The Naval Pioneers of Australia
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Title: The Naval Pioneers of Australia
Author: Louis Becke
Walter Jeffery
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Most recently updated: October 28, 2024
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NAVAL PIONEERS OF AUSTRALIA ***
THE
NAVAL PIONEERS
OF
AUSTRALIA
BY LOUIS BECKE
AND WALTER JEFFERY
AUTHORS OF "A FIRST FLEET FAMILY"; "THE MUTINEER," ETC.
_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS_
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1899
PREFACE
This book does not pretend to be a history of Australia; it merely gathers
into one volume that which has hitherto been dispersed through many. Our
story ends where Australian history, as it is generally written, begins;
but the work of the forgotten naval pioneers of the country made that
beginning possible. Four sea-captains in succession had charge of the
penal settlement of New South Wales, and these four men, in laying the
foundation of Australia, surmounted greater difficulties than have ever
been encountered elsewhere in the history of British colonization. Under
them, and by their personal exertions, it was made possible to live upon
the land; it was made easy to sail upon the Austral seas. After them came
military and civil governors and constitutional government, finding all
things ready to build a Greater Britain. Histories there are in plenty, of
so many hundred pages, devoted to describing the "blessings of
constitutional government," of the stoppage of transportation, of the
discovery of gold, and all the other milestones on the road to nationhood;
but there is given in them no room to describe the work of the sailors--a
chapter or two is the most historians afford the naval pioneers.
The printing by the New South Wales Government of the Historical Records
of New South Wales has given bookmakers access to much valuable material
(dispatches chiefly) hitherto unavailable; and to the volumes of these
Records, to the contemporary historians of "The First Fleet" of Captain
Phillip, to the many South Sea "voyages," and other works acknowledged in
the text, these writers are indebted. Their endeavour has been to collect
together the scattered material that was worth collecting relating to what
might be called the naval period of Australia. This involved some years'
study and the reading of scores of books, and we mention the fact in
extenuation of such faults of commission and omission as may be discerned
in the work by the careful student of Australian history.
The authors are very sensible of their obligations to Mr. Emery Walker,
not only for the time and trouble which he has bestowed upon the finding
of illustrations, but also for many valuable suggestions in connection
with the volume.
LOUIS BECKE.
WALTER JEFFERY.
_London_, 1899.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY--THE EARLIEST AUSTRALIAN VOYAGERS: THE PORTUGUESE,
SPANISH, AND DUTCH
CHAPTER II. DAMPIER: THE FIRST ENGLISHMAN IN AUSTRALIA
CHAPTER III. COOK, THE DISCOVERER
CHAPTER IV. ARTHUR PHILLIP: FOUNDER AND FIRST GOVERNOR OF NEW SOUTH WALES
CHAPTER V. GOVERNOR HUNTER
CHAPTER VI. THE MARINES AND THE NEW SOUTH WALES CORPS
CHAPTER VII. GOVERNOR KING CHAPTER VIII. BASS AND FLINDERS
CHAPTER IX. THE CAPTIVITY OF FLINDERS
CHAPTER X. BLIGH AND THE MUTINY OF THE "BOUNTY"
CHAPTER XI. BLIGH AS GOVERNOR
CHAPTER XII. OTHER NAVAL PIONEERS--THE PRESENT MARITIME STATE OF
AUSTRALIA--CONCLUSION
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
MARTIN FROBISHER
FROBISHER'S MAP
A DUTCH SHIP OF WAR
SOVEREIGN OF THE SEAS
A SIXTH RATE, 1684
DAMPIER
COOK
GOVERNOR PHILLIP
VIEW OF BOTANY BAY
SYDNEY COVE
CAPTAIN JOHN HUNTER
ATTACK ON THE WAAKSAMHEYD
GOVERNOR KING
LA PÉROUSE
SIR JOSEPH BANKS
GEORGE BASS
MATTHEW FLINDERS
VIEW OF WRECK REEF
GOVERNMENT HOUSE, SYDNEY, IN 1802
VIEW OF SYDNEY
GOVERNOR BLIGH
"Whenever I want a thing well done in a distant part of the world;
when I want a man with a good head, a good heart, lots of pluck,
and plenty of common sense, I always send for a Captain of the
Navy."--LORD PALMERSTON.
THE NAVAL PIONEERS
OF
AUSTRALIA
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY--THE EARLIEST AUSTRALIAN VOYAGERS: THE PORTUGUESE, SPANISH,
AND DUTCH.
Learned geographers have gone back to very remote times, even to the
Middle Ages, and, by the aid of old maps, have set up ingenious theories
showing that the Australian continent was then known to explorers. Some
evidence has been adduced of a French voyage in which the continent was
discovered in the youth of the sixteenth century, and, of course, it has
been asserted that the Chinese were acquainted with the land long before
Europeans ventured to go so far afloat. There is strong evidence that the
west coast of Australia was touched by the Spaniards and the Portuguese
during the first half of the sixteenth century, and proof of its discovery
early in the seventeenth century. At the time of these very early South
Sea voyages the search, it should always be remembered, was for a great
Antarctic continent. The discovery of islands in the Pacific was, to the
explorers, a matter of minor importance; New Guinea, although visited by
the Portuguese in 1526, up to the time of Captain Cook was supposed by
Englishmen to be a part of the mainland, and the eastern coast of
Australia, though touched upon earlier and roughly outlined upon maps,
remained unknown to them until Cook explored it.
[Illustration: MARTIN FROBISHER. From the portrait in Holland's
"Herolowologia Anglica" [London, 1620]. _To face p_. 2.]
_Early Voyages to Australia_, by R.H. Major, printed by the Hakluyt
Society in 1859, is still the best collection of facts and contains the
soundest deductions from them on the subject, and although ably-written
books have since been published, the industrious authors have added little
or nothing in the way of indisputable evidence to that collected by Major.
The belief in the existence of the Australian continent grew gradually and
naturally out of the belief in a great southern land. Mr. G.B. Barton, in
an introduction to his valuable Australian [Sidenote: 1578]
history, traces this from 1578, when Frobisher wrote:--
"Terra Australis seemeth to be a great, firme land, lying under
and aboute the south pole, being in many places a fruitefull
soyle, and is not yet thorowly discovered, but only seen and
touched on the north edge thereof by the travaile of the
Portingales and Spaniards in their voyages to their East and West
Indies. It is included almost by a paralell, passing at 40 degrees
in south latitude, yet in some places it reacheth into the sea
with great promontories, even into the tropicke Capricornus. Onely
these partes are best known, as over against Capo d' buona
Speranza (where the Portingales see popingayes commonly of a
wonderful greatnesse), and againe it is knowen at the south side
of the straight of Magellanies, and is called Terra del Fuego. It
is thoughte this south lande, about the pole Antartike, is farre
bigger than the north land about the pole Artike; but whether it
be so or not, we have no certaine knowledge, for we have no
particular description thereof, as we have of the land under and
aboute the north pole."
Then Purchas, in 1678, says:--
"This land about the Straits is not perfectly discovered, whether
it be Continent or Islands. Some take it for Continent, and extend
it more in their imagination than any man's experience towards
those Islands of Saloman and New Guinea, esteeming (of which there
is great probability) that Terra Australis, or the Southerne
Continent, may for the largeness thereof take a first place in
order and the first in greatnesse in the division and parting of
the Whole World."
[Illustration: FROBISHER'S MAP. From "A true Discourse of the late Voyages
of Discoverie for the finding of a passage to Cathaya by the Northweast
under the conduct of _Martin Frobisher_, Generall:" [London, 1578]. _To
face p_. 4.]
The most important of the Spanish voyages was that made by De Quiros, who
left Callao in December, 1605, in charge of an expedition of three ships.
