humeur de diable."
This hybrid politician, who would dethrone the law in England, appealed to it in Sydney. The records of the ​"magistrates' meetings" show that in 1798 "Margarot complained of persons who used his boat without his leave." A man was brought forward, but he "declaring that Mr. Margarot's servant had given him permission to make use of the boat, and the servant appearing and confessing that he had done so, the matter was dismissed." Most of the other Scotch political prisoners, and notably the other four martyrs, comported themselves peaceably in Sydney. But Margarot was ever on the watch for mischief, and the arrival of Irish convicts furnished materials for disaffection which he was quick to use.
Careless inquirers could not appreciate the magnitude of the evil with which the presence of large numbers of transported United Irishmen threatened the young colony. Pitt, nothing daunted by the obloquy cast upon him for the transportation of Gerald, Margarot, and others, pursued the threads of conspiracy which the London Corresponding Society was endeavouring to weave, and both Houses in 1794 suspended at his request the Habeas Corpus Act, on the ground—stated in the preamble to the Bill—"that a traitorous and detestable conspiracy had been formed for subverting the existing laws and constitution, and for introducing the system of anarchy and confusion which has so lately prevailed in France." In the following year the Treasonable Practices Bill and the Seditious Meetings Bill were passed by large majorities, and the scope formerly left by law to such organizations as the London Corresponding Society was considerably narrowed. The Society was equal to the emergency. If it failed in the light of day, it could work in the dark. It conspired with United Irishmen to encourage a French invasion. But the hand of Pitt followed it. In 1799 its practices were unveiled. It was, with kindred societies, suppressed by law, and fragments of it were transported to New South Wales.
The Irish rebellion of 1798 furnished recruits to the convicts who were called by their friends political prisoners, ​
​ How, goaded by their position and temper, and aided by the plots of such intriguers, the Irish at last rose in rebellion, must be told hereafter. Meanwhile their conspiracies taxed to the utmost the powers of governors. Constitutionally a governor was supreme, and there was little that he could not do, subject to the final decision of the Secretary of State. Thus were repressed hundreds of schemes which in ordinary communities would have engaged the law-courts. No lawyer could arraign the government, no newspaper could attack it, no public meeting could be held without its permission. The governor was always an officer of the army or navy, and instruments to compel obedience were at his disposal. Thus order was maintained; but Phillip had foreseen that ultimate welfare could only be secured by building up a civil form of government as soon as possible, and encouraging the introduction of respectable settlers.
Grose had marred Phillip's plans by annihilating the magistrates' court, and had thus contributed to evil. It is plain, however, that the Act of 1787 (27 George III., cap. 2) created what was called a civil, but was equivalent to a military government. The Governor was martial, the Judge-Advocate was martial, and the Court of Judicature was to contain six officers of the sea or land forces. Sentences of death were within their cognizance. The Governor appointed the members of the court, and was to all intents and purposes the government. He had a giant's strength in a community of which almost every free man had been disciplined in the army or navy. While the settlement was confined to narrow compass he was more like a governor of a gaol or penitentiary than of an ordinary community; but his authority was practically supreme. He promulgated his orders by causing a manuscript notice to be read and posted in a public place. He had no legislative body to advise with. He was himself the legislature. Phillip appointed civil magistrates to administer the English law and his orders. They were the Governor's court, his Aula Regis; and the Governor sometimes administered justice there himself when his deputies were ill or engaged elsewhere. So untrammelled a position attracted Sir James Mackintosh, and induced him to write ​to a friend: "You will smile at the mention of Botany Bay; but I am most serious, and I assivre you that next to a parliamentary situation, to which either nature or early ambition has constantly directed my views, I should prefer, without much rewarding pecuniary advantages, that of being the law-giver of Botany Bay."
One wide function of government did not exist m the eighteenth century in New South Wales. There were no taxes. There were no customs duties. The government fed the bulk of the population, which was composed of coerced convicts and their custodians. Bills on the English Treasury provided most of the animal food consumed. If a colony had thus to he supported, how could it contribute funds? Hunter required a larger gaol in 1799), and could not build it without reclaiming convicts assigned to officers and others. He called a meeting, at which civil and military officers, with the principal colonists, undertook to provide funds from an assessment on property, and duties on wines and spirits. The gaol was thus voluntarily built with the aid of iron provided from the king's stores. On the principle of self-reservation a public meeting of the few free inhabitants might succeed, when the object was to provide prison-room for offenders; hut appeals in the streets could not secure all the funds necessary for government. Much less could they do so where the bulk of the population was or had been of the felon class. During Hunters government no change was made, but his immediate successor, King, imposed customs duties and port charges, in order to create a public fund, an expedient which had occurred to Phillip, but to which he had not resorted.