One of these vessels was commanded by Luis Vaez de Torres. De Quiros, who
is believed to have been by birth a Portuguese, discovered several island
groups and many isolated islands, among the former being the New Hebrides,
which he, believing he had found the continent, named Tierra Australis
del Espiritu Santo. Soon after the ships commanded by De Quiros became
separated from the other vessels, and Torres took charge. He subsequently
found that the land seen was an island group, and so determined to sail
westward in pursuance of the scheme of exploration. In about the month of
August he fell in with a chain of islands (now called the Louisiade
Archipelago and included in the British Possession of New Guinea) which he
thought, reasonably enough, was the beginning of New Guinea, but which
really lies a little to the southeast of that great island. As he could
not weather the group, he bore away to the southward, [Sidenote: 1605]
and his subsequent proceedings are here quoted from Burney's _Voyages_:--
"We went along three hundred leagues of coast, as I have
mentioned, and diminished the latitude 2-1/2 degrees, which
brought us into 9 degrees. From thence we fell in with a bank of
from three to nine fathoms, which extends along the coast to 7-1/2
south latitude; and the end of it is in 5 degrees. We could go no
further on for the many shoals and great currents, so we were
obliged to sail south-west in that depth to 11 degrees south
latitude. There is all over it an archipelago of islands without
number, by which we passed; and at the end of the eleventh degree
the bank became shoaler. Here were very large islands, and they
appeared more to the southward. They were inhabited by black
people, very corpulent and naked. Their arms were lances, arrows,
and clubs of stone ill-fashioned. We could not get any of their
arms. We caught in all this land twenty persons of different
nations, that with them we might be able to give a better account
to your Majesty. They give [us] much notice of other people,
although as yet they do not make themselves well understood. We
were upon this bank two months, at the end of which time we found
ourselves in twenty-five fathoms and 5 degrees south latitude and
ten leagues from the coast; and having gone 480 leagues here, the
coast goes to the north-east. I did not search it, for the bank
became very shallow. So we stood to the north."
The "very large islands" seen by Torres were no doubt the hills of Cape
York, the northernmost point of Australia, and so he, all unconsciously,
had passed within sight of the continent for which he was searching. A
copy of the report by Torres was lodged in the archives of Manila, and
when the English took that city in 1762, Dalrymple, the celebrated
geographer, discovered it, and gave the name of Torres Straits to what
is now well known as the dangerous passage dividing New Guinea from
Australia. De Quiros, in his ship, made no further discovery; he arrived
on the Mexican coast in October, 1606, and did all he could to induce
Philip III. of Spain to sanction further exploration, but without success.
Of the voyages of the Dutch in Australian waters much interesting matter
is available. Major sums up the case in these words:--
"The entire period up to the time of Dampier, ranging over two
centuries, presents these two phases of obscurity: that in the
sixteenth century (the period of the Portuguese and Spanish
discoveries) there are indications on maps of the great
probability of Australia having already been discovered, but with
no written documents to confirm them; while in the seventeenth
century there is documentary evidence that its coasts were touched
upon or explored by a considerable number of Dutch voyagers, but
the documents immediately describing these voyages have not been
found."
The period of known Dutch discovery begins with the [Sidenote: 1644]
establishment of the Dutch East India Company, and a knowledge of the west
coast of Australia grew with the growth of the Dutch colonies, but grew
slowly, for the Dutchmen were too busy trading to risk ships and spend
time and money upon scientific voyages.
In January, 1644, Commodore Abel Janszoon Tasman was despatched upon his
second voyage of discovery to the South Seas, and his instructions, signed
by the Governor-General of Batavia, Antonio Van Diemen, begin with a
recital of all previous Dutch voyages of a similar character. From this
document an interesting summary of Dutch exploration can be made. Tasman,
in his first voyage, had discovered the island of Van Diemen, which he
named after the then Governor of Batavia, but which has since been named
Tasmania, after its discoverer. During this first voyage the navigator
also discovered New Zealand, passed round the east side of Australia
without seeing the land, and on his way home sailed along the northern
shore of New Guinea.
But to come back to the summary of Dutch voyages found in Tasman's
instructions: During 1605 and 1606 the Dutch yacht _Duyphen_ made two
exploring voyages to New Guinea. On one trip the commander, after
coasting New Guinea, steered southward along the islands on the west side
of Torres Straits to that part of Australia, a little to the west and
south of Cape York, marked on modern maps as Duyphen Point, thus
unconsciously--for he thought himself still on the west coast of New
Guinea--making the first authenticated discovery of the continent.
Dirk Hartog, in command of the _Endragt_, while on his way from Holland to
the East Indies, put into what Dampier afterwards called Sharks' Bay, and
on an island, which now bears his name, deposited a tin plate with an
inscription recording his arrival, and dated October 25th, 1616. The plate
was afterwards found by a Dutch navigator in 1697, and replaced by
another, which in its turn was discovered in July, 1801, by Captain
Hamelin, of the _Naturaliste_, on the well-known French voyage in search
of the ill-fated La Pérouse. The Frenchman copied the inscription, and
nailed the plate to a post with another recording his own voyage. These
inscriptions were a few years later removed by De Freycinet, and deposited
in the museum of the Institute of Paris. Hartog ran along the coast a few
degrees, naming the land after his ship, and was followed by many other
voyagers at frequent intervals down to the year [Sidenote: 1623-1627]
1727, from which time Dutch exploration has no more a place in Australian
discovery.
During the 122 years of which we have records of their voyages, although
the Dutch navigators' work, compared with that done by Cook and his
successors, was of small account; yet, considering the state of nautical
science, and that the ships were for the most part Dutch East Indiamen,
the Dutch names which still sprinkle the north and the west coasts of the
continent show that from Cape York in the extreme north, westward of the
Great Australian Bight in the south, the Dutchmen had touched at intervals
the whole coast-line.
But before leaving the Dutch period there are one or two voyages that,
either on account of their interesting or important character, deserve
brief mention.
In 1623 Arnhem's Land, now the northern district of the Northern Territory
of South Australia, was discovered by the Dutch yachts _Pesa_ and
_Arnhem_. This voyage is also noteworthy on account of the massacre of the
master of the _Arnhem_ and eight of his crew by the natives while they
were exploring the coast of New Guinea. In 1627 the first discovery of the
south coast was made by the _Gulde Zeepard_, and the land then explored,
extending from Cape Leeuwin to the Nuyts Archipelago, on the South
Australian coast, was named after Peter Nuyts, then on board the ship on
his way to Batavia, whence he was sent to Japan as ambassador from
Holland.
In the year 1628 a colonizing expedition of eleven vessels left Holland
for the Dutch East Indies. Among these ships was the _Batavia_, commanded
by Francis Pelsart. A terrible storm destroyed ten of the fleet, and on
June 4th, 1629, the _Batavia_ was driven ashore on the reef still known as
Houtman's Abrolhos, which had been discovered and named by a Dutch East
Indiaman some years earlier--probably by the commander of the _Leeuwin_,
who discovered and named after his ship the cape at the south-west point
of the continent. The _Batavia_, which carried a number of chests of
silver money, went to pieces on the reef. The crew of the ship managed to
land upon the rocks, and saved some food from the wreck, but they were
without water. Pelsart, in one of the ship's boats, spent a couple of
weeks exploring the inhospitable coast in the neighbourhood in the hope of
discovering water, but found so little that he ultimately determined to
attempt to make Batavia and from there bring [Sidenote: 1629]
succour to his ship's company. On July 3rd he fell in with a Dutch ship
off Java and was taken on to Batavia. From there he obtained help and
returned to the wreck, arriving at the Abrolhos in the middle of
September; but during the absence of the commander the castaways had gone
through a terrible experience, which is related in Therenot's _Recueil de
Voyages Curieux,_ and translated into English in Major's book, from which
the following is extracted:--
"Whilst Pelsart is soliciting assistance, I will return to those
of the crew who remained on the island; but I should first inform
you that the supercargo, named Jerome Cornelis, formerly an
apothecary at Haarlem, had conspired with the pilot and some
others, when off the coast of Africa, to obtain possession of the
ship and take her to Dunkirk, or to avail themselves of her for
the purpose of piracy. This supercargo remained upon the wreck ten
days after the vessel had struck, having discovered no means of
reaching the shore. He even passed two days upon the mainmast,
which floated, and having from thence got upon a yard, at length
gained the land. In the absence of Pelsart, he became commander,
and deemed this a suitable occasion for putting his original
design into execution, concluding that it would not be difficult
to become master of that which remained of the wreck, and to
surprise Pelsart when he should arrive with the assistance which
he had gone to Batavia to seek, and afterwards to cruise in these
seas with his vessel. To accomplish this it was necessary to get
rid of those of the crew who were not of his party; but before
imbruing his hands with blood he caused his accomplices to sign a
species of compact, by which they promised fidelity one to
another. The entire crew was divided [living upon] between three
islands; upon that of Cornelis, which they had named the graveyard
of Batavia, was the greatest number of men. One of them, by name
Weybehays, a lieutenant, had been despatched to another island to
seek for water, and having discovered some after a search of
twenty days, he made the preconcerted signal by lighting three
fires, but in vain, for they were not noticed by the people of
Cornelis' company, the conspirators having during that time
murdered those who were not of their party. Of these they killed
thirty or forty. Some few saved themselves upon pieces of wood,
which they joined together, and going in search of Weybehays,
informed him of the horrible massacre that had taken place. Having
with him forty-five men, he resolved to keep upon his guard, and
to defend himself from these assassins if they should make an
attack upon his company, which in effect they designed to do, and
to treat the other party in the same manner; for they feared lest
their company, or that which remained upon the third island,
should inform the commander upon his arrival, and thus prevent the
execution of their design. They succeeded easily with the party
last mentioned, which was the weakest, killing the whole of them,
excepting seven children and some women. They hoped to succeed as
easily with Weybehays' company, and in the meanwhile broke open
the chests of merchandise which had been saved from the vessel.
Jerome Cornelis caused clothing to be made [Sidenote: 1629]
for his company out of the rich stuffs which he found therein,
choosing to himself a bodyguard, each of whom he clothed in scarlet,
embroidered with gold and silver. Regarding the women as part of
the spoil, he took one for himself, and gave one of the daughters
of the minister to a principal member of his party, abandoning
the other three for public use. He drew up also certain rules for
the future conduct of his men.
[Illustration: A DUTCH MAN-OF-WAR OF THE END OF THE 17th CENTURY. From a
print after Vandervelde.]
"After these horrible proceedings he caused himself to be elected
captain-general by a document which he compelled all his
companions to sign. He afterwards sent twenty-two men in two
shallops to destroy the company of Weybehays, but they met with a
repulse. Taking with him thirty-seven men, he went himself against
Weybehays, who received him at the water's edge as he disembarked,
and forced him to retire, although the lieutenant and his men had
no weapons but clubs, the ends of which were armed with spikes.
Finding force unavailing, the mutineer had recourse to other
means. He proposed a treaty of peace, the chaplain, who remained
with Weybehays, drawing up the conditions. It was agreed to with
this proviso, that Weybehays' company should remain unmolested,
and they, upon their part, agreed to deliver up a little boat in
which one of the sailors had escaped from the island where
Cornelis was located to that of Weybehays, receiving in return
some stuffs for clothing his people. During his negotiations
Cornelis wrote to certain French soldiers who belonged to the
lieutenant's company offering to each a sum of money to corrupt
them, with the hope that with this assistance he might easily
compass his design. His letters, which were without effect, were
shown to Weybehays, and Cornelis, who was ignorant of their
disclosure, having arrived the next day with three or four others
to find Weybehays and bring him the apparel, the latter caused him
to be attacked, killed two or three of the company, and took
Cornelis himself prisoner. One of them, by name Wouterlos, who
escaped from this rout, returned the following day to renew the
attack, but with little success.
"Pelsart arrived during these occurrences in the frigate _Sardam_.
As he approached the wreck he observed smoke from a distance, a
circumstance that afforded him great consolation, since he
perceived by it that his people were not all dead. He cast anchor,
and threw himself immediately into a skiff with bread and wine,
and proceeded to land on one of the islands. Nearly at the same
time a boat came alongside with four armed men. Weybehays, who was
one of the four, ... informed him of the massacre, and advised him
to return as speedily as possible to his vessel, for that the
conspirators designed to surprise him, having already murdered
twenty-five persons, and to attack him with two shallops, adding
that he himself had that morning been at close quarters with them.
Pelsart perceived at the same time the two shallops coming towards
him, and had scarcely got on board his own vessel before they came
alongside. He was surprised to see the people covered with
embroidery of gold and silver and weapons in their hands, and
demanded of them why they approached the vessel armed. They
replied that they would inform him when they came on board. He
commanded them to cast their arms into the sea, or otherwise he
would sink them. Finding themselves compelled [Sidenote: 1629]
to submit, they threw away their weapons, and being ordered on
board, were immediately placed in irons. One of them, named Jan
de Bremen, confessed that he had put to death or assisted in the
assassination of twenty-seven persons. The same evening Weybehays
brought his prisoner on board.
"On the 18th day of September the captain and the master-pilot,
taking with them ten men of Weybehays' company, passed over in
boats to the island of Cornelis. Those who still remained thereon
lost all courage as soon as they saw them, and allowed themselves
to be placed in irons."
Pelsart remained another week at the Abrolhos, endeavouring to recover
some of the _Batavia's_ treasure, and succeeded in finding all but one
chest. The mutineers were tried by the officers of the _Sardam_, and all
but two were executed before the ship left the scene of their awful crime.
The two men who were not hanged were put on shore on the mainland, and
were probably the first Europeans to end their lives upon the continent.
Dutch vessels for many years afterwards sought for traces of the marooned
seamen, but none were ever discovered.
The 1644 voyage of Tasman was made expressly for the purpose of exploring
the north and north-western shores of the continent, and to prove the
existence or otherwise of straits separating it from New Guinea. Tasman's
instructions show this, and prove that while the existence of the straits
was suspected, and although Torres had unconsciously passed through them,
they were not known. Tasman explored a long length of coast-line,
establishing its continuity from the extreme north-western point (Arnhem
Land) as far as the twenty-second degree of south latitude (Exmouth Gulf).
He failed to prove the existence of Torres Straits, but to him, it is
generally agreed, is due the discovery and naming of the Gulf of
Carpentaria (Carpenter in Tasman's time being President at Amsterdam of
the Dutch East India Company) and the naming of a part of North Australia,
as he had previously named the island to the south, after Van Diemen. From
this voyage dates the name New Holland: the great stretch of coast-line
embracing his discoveries became known to his countrymen as Hollandia
Nova, a name which in its English form was adopted for the whole
continent, and remained until it was succeeded by the more euphonious name
of Australia. Tasman continued doing good service for the Dutch East India
Company until his death at Batavia about 1659.
The last Dutch voyage which space permits us to mention [Sidenote: 1727]
briefly is that of the _Zeewigk_, which ship was wrecked on the Abrolhos
in 1727, with a quantity of treasure on board. Some of the crew built a
sloop out of the wreck and made their way to Batavia, taking with them
the bulk of the treasure; but from time to time, even down to the present
century, relics of the wreck, including several coins, have been
recovered, and are now to be seen in the museum of the West Australian
capital. But before the Dutch had given up exploring the coast of New
Holland, Dampier, the first Englishman to set foot upon its shores, had
twice visited the continent, and with his two voyages the English naval
story of Australia may properly begin.
CHAPTER II.
DAMPIER: THE FIRST ENGLISHMAN IN AUSTRALIA.
"I dined with Mr. Pepys, where was Captain Dampier, who had been a
famous buccaneer, had brought hither the painted Prince Job, and
printed a relation of his very strange adventure and his
observations. He was now going abroad again by the King's
encouragement, who furnished a ship of 290 tons. He seemed a more
modest man than one would imagine by the relation of the crew he
had consorted with. He brought a map of his observations of the
course of the winds of the South Sea, and assured us that the maps
hitherto extant were all false as to the Pacific Sea, which he
makes on the south of the line, that on the north and running by
the coast of Peru being I exceedingly tempestuous."