It is the distinction of Englishmen that they have constitutionally a share in the administration of the law, and that they are consequently more contented under its discipline, more law-abiding, than nations which are ruled by a central or bureaucratic government. No foreign levy, no internal revolution, can he compared to the grandeur of the triumph when the seven bishops were acquitted, and the law was brought face to face with James II., by the verdict of a jury of their countrymen. But no jury existed n New South Wales, nor was it possible to create one in the primitive period. Most of the officers concerned in the ​ government were military at the first, but the Governor stood in some degree apart from and above them. When Phillip departed, Grose, mingling the office of governor with that of commandant of the New South Wales Corps, abrogated the civil law and fostered arrogance in the minds of the military. The absence of ordinary control left faults unchecked. Impunity in wrong-doing intensified the evil and made wrong-doers impatient of any curb which a future governor, especially one who was not also their commanding officer, might impose upon them. These difficulties must not be forgotten in judging the conduct of Hunter. He was involved in acrimonious disputes with John Macarthur in 1798; but in the same year was congratulated by the Rev. Mr. Johnson and by Marsden on his efforts to promote public morality.
He did not willingly submit to the resistance he encountered. He wrote to the Secretary of State:—"After the departure of Governor Phillip a general change took place. All his plans and regulations were completely laid aside, the civil magistrate was superseded entirely, and all the duties respecting the distribution of justice, and every other concern of that office was taken into the hands of the military." (He took credit for reinstating the civil magistrate, but it must be remembered that the Secretary of State had, in 1795, laid down distinct rules on the subject in response to King's appeal from Norfolk Island against the displacing of civil authority, and that Hunter had received instructions on the subject.) On the restoration of law, "those changes, I had soon reason to observe, were not well relished by those of the military. Since that time frequent indirect and some direct attempts have been made to annoy the civil officers officiating as magistrates." (1796).
Hunter vainly strove to repress the traffic in spirits. Even officers had been (1796) "engaged in a most destructive traffic with spirituous liquors," which were sold to settlers "at an immense profit, to the destruction of all order, to the almost total destruction of every spark of religion, to the encouragement of gambling, the occasion of frequent robberies, and, concerned I am to add, to several very recent and shocking murders." In July 1797 he ​reported that ships had "brought spirits enough to deluge" (the colony). "My positive refusal to suffer the poisonous article to be landed has given much offence, although every officer has been permitted to receive what he wanted for his private accommodation." When he thought of
"the various advantages which many of the military officers have had, which I have not shown any desire or intention to wrest from them, we cannot help expressing astonishment that they should have even thought of entering into trade of any kind, except that of disposing of, to the Government, the produce of their agricultural labours." . . . . "The introduction of this destructive trade which took place since the departure of Governor Phillip, has done immense mischief," and is, "in the manner of it carried on here, highly disgraceful to men who hold a commission signed by His Majesty. I have resolved to correct, as far as I can, many such abuses. I have not assistance sufficient."
What assistance could be given by instructions from England he received. Mr. Dundas told him, "It is certainly in your power, as well as it is your duty, to prohibit, by the most positive orders, all officers of government, civil and military, from selling any spirituous liquors to the convicts and settlers." An order was sent from England (1799) that no vessel should "be allowed to land any article, or break bulk, before the return of such vessel and her cargo is filled up. This measure will be of the greatest use in preventing the importation of spirits without your license first obtained for that purpose. Tidings that officers were engaged in traffic in spirits reached England. The Duke of Portland called on Hunter (1799) for a report, and told him that King had been appointed to succeed him. The Horse Guards desired Colonel Paterson, then in England, to repair at once to Sydney that steps might be taken to crush proceedings of so "infamous a nature."
But it had become plain that the demoralization of the colony could not be arrested by Hunter. The Secretary of State (Nov. 1799) expressed disapprobation of the manner "in which the government of the settlement" was "administered in so many respects," and was "commanded to signify the king's pleasure" that Hunter should "return by the first conveyance which offers itself after the arrival of Lt.-Governor King."