Thus wrote John Evelyn on August 6th, 1698.
Of the adventurous career of Dampier prior to this date too much fiction
and quite enough history has already been written; but we cannot omit a
short account of the buccaneer's life up to the time of his receiving King
William's commission.
Dampier was born in 1652 at East Coker, [Sidenote: 1673-1698]
Somersetshire. Of his parents he tells us that "they did not originally
design me for the sea, but bred me at school till I came of years fit for
a trade. But upon the death of my mother they who had the disposal of me
took other measures, and, having removed me from the Latin school to learn
writing and arithmetic, they soon placed me with a master of a ship at
Weymouth, complying with the inclinations I had very early of seeing the
world."
Dampier made several voyages in merchantmen; then he shipped as able
seaman on the _Royal Prince_, Captain Sir Edward Spragge, and served under
him till the death of that commander at the end of the Dutch war in 1673.
Soon after he made a voyage to the West Indies; then began an adventurous
life--ashore cutting logwood in the Bay of Campeachy when not fighting;
afloat a buccaneer--of which he has given us details in his _Voyage round
the Terrestrial Globe_.
In March, 1686, Dampier in a little barque, the _Cygnet_, commanded by
Captain Swan, quitted the American coast and sailed westward across the
Pacific. On this voyage the _Cygnet_ touched at the Ladrones, the Bashee
Islands, the Philippines, Celebes, Timor, New Holland, and the Nicobar
Islands. Here Dampier left his ship and worked his way to England, which
he reached in 1691. (The _Cygnet_ was afterwards lost off Madagascar.) He
had brought home with him from Mindanao a tattooed slave, whom he called
the "Painted Prince Jeoey," and who was afterwards exhibited as the first
painted savage ever seen in England. "Jeoey," who died at Oxford, is the
"painted Prince Job" mentioned by Evelyn.
It has been stated that the _Cygnet_ touched at New Holland. This land was
sighted on January 4th, 1688, in what Dampier says was "latitude 16·50 S.
About three leagues to the eastward of this point there is a pretty deep
bay, with abundance of islands in it, and a very; good place to anchor in
or to haul ashore. About a league to the eastward of that point we
anchored January the 5th, 1688, two miles from the shore."
A modern map of West Australia will show the West Kimberley goldfield. To
the west of the field is the district of West Kimberley, and upon the
coast-line is the Buccaneer Archipelago. The bay in which Dampier anchored
is still called Cygnet Bay, and it is situated in the north-west corner
of King's Sound, of which "that point" to which "we went a league to the
eastward" is named Swan Point, while a rock called Dampier's Monument more
particularly commemorates the buccaneer's visit.
The ship remained in Cygnet Bay until March 12th, and during that time the
vessel was hove down and repaired. Dampier's observations on the
aboriginal inhabitants during his stay is summed up in his description of
the natives whom he saw, and who were, he says, "the most miserable people
in the world. The Hodmadods" (Hottentots) "of Monomatapa, though a nasty
people, yet for wealth are gentlemen to these." He gives an accurate
description of the country so far as he saw it, and asserts that "New
Holland is a very large tract of land. It is not yet determined whether it
is an island or a main continent; but I am certain that it joins neither
Asia, Africa, nor America."
While the ship was being overhauled under the sweltering rays of a
tropical sun, the men lived on shore in a tent, and Dampier, who was tired
of the voyage, probably because there were no Spaniards to fight and no
prizes to be made, endeavoured to persuade his companions to shape their
next course for some port where was an English factory; but they would
not listen to him, and for his pains he was threatened that when the ship
was ready for sea he should be landed and left behind.
Evelyn tells us that in 1698 Dampier was going abroad again by the King's
commission, and this second voyage of the ex-buccaneer to the South Seas,
although of small importance to geographers, is noteworthy, inasmuch as
Dampier's was the first visit of a ship of the English royal navy to
Australian seas.
To understand what sort of an expedition was this of two hundred years
ago, how Dampier was equipped and what manner of ship and company he
commanded, it will not be out of place to give some account of the navy at
that time. When James II. abdicated in 1688, according to Pepys, the royal
navy was made up of 173 ships of 101,892 tons, an armament of 6930 guns,
and 42,003 men. William died in 1702, and the number of ships had then
increased to 272, and the tonnage to 159,020 tons.
The permanent navy, begun by Henry VIII. and given its first system of
regular warfare by the Duke of York in 1665, had become well established,
and trading vessels had ceased to form a part of the regular
establishment. King William III., although not so good a friend to the
service as his predecessor, and anything but a sailor, like the fourth
William, did not altogether neglect it. In the Introduction to James'
_Naval History_ we are told that between the years 1689 and 1697 the navy
lost by capture alone 50 vessels, and it is probable that an equal number
fell by the perils of the sea. King William meantime added 30 ships, and
half that number were captured from the French, while several 20 and
30-gun ships were besides taken from the enemy.
Coming back to the first naval expedition to Australia, the ship commanded
by Dampier was the _Roebuck_, as Evelyn tells us, a vessel of 290 tons.
Dampier has left very little description of his ship, but it is not
difficult to picture her, for by this time the ratings of ships had been
settled upon certain lines, and the meaning of the word "rating" as used
at this period is easily ascertainable.
According to Charnock's _Marine Architecture_, the _Roebuck_, lying at
Deptford in June, 1684, was a sixth-rate of 24 guns and 85 men. This was
her war complement; but Dampier himself tells us that he "sailed from the
Downs early on Saturday, January 14th, 1699, with a fair wind, in His
Majesty's ship the _Roebuck_, carrying but 12 guns on this voyage and 50
men with 20 months' provisions."
In 1677, according to James' _History_, the smallest fifth-rate then
afloat corresponds nearest to the _Roebuck_, and, no doubt, by Dampier's
time this vessel had been reduced in her rating. The vessel of 1677 is
described as being of 265 tons and 28 guns, "sakers and minions," with a
complement of about 100 men. The largest sixth-rate was 199 tons, 18 guns,
and 85 men. So from these particulars we can take it as correct that the
_Roebuck_ in 1699 was a sixth-rate. It is worth remembering that in
Cavendish's second expedition to the South Sea, in 1591, there was a ship
called the _Roebuck_, commanded by John Davis, and likely enough the
sixth-rate in which Dampier sailed was named after her, those who gave her
the name little thinking at the time of her christening (she was built
before Dampier's voyage, and was certainly not the _Roebuck_ of
Cavendish's fleet) how appropriately they were naming her for her future
service.
[Illustration: THE SOVEREIGN OF THE SEAS, BUILT IN THE YEAR 1637. From a
print in the British Museum by Paine.]
Her armament is a matter of interest, for just about her time--that is,
between the years 1685 and 1716--the naming of guns after beasts and
birds of prey went out of fashion, and they were distinguished by the
weight of the shot fired. James, quoting from Sir William Monson's _Naval
Tracts_, supplies the following table on the subject of sea guns; and, as
they were probably still in use in Dampier's time, we print it here:--
| Bore of | Weight of | Weight of | Weight of
Names. |cannon in | cannon in | shot in | powder in
| inches. | pounds. | pounds. | pounds.
| | | |
Cannon-royal | 8-1/2 | 8000 | 66 | 30
Cannon | 8 | 6000 | 60 | 27
Cannon-serpentine | 7 | 5500 | 53-1/2 | 25
Bastard cannon | 7 | 4500 | 41 | 20
Demi-cannon | 6-3/4 | 4000 | 33-1/2 | 18
Cannon-petro | 6 | 4000 | 24-1/2 | 14
Culverin | 5-1/2 | 4500 | 17-1/2 | 12
Basilisk | 5 | 4000 | 15 | 10
Demi-culverin | 4 | 3400 | 9-1/2 | 8
Bastard culverin | 4 | 3000 | 5 | 5-3/4
Sakers | 3-1/2 | 1400 | 5-1/2 | 5-1/2
Minion | 3-1/2 | 1000 | 4 | 4
Falcon | 2-1/2 | 660 | 2 | 3-1/2
Falconet | 2 | 500 | 1-1/2 | 3
Serpentine | 1-1/2 | 400 | 3/4 | 1-3/4
Rabinet | 1 | 300 | 1/2 | 1/2
The small arms were matchlocks, snaphainces, musketoons, blunderbusses,
pistols, halberts, swords, and hangers.
From this it will be seen that the _Roebuck's_ guns, considering the
peaceful service she was upon, were probably known to her company as
"sakers" and "falcons."
In a sixth-rate the sakers were carried all on the one deck, and the
minions on the quarterdeck. Charnock supplies an illustration of a
sixth-rate of the time, and the picture is a familiar one to all who have
taken even a slight interest in the ships of a couple of centuries ago. A
lion rampant decorates the stem, set as it remained till early in the
present century (the galley prow had gone with Charles I.); the hull
looked not a whit more clumsy than that of an old north-country collier of
our youth, but the flat stern, with its rows of square windows, richly
carved panelling, and big stern-lanterns, and the row of round gun-ports
encircled by gold wreaths along the ship's sides, are distinctive marks of
this period.
A vessel of this kind was ship-rigged, about 88 feet long by 24 feet beam;
the depth of her hold, in which to store her twenty months' provisions (a
marvellously large quantity as stores were then carried), was about 11
feet, and her draught of water when loaded about 12 feet aft. She had one
deck and a poop and forecastle, the former extending from either end of
the ship to the waist. A good deal of superfluous ornament had by this
time been done away with, although there was plenty of it so late as 1689.
Charnock describes a man-of-war of that date. After the Restoration, ships
grew apace in grandeur in and out. Inboard they were painted a dull red
(this was, it is said, so that in fighting the blood of the wounded should
not show), outside blue and gilded in the upper parts, then yellow, and
last black to the water-line, with white bottoms. Copper sheathing had not
come into use, and ships' bottoms were treated with tallow, which was made
to adhere by being laid on between nails which studded the bottom.
The pitching of the vessels imperilled the masts of these somewhat cranky
ships of 1689, says a writer of about Dampier's time, who also tells us
that ships then had awnings, and that "glass lanthorns were worthier best
made of crystal horn; lanthorns were worthier than isinglass."
The sails were the usual courses: big topsails and topgallantsails,
staysails, and topmastsails, with a spritsail and a lateen-mizen; the
spanker and jib were not yet, but the sprit-topsail had just gone out. The
ship when rigged and fitted ready for sea probably cost King William's
Admiralty about £10,000. But the _Roebuck_ was pretty well worn out when
Dampier was given the command of her, as he tells us when relating her
subsequent loss.
_The British Fleet_, by Commander C.N. Robinson, is an invaluable book to
the student of naval history, and, notwithstanding plenty of book
authorities and ten years' study of the subject, the present writers are
compelled to draw upon Commander Robinson for many details. With the aid
of this work and from allusions to be found in the writings of a couple of
centuries ago, it is possible to make some sort of picture of Dampier's
companions in the _Roebuck_.
Dampier himself was a type of naval officer who entered the service of the
country by what was then, and remained for many years afterwards, one of
the best sources of supply. He had been given a fair education, and had
been duly apprenticed and learned the profession of a sailor in a merchant
ship. Upon his return from his first voyage to the South Seas he published
an account of his travels, and dedicated it to the President of the Royal
Society, the Hon. Charles Mountague, who, appreciating the author's zeal
and his intelligent public spirit, recommended him to the patronage of
the Earl of Oxford, then Principal Lord of the Admiralty. Dampier's
dedication has nothing of the fulsome flattery and begging-letter style so
often the chief characteristic of such compositions, but is the
straightforward offer of a humble worker in science of the best of his
work to the man best able to appreciate and to make the most of it.
Dampier's dedication led to his appointment in the navy, and the
transaction does honour to both the patron and him who was patronized.
As is well known, until comparatively recent times only the officers of
the fighting branch held commissions; all others were either warrant or
petty officers. In the time of William III., a captain and one lieutenant
were allowed to each ship, and none of the other officers held
commissions. The peaceful mission of the _Roebuck_ justifies us in
concluding that Dampier held the King's commission as a lieutenant
commanding, and he was probably given a lieutenant to take charge in case
of accident, a master, a couple of master's mates, a gunner, a boatswain
and carpenter, and the usual petty officers; seamen and boys made up the
complement. Dampier's pay, so far as we can ascertain, would be at the
rate of about £12 per month.
Two regiments of marine infantry had been formed so early as 1689, but
they were disbanded nine years later. It was not until 1703 that the
marines, all infantry, became a permanent branch of the service.
Uniforms had not even been thought of at this time, and the _Roebuck's_
officers, from her commander downwards, ate and drank and clothed
themselves in much the same fashion as their men. Dampier probably had a
room right aft under the long poop, and the other officers at the same end
of the ship in canvas-partitioned cabins, the fore part of her one living
deck being occupied by the crew. There was probably a mess-room under the
poop common to all the officers. What they had to eat and drink, as we
have said, was the same for all ranks. Here is a scale of provisions for
eighty-five men of a sixth-rate of 1688 for two months, taken from
Charnock:--
Tons cwts. qrs. lbs.
Beer (each man a wine gallon per day) . . 17 0 0 0
Bread ( " 1 lb. per day) . . 2 2 1 0
Beef ( " 4 " week) . . 1 4 0 0
Pork ( " 2 " " ) . . 0 12 0 16
Pease ( " 2 pints per week) . . 0 12 0 16
Oatmeal ( " 3 " " )[A] . . 0 13 2 18
Butter ( " 6 oz. per week) . . 0 2 1 3
Cheese ( " 12 " " ) . . 0 4 2 6
Water (in iron-bound casks) . . 7 0 0 0
[Footnote A: In lieu of three eighths of a fish.]
In 1690 flour and raisins were added, and an effort made to condense
water. Beer took the place of all forms of drink, and water was at that
time carried in casks.
The dress, from contemporary prints, can be easily made out, and the
allusions of Pepys and Evelyn supply the names and materials of the
garments. Pepys' diary and letters inform us how the pursers of the time
supplied the men with slops, and in _The British Fleet_ considerable
detail on this subject is given. Roughly it may be assumed that Dampier's
sailors wore petticoats and breeches, grey kersey jackets, woollen
stockings and low-heeled shoes, and worsted, canvas, or leather caps.
Canvas, leather, and coarse cloth were the principal materials, and tin
buttons and coloured thread the most ornamental part, of the costume.
Charnock says that in 1663 "sailors began first to wear distinctive dress.
A rule was that only red caps, yarn and Irish stockings, blue shirts,
white shirts, cotton waistcoats, cotton drawers, neat leather flat-heeled
shoes, blue neckcloths, canvas suits, and rugs were to be sold to them.
Red breeches were worn."
Smollett's pictures of the service in _Roderick Random_, written forty
years after Dampier's time, give us some idea of life on board ship, for
in the forty years between the two dates it differed in no essential
particulars. Pepys describes a sailor who had lost his eye in action
having the socket plugged with oakum, a fact which tells more than could a
volume of how seamen were then cared for. It was the days of the press and
of the advance-note system, which prevailed well into the present century,
and those seamen who went with Dampier of their own free will on a voyage
where nothing but the poorest pay and no prize money was to be got were
probably the lowest and most ill-disciplined rascals, drawn from a class
upon whose characters, save for their bulldog courage and reckless
prodigality, the least written the better.
[Illustration: A SIXTH-RATE, 1684. From Charnock's "History of Marine
Architecture" [London, 1800]. _To face p_. 32.]
The modern bluejacket, superior in every respect, notwithstanding certain
croakers, is infinitely better than his ancestors in the very quality
which was their best; the modern sailor faces death soberly and decently
in forms far more terrible than were ever dreamt of by his forefathers.