Hunter was hurt at his recall, and at the manner of it. He attributed it to "an anonymous letter" from the colony, ​which accused him of "conniving at, if not participating in, that mean species of trade which has so often been with me subject of complaint, and which I have so long in vain been struggling to repress." His admission that he had struggled in vain was testimony to the necessity of his recall, but it was natural that he should be blind to the fact. Conscious of rectitude of intention, he may be pardoned for thinking that he had done all that was possible. His successor, on whom fell the invidious task of replacing him, far from impugning his character, wrote "His public conduct has been guided by the most upright intentions, but he has been most shamefully deceived by those upon whom he had every reason to depend for assistance and advice." But Hunter could not be comforted.
Sir J. Banks, informing King of Hunter's arrival in England, said "Hunter was received, as you might expect, civilly, but not warmly. He began to complain, but the answer was obvious. The king's pleasure to remove. him did not imply any censure of his conduct. Another man might be thought fitter without any fault being found with his proceedings. The state in which that "other man" found the colony was described by him in a memorandum which is still in existence.
"From the visits received and the warmth of attention shown me, my arrival and remaining in the government seemed to be generally well liked and anxiously looked for. Still I could not help foreboding that many of those who now smiled on the rising sun would change their ideas when the proceedings which the good nature of my predecessor had sanctioned should be any ways checked, which was the principal object of my mission. Vice in every shape appeared to be tolerated; not by authority, for that was blinded, but by the artifice and cupidity of those whose interest was so much concerned in those excesses not being noticed. One ship-load of spirits was not disposed of; cellars, from those of the better sort to those of the blackest characters in the colony, were full of spirits; the Supply hulk was the receptacle of upwards of (sic) ———— gallons of spirits, the property of a commissioned officer. The information I gained sufficiently informed me that a total change in the measures hitherto pursued was absolutely necessary. But at the same time I was well assured that measures must be adopted with caution, and persevered in, as violent or sudden steps would by no means answer.
"I could not help reflecting that the colony I was shortly to direct and to perform the unpopular task of becoming a reformer in, was composed of persons in authority who, for some time past, had been, if not sanctioned, allowed to carry on the most oppressive monopolies, to the prejudice and ruin of the other description, who, although banished their native country for the worst of crimes, could, if their industry had not been ​checked by the extortions of their superiors, in a few years have been comfortable. But I am sorry to say that with its first founder order and regularity left these shores. Spirits were introduced. Robberies and murders followed. The settlers, whom Governor Phillip conceived his attention had so placed that independence and comfort would have been familiar with them, were, for the lure of an hour's intoxication, deprived of their farms, stock, and future hopes; and many—left comfortably—were soon compelled to till for a dram-seller's interest the ground that was so lately their own. Could it be expected that from such classes anyone would support me in promoting plans of industry, when the success of them must prove the infamy of their own conduct? I could therefore see that my task would be laborious and discouraging.
"Confidential persons to assist me I brought none, as neither my circumstances or means allowed it. Certain I therefore am that, as a stop to many irregularities is necessary and unavoidable, I may count on having for decided enemies many of those whom I ought to look to for support. The only support I can assure myself of is the rectitude of my conduct, which has been ever my safeguard; and as I am determined not to enter into the smallest private farm, acquirement of stock, or any other private pursuit whatever, nothing will divert me from the objects I wish to obtain, in which the general prosperity of the colony and its inhabitants will be my ultimate pursuit. In this I hope to succeed, although every disagreeable reform is left to me to imagine and execute."
* ↑ Hunter wrote (Oct. 1795) to the Duke of Portland that he had "thought fit to continue" the excess, but the Duke had previously intimated that Mr. Dundas' instructions on the subject "did not admit of a discretionary construction" on the Governor's part. His despatch, however, had not been received by Hunter when he contravened it.
* ↑ "Hunter recommended (1796) the removal of the corps which contained "characters who have been considered as disgraceful to every other regiment in His Majesty's service." He complained also to the commanding officer, Paterson, that the "conduct of this part of the corps has been, in my opinion, the most violent and outrageous that was ever heard of by any British regiment whatever." Some of them (he told the Secretary of State) were often superior in every species of infamy to the most export in wickedness among the convicts." The Duke of Portland told Hunter that the conduct of the military in attacking the carpenter was so flagrant that he could "not well imagine anything like a justifiable excuse for not bringing the four soldiers who were deposed against to a court-martial, and punishing them with the utmost severity."
* ↑ Supra, p. 136.