When the _Calliope_ steamed out of Apia Harbour in the hurricane of March,
1889, the youngest grimy coal-trimmer, whose sole duty it was to silently
shovel coal, even though his last moment came to him while doing it,
never once asked if the ship was making way. All hands in this department
were on duty for sixteen hours, and during that time no sound was heard,
save the ring of the shovels firing the boilers, nor was a question asked
by any man as to the progress of the ship or the chances of life and
death.
Compare this end-of-the-century story with that of the loss of the
_Wager_, one of the ships of Anson's squadron; and compare the behaviour
of the _Wager's_ castaways with that of the bluejackets who stood to
attention on the deck of the _Victoria_ till the word was given to jump as
the ship heeled over--recent instances quoted merely because they occur to
the writers' minds, for there are any number of others. Such cases
illustrate forcibly this truth: we have, by careful training of the modern
sailor, added to the traditional bravery of the class a quality, not
lacking, but never properly developed, in the old type, that is, the
dignity of coolness and self-restraint, the perfect control of men in the
supreme moments of excitement and death.
Dampier's men, from a very early stage in his voyage, were a trouble to
him. Two only of them, he says, had ever crossed the line, and he was in
continual fear of some sickness arising because they were too lazy to
shift themselves, but would lie in their hammocks in wet clothes. Three
months after the ship got to sea, when nearing Brazil, he tells us that
"the disorders in my ship made me think at present that Pernambuco
would not be so fit a place for me, being told that ships ride
there two or three leagues from the town, under the command of no
forts; so that whenever I should have been ashore it might have
been easy for my discontented crew to have cut or slipt their
cables, and have gone away from me, many of them discovering
already an intention to return to England, and some of them
declaring openly that they would go no further onwards than
Brazil. I altered my course, therefore, and stood away from Bahio
de todos los Santos, or the Bay of All Saints, where I hoped to
have the governor's help, if need should require, for securing my
ship from any such mutinous attempt, being forced to keep myself
all the way upon my guard and to lie with my officers, such as I
could trust, and with small arms, upon the quarterdeck, it scarce
being safe for me to lie in my cabin, by reason of the discontents
among my men."
Similar instances of the ill-discipline of the ship are given at intervals
throughout Dampier's account of his voyage, and the commander and his
officers were all on bad terms with each other, which, however, so far as
can be judged now, was, in some degree, the fault of Dampier's uncertain
temper.
The scientific results of the _Roebuck's_ voyage were, chiefly on these
accounts, of no great importance, judged by the standard of such work
to-day; but, with the state of nautical science at the time, not much was
to be expected in the way of accurate surveying.
When Dampier set out to explore the coast of New Holland, what charts,
what instruments, what scientific knowledge and equipment, had he for the
work?
Dampier's time was distinctively an intermediate period. Little more than
a century had elapsed since Gerard Mercator's chart was published, and
Edward Wright had taught its true principles, and about half a century
before the voyage of the _Roebuck_ such improvements as Gunter's
application of logarithms to nautical calculations, middle latitude
sailing, and the measurement of a degree on the meridian were introduced.
Hadley's quadrant came thirty years after Dampier, who must have used
Davis' instrument, then about ninety years old. Davis' work on navigation,
with Wright's chart showing the northern extremity of Australia, and
Addison's _Arithmetical Navigation_ (1625) were, no doubt, text-books on
board the _Roebuck_. Longitude by chronometer was to come half a century
after Dampier was in his grave, and such charts as he possessed did little
more than indicate the existence of Terra Australis. The Portuguese,
Spanish, and Dutch maps were not easy for Englishmen to procure, and all
that Dampier has to say on the matter is:--
"But in the draught that I had of this coast, which was Tasman's,
it was laid down in 19 degrees, and the shore is laid down as
joining in one body or continent, with some openings appearing
like rivers, and not like islands, as really they are.... This
place, therefore, lies more northerly by 40 minutes than is laid
down in Mr. Tasman's draught, and besides its being made a firm,
continued land, only with some openings like the mouths of rivers,
I found the soundings also different from what the line of his
course shows them, and generally shallower than he makes them,
which inclines me to think that he came not so near the shore as
his line shows, and so had deeper soundings, and could not so well
distinguish the islands. His meridian or difference of longitude
from Sharks' Bay agrees well enough with my account, which is 232
leagues, though we differ in latitude. And, to confirm my
conjecture that the line of his course is made too near the shore,
at least not so far to the east of this place, the water is there
so shallow that he could not come there so nigh."
That the narrative of Tasman's voyage was at [Sidenote: 1638-1697]
that time in existence there is little doubt, and an outline of the coasts
visited by him was given in an atlas presented to Charles II. of England,
in 1660, by Klencke, of Amsterdam, and now in the British Museum. Major
also found in the British Museum copies of charts and a quantity of MS.
describing Tasman's 1644 voyage, which, there is reason to believe, were
made from Tasman's originals by one Captain Bowrey in 1688, who had spent
fourteen years before that date trading in the Dutch East Indies. These
documents are all that have been found, and a diligent search of
geographers still leaves undiscovered Tasman's original narrative. The
1688 copies were probably known to Dampier when he sailed in the
_Roebuck_, and he was, likely enough, supplied with specially made
duplicates by the naval authorities. In 1697 a translation of a French
book was published in England by John Dunton, of the Poultry, London, with
the title _A New Discovery of Terra Incognita Australis, or the Southern
World, by James Sadeur, a Frenchman._ The Frenchman told a story of
thirty-five years' adventures in New Holland; but his tale was a lie from
beginning to end. Coming so close to the date of Dampier's voyage, it is
worth noting that he does not allude to the book, and so probably,
notwithstanding the little knowledge Englishmen then had of the southern
continent, Dampier was shrewd enough to detect the imposture.
The _Roebuck_ struck soundings on the night of August 1st, 1699, upon the
northern part of the Abrolhos. Dampier then cautiously ran northward,
keeping the land in sight until he anchored in Dirk Hartog's Road, in a
sound which he named Sharks' Bay, for the reason that his men caught and
ate, among other things, many sharks, including one eleven feet long, and
says Dampier, "Our men eat them very savorilly." He gives us, too, a
description of the kangaroo, the first introduction of that animal to
civilization. Says the navigator, "The land animals that we saw here were
only a sort of racoons, different from those of the West Indies, chiefly
as to their legs; for these have very short fore legs, but go jumping upon
them as the others do, and, like them, are very good meat."
Sharks' Bay is in what is now called the Gascoyne division of West
Australia, after the river of that name. Its chief town is Carnarvon,
situated at the mouth of the river. Wool-growing [Sidenote: 1699]
is the principal industry, and the population is about 800.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN WILLIAM DAMPIER, R.N. From the picture in the
National Portrait Gallery painted by Thomas Murray.] _To face p_. 38.
Dampier stayed eight days in the bay, then ran northward along the coast,
discovering the archipelago named after him, and himself naming Rosemary
Island, which lies off the coast close to Roeburne, the chief town of the
north province of the colony. From here he continued his course north till
he reached Roebuck Bay, a few leagues to the south of the scene of his
first visit, and where is now the town of Broome. The Eastern Extension
Telegraph Cable Company's alternative cable from Banjoewangi comes in
here, and the town has additional importance as being the harbour for a
large pearling fleet.
Dampier left here on September 5th, intending again to land further north,
but he abandoned the idea and directed his course for Timor. After he left
Timor he called at New Guinea, discovered and named New Britain, now a
German colonial possession, spent some weeks upon the New Guinea coast,
and then returned to Timor, whence he began his voyage home. Off Ascension
the _Roebuck_ sprang a leak and foundered. Her company, who with
difficulty saved their lives, landed upon Ascension, where they remained
till they were rescued and brought to England in the _Canterbury_, East
Indiaman.
During his stay on the coast of New Guinea Dampier, besides those
discoveries already enumerated, made others, and the frequent appearance
of his name on a modern chart of this coast still commemorates them.
Of Dampier's personality his writings give us little insight. As a good
writer should, he keeps his private affairs out of his book, but how much
we should have been interested in knowing something of the man's shore
life! Mr. Clark Russell in his admirable sketch of Dampier, for example,
takes it for granted that he never married, at any rate during his sea
career. Dampier himself tells us he was married, and gives us a very good
idea of when, but he so seldom, after once getting to work upon his
narrative, gives us a glimpse of himself that it is easily understood how
Mr. Russell came to miss that passage in the _Voyage round the World_ in
which the old sailor tells us how in 1687 he named an island the Duke of
Grafton's Isle "as soon as we all landed on it, having married my wife out
of the Duchess's family and leaving her at Arlington House at my going
abroad."
He was, perhaps, not a great man, though a good sailor, who had certain
qualities which placed him above his fellows. We imagine somehow that his
expressed pious dislike for buccaneering was not altogether the cause of
his abandoning the life, and that when he set out upon his career as an
explorer the search for a land where gold could be easily got without
fighting for it was his main motive. He himself tells us so, but we think
that he might have been a greater man if his mind had been capable of a
little higher aim than the easy getting of riches. The obscurity of his
end is not remarkable when one considers how little was then thought of
the value of his discoveries. It took many years for Cook's survey of New
Holland to bring forth fruits.
In his third volume, written after his return from Ascension, he says:--
"It has always been the fate of those who have made new
discoveries to be disesteemed and slightly spoken of by such as
either have had no true relish and value for the things themselves
that are discovered, or have had some prejudice against the
persons by whom the discoveries were made. It would be vain,
therefore, and unreasonable in me to expect to escape the censure
of all, or to hope for better treatment than far worthier persons
have met with before me. But this satisfaction I am sure of
having, that the things themselves in the discovery of which I
have been employed are most worthy of our diligent search and
inquiry, being the various and wonderful works of God in different
parts of the world; and, however unfit a person I may be in other
respects to have undertaken this task, yet, at least, I have given
a faithful account, and have found some things undiscovered by any
before, and which may at least be some assistance and direction to
better qualified persons who shall come after me."
This is a very fair summary of his work, and in his dedication of his book
to the Earl of Pembroke he says truly enough:--
"The world is apt to judge of everything by its success; and
whoever has ill-fortune will hardly be allowed a good name. This,
my lord, was my unhappiness in my late expedition in the
_Roebuck_, which foundered through perfect age near the island of
Ascension. I suffered extremely in my reputation by that
misfortune, though I comfort myself with the thoughts that my
enemies could not charge any neglect upon me."
Upon his return from the _Roebuck_ voyage his next exploit was the command
of a privateering expedition consisting of the _St. George_ and the
_Cinque Ports_, equipped by a company to cruise [Sidenote: 1715]
against the Spaniards in the South Seas. He sailed upon this voyage in
April, 1703, first having the honour of a presentation by the Lord High
Admiral to the new Queen (Anne). It is well known that the voyage was a
failure, and how Dampier, in command of the _St. George_, quarrelled with
Funnel, in command of the _Cinque Ports_. After this voyage he began his
downward career, and the next heard of him is when he sailed as pilot on
the well-known Woodes Rogers expedition, returning in 1711 a very small
sharer in booty to the value of about £150,000.
It was on this voyage that Alexander Selkirk was found upon Juan
Fernandez, and Woodes Rogers learned from his pilot, Captain Dampier, how
the man had been left upon the island more than four years before from the
_Cinque Ports_, and that Selkirk was the best man in her, and so Rogers
took him on board his ship.
This, so far as written story goes, is the last of Dampier, and nothing is
known of how he spent his declining days. The discovery of his will proves
that he died in Coleman Street, St. Stephen's, London, some time in 1715.
The will does not mention the value of his property, but he could not
have died rich, and was probably not only poor, but, to judge by the fact
of his death not having been recorded by his contemporaries, must have
been almost, so far as the great folks who once patronized him were
concerned, friendless.
CHAPTER III. [Sidenote: 1755]
CAPTAIN COOK, THE DISCOVERER.
From Dr. Hawkesworth's pedantic volumes to Sir Walter Besant's delightful
sketch, there are any number of versions of the story of Cook's life and
work. Let us assume that everyone knows how James Cook, son of a superior
farm labourer in Yorkshire, at thirteen years of age apprenticed to a
fishing village shopkeeper, ran away to sea in a Whitby collier, and
presently got himself properly apprenticed to her owners, two Quaker
brothers named Walker, and how at twenty-seven years of age, when he had
become mate of a small merchantman, he determined to anticipate the hot
press of May, 1755, and so at Wapping volunteered as A.B. on board His
Majesty's ship _Eagle_.
His knowledge of navigation and his good conduct led to such recognition
that when he was under thirty he was appointed master of the _Mercury_.
His surveying work on the St. Lawrence at the siege of Quebec was so
carried out that the Admiralty saw in him one of the most promising
officers in the service; and Sir Hugh Palliser, one of the first men to
"discover" Cook, was from this time, his best friend, giving him, in 1764,
an appointment as marine surveyor of Newfoundland, where Palliser was
governor. Cook was then a good seaman and a clever navigator, but there is
no doubt his special talents were by this particular service afforded an
opportunity for full development, and so he became the best scientific man
in the navy. In 1769 it was determined to send an expedition to the
Pacific to observe the transit of Venus. Cook had just returned from
Newfoundland, and he was appointed to the command.
Seventy years had elapsed since Dampier's voyage in the _Roebuck_.
Meanwhile what had the English done in the way of South Sea exploration?
What was the navy like at this time, a year before Nelson, a youngster of
twelve, first went to sea?
There are books enough in print to reply to these questions; but with how
much more interest could they be answered if the [Sidenote: 1769]
newspaper press, with its interviewers and its photo-reproductions, had
been then what it is now. To put life into the skeleton histories, to give
us sea life as it was and sailors as they were, we have to trust mostly
to the novelists, who, except in rare instances, draw untrustworthy
exaggerations.
No doubt there are families who have, so to speak, specialized their
traditions for generations; and a naval family's traditions for the last
two centuries would make a most entertaining book. Suppose, for instance,
there were living at Portsmouth a man whose family for generations had
prided itself on some one of its members having shaken hands with all the
great sailors who at some time or other in their careers must have sailed
from Spithead. This man could tell us how his father had actually shaken
hands with Nelson.
There died in February, 1898, in Melbourne, Australia, Lieutenant Pascoe,
son of Nelson's flag-lieutenant at Trafalgar, so that the first
proposition is established. Now Nelson's Pascoe could easily have been
patted on the head by Cook, and the father of any of Cook's men could
easily have sailed with Dampier. Looked at in this way, it does not seem
difficult to span the gulfs between each of these naval epochs, and if
one compares Dampier's _Roebuck_ and her crew with Cook's _Endeavour_ and
her crew and with the ships and seamen of Nelson's time, it still seems
easy enough; but between us and them steam and iron have come, and we are
as far apart from those others as the Martians are from us.
At the time when Cook started on his voyage England had for several years
been engaged in, and was almost constantly at, naval war. From the French
and Spanish prizes we got many valuable hints in the designing of ships,
and our builders improved upon them with the best workmanship and
materials in the world, so that the warships of Cook's time differed
little from, and in many cases were, the hulks which, until very recent
years, lay in our naval seaports. It ought not to be necessary to remind
readers that Nelson's _Victory_, still afloat in Portsmouth harbour, was
launched in 1765.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN JAMES COOK, R.N. From picture in the National
Portrait Gallery, painted by John Webber, K.A. _To face p._ 48.]
The sailors were for the most part pressed men, but there was a notable
difference between them and the seamen of Dampier's time. They were, and
remained for long after, wild, improvident, overgrown children such as the
nautical novelists who wrote a few years later [Sidenote: 1769]
have pictured them; but the lawless rascals who manned king's ships or
were pirates by turns, as fortune provided, were rapidly dying out, and
veterans of the Spanish main were mostly to be found spending the evening
of their days spinning yarns of treasure islands to the yokels of the
village alehouse.