* ↑ "It is possible that the story of the convict's journey grew or was distorted out of an expedient resorted to by Hunter to check desertions. He heard that about sixty of the transported "Irish defenders" who "threatened resistance to all orders were about to march to China. He "planted a party of armed constables" on whose vigilance he could depend, and "who secured a gang of about twenty." . . . "I spoke to them, but observing a considerable degree of obstinacy and ignorance about them, I conceived there could be no better argument to convince them of their misconduct than a severe corporal punishment, which was inflicted, and they have since been strictly looked after at their work. Some of these fellows had been provided with a figure of a compass drawn upon paper, which, with written instructions, was to have assisted them as their guide." He selected four of the strongest, gave them provisions, and despatched them with companions, so that they might prove their prowess in exploring. "The whole of the men returned with the soldiers, most completely sick of their journey."—Despatch, 1798.
* ↑ Hunter (1798) sent others with Wilson on expeditions, in which Wilson shot game to procure food. The journal of one of Wilson's companions ("Historical Records of N.S.W.," vol. 3, p. 823) records this fact. The journeys were short. In one (from 9th March to 2nd April, Hacking accompanied Wilson, and the lad who was with them wrote that on the 12th March, about 33 miles from Prospect Hill, Wilson and Hacking found veins of salt 8 and 12 feet thick. Hunter sent the journal to Sir J. Banks in 1801, but in no way vouched for its correctness.
* ↑ Collins, p. 384.
* ↑ Dr. John White in an account of his voyage to N.S. W. (1788) described the bird as Procellaria fuliginosa.
* ↑ Vide infra, John Macarthur, Chap. 4.
* ↑ The appeal was to Hunter himself.
* ↑ The Rev. Thomas Hassall, a son of one of them, became a colonial chaplain, and for long years served his Master faithfully in that capacity, dying respected by all. He married a daughter of Samuel Marsden, who also was beloved by all who knew her.
* ↑ Camden Park Papers.
* ↑ House of Commons Papers, 1837. "Appendix to Report of Select Committee on Transportation," p. 334.
* ↑ Dundas, who was savagely attacked for alleged harshness to the Scotch convicts, directed that the "master of the Surprise should be allowed £30 for the passage of Mrs. Margarot with a view to her better accommodation on board that transport. Historical Records. N.S.W., Vol. II., p. 854.
* ↑ Record Office. N.S.W., Vol. IX.
* ↑ "A Narrative of the Sufferings of T. F. Palmer and W. Skirving during a Voyage to New South Wales, 1794," by the Rev. T. F. Palmer, late of Queen's College, Cambridge. 1797.
* ↑ In Boswell's Life of Johnson" it will be seen that in June 1781 the Rev. Thomas Fysche Palmer, Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge, dined with Johnson at Mr. Dilly's in Bedfordshire. He appears to have been unsettled in judgment. He subsequently became minister to a small Unitarian congregation at Dundee. The aspirations of dreamers about the perfectibility of men by the processes of the French revolutionists took possession of his unstable mind, and in a few years he was found conspiring with friends of Paine and of the wretched Margarot. In the House of Commons in March 1794 Fox said, in a debate on the transportation of Muir and Palmer, that he " very much doubted, considering the dangers of the voyage to Botany Bay, whether it might not be rated equal with death; in his mind it was the same." Pitt said that Muir and Palmer were men of liberal education, and should have guarded against the commission of crimes which levelled them with the lowest and most ignorant part of mankind."
* ↑ Hunter, though he did not accede to the request of Margarot, appears to have been somewhat puzzled by a demand of freedom for Muir, Palmer, and Skirving on the ground that on landing in Sydney they were free to go to any part of the world except Great Britain. He wrote, "I am obliged to confess, my lord, that I cannot feel myself justified in forcibly detaining them in this country against their consent." He asked the Secretary of State to instruct him.
* ↑ Margarot had an assigned servant. Amongst MSS. belonging to the family of Governor King there is one in Margarot's handwriting, saying, "Mr. Divine (superintendent of convicts) having ordered away my Government man, I have to entreat your Excellency to return him to me again. . . ."
* ↑ McCarthy's petition to King for pardon on this occasion is still in existence. He said, When the American captain made the offer of taking me away, the idea of my family at that time so forcibly occurred to my mind that I thought it would be even criminal in me to refuse. If your Excellency will look over this imprudent step of mine, I will to the hour of my death entertain the most grateful sense of your Excellency's goodness, and shall ever pray for your Excellency's happiness. The Governor's minute is: "Florence McCarthy to be forgiven. He was, 4th Feb. 1801."