One of the causes which led to this improvement in the class of seamen was
the disgraceful behaviour of the crew of the _Wager_, a ship of Anson's
squadron, when she was lost off the Horn in 1740. A good deal of the
trouble was owing to the then state of the law, by which the pay of and
control over a ship's company ceased upon her wreck. The law was so
amended as to enlist seamen until regularly discharged from the service by
the captain of the ship under the orders of the Admiralty.
The food of sailors and the accommodation provided for them were little,
if any, better than these things had been fifty years before--for the
matter of that than they remained for fifty years later, and to the shame
of those responsible, than the food still is in many merchant ships, for
even now occasionally we hear of cases of scurvy on shipboard--a disease
which Cook, over 120 years ago, avoided, though voyaging in such a manner
as nowadays is unknown.
But the most important change that had come to the sea service was in the
methods of finding a ship's position at sea. Hadley's sextant was in use
in 1731, Harrison's chronometer in 1762, and five years later the first
number of the _Nautical Almanac_ was published, so that when Cook sailed
longitude was no longer found by rule of thumb, and the great navigator,
more than any other man, was able to and did, prove the value of these
discoveries.
In 1764 Byron, who had been a midshipman on the _Wager_, sailed as
commodore of an expedition consisting of two ships, the _Dolphin_ and the
_Tamar_, to make discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere. This voyage of
discovery was the first English scientific expedition since that of the
_Roebuck_. Byron returned in 1766 without touching at New Holland, his
principal discovery being the Falkland Islands. Three months after his
return another expedition sailed under the command of Wallis in the
_Dolphin_, and with Carteret in the _Swallow_. The voyage resulted in many
minor discoveries, but will be chiefly remembered for that of Tahiti and
the story of Wallis' stay there. The _Dolphin_ [Sidenote: 1766-1769]
reached England in May, 1768. The two vessels had previously separated in
Magellan Straits; and the _Swallow_, pursuing a different course to that
taken by the _Dolphin_, made many discoveries, including Pitcairn Island;
the Sandwich Group; and several islands in the neighbourhood of New
Guinea, New Ireland and the Admiralty Islands. The _Swallow_ reached
England six months after Cook sailed. The _Dolphin's_ return so long
before her consort alarmed the Admiralty for the safety of the _Swallow_,
and Carteret on his way home, falling in with the French scientific
expedition under Bougainville, who himself had been exploring in the
Pacific, was informed that two vessels had been sent out to search for him
and his men, who, it was thought, might be cast away in the Straits of
Magellan.
Dampier's voyage was made solely for discovery purposes; Anson, who forty
years later went into the South Seas and so near to Australia as the
Philippines, had gone out to fight; Byron, Wallis, and Carteret, who
immediately preceded Cook, had sailed to discover and chart new countries;
but Cook, who made the greatest discovery and did more important charting
than all of them put together, sailed in the _Endeavour_ for the purpose
of making certain astronomical observations, and exploration was only a
secondary object of the voyage. Wallis' return determined the spot where
the observations could best be carried out; and, on his advice, Cook was
ordered to make for Port Royal, in Tahiti.
One incident in the matter of Cook's appointment should be noted in this
connection. The command of the expedition was at first intended for
Dalrymple, the celebrated geographer and then chief hydrographer to the
Admiralty. The precedent of Halley's command of the _Paramour_ in 1698 had
taught a lesson of the danger of giving the command of a ship to a
landsman, and Sir Edward (afterwards Lord) Hawke, First Lord of the
Admiralty in 1768, said, to his everlasting credit, that he would sooner
cut off his right hand than sign a commission for any person who had not
been bred a seaman. Dalrymple, there is little doubt, never forgave Cook
for taking his place, and later on showed his resentment by an unfair
statement which will be presently alluded to.
The _Endeavour_ was what was then known as a "cat-built" ship, of 368 tons
burden, a description of vessel then much used in [Sidenote: 1768]
the Baltic and coal trade, having large carrying capacity, with small
draught. A pencil sketch by Buchan (one of the artists who accompanied
Cook) of her hull, lying at Deptford, shows the short, stumpy
north-country collier, of which even nowadays one may occasionally see
specimens afloat. Her great, square stern has a row of four glazed
windows, alternated with ornamental panels and surrounded by scroll work,
and two square ports underneath them close to the water's edge, probably
for loading and unloading Baltic timber. The usual stern-lantern "tops
off" the structure. There is a framework for a quarterdeck extending to
the waist and the frame of a topgallant poop above this, Buchan probably
having made the sketch when she was refitting for the voyage and this
structure being erected for the accommodation of the officers.
Cook was appointed a first lieutenant in the navy and commander of the
_Endeavour_ on May 25th, 1768, and his ship's company, all told, numbered
eighty-five persons.
Sir Joseph Banks (then plain Mr.), Green the astronomer, Dr. Solander the
naturalist, two draughtsmen, and a staff of servants were also on board.
The ship, for defence against savages it is to be presumed, carried ten
four-pound carriage guns and twelve swivels. The food supply was for
eighteen months, and consisted of beef, pork, peas, oatmeal, butter,
cheese, oil, vinegar, beer, and brandy, and included materials for Dr.
McBride's method of treating the scurvy. The Admiralty gave Cook a special
order on this matter, in which they say:--
"The malt must be ground under the direction of the surgeon, and
made into wort (fresh every day, especially in hot weather) in the
following manner viz.: Take one quart of ground malt and pour on
it three quarts of boiling water; stir them well, and let the
mixture stand close covered up for three or four hours, after
which strain off the liquor.
"The wort so prepared is then to be boiled into a panada with
sea-biscuit or dried fruits usually carried to sea. The patient
must make at least two meals a day on the said panada, and should
drink a quart or more of the fresh infusion, as it may agree with
him, every twenty-four hours. The surgeon is to keep an exact
journal of the effects of the wort in scorbutic and other putrid
diseases not attended with pestilential symptoms, carefully and
particularly noting down, previous to its administration, the
cases in which it is given, describing the several symptoms, and
relating the progress and effects from time to time, which journal
is to be transmitted to us at the end of the voyage."
We have a curious illustration of the state [Sidenote: 1748-1768]
of the times in the manner of Cook's treatment by the Viceroy of the
Brazils, where, on the way out, he touched to refresh. The Viceroy
pretended to believe that the ship was a merchantman, and not a king's
ship, and therefore wanted her to comply with certain port regulations
which Cook was of opinion did not become the dignity of his commission. In
evidence of the _Endeavour_ being one of His Majesty's ships, Cook wrote
to the Viceroy and, among other things, drew attention to the distinctive
uniform of his officers, which is a reminder to us that at this time the
dress of naval officers was beginning to assume uniformity. George II.
suggested the colours which were adopted by the Admiralty order in 1748,
and, from admirals to lieutenants, officers were now dressed in blue
coats with white facings, lace collars and cuffs, and gold trimmings. The
uniform was continually changing, even up to within the last few years,
and nowadays one naval officer has as many different suits of uniform as
would have served all the commissioned officers of a line-of-battle ship
in his father's time.
When Cook left on this voyage he had, it has been shown, many advantages
over Dampier in the matter of nautical instruments, but there is little
doubt that he had absolutely no knowledge of the eastern coast of
Australia. Dalrymple was the first to suggest that charts, which there is
no doubt, did exist in Cook's time, and which do indicate the eastern
coast, were known to Cook. Without going into all the evidence rebutting
Dalrymple's insinuation, which has been discussed often enough, one fact
is worth remembering: Dalrymple, the most learned geographer of the
period, published his _Historical Collection of Voyages_ in 1770, and in
that work he makes no mention of the charts; but, on the contrary, his
chart of the Pacific only indicates the coastline on the north and the
west of the continent. Cook, who up to the moment of his appointment had
been too busy at the practical work of his profession to find or study
rare books or search libraries for documents and maps relating to the
Pacific, was scarcely likely in 1768 to know what was not known to
Dalrymple two years later; and also, be it remembered, Dalrymple was very
indignant at being passed over in favour of Cook. It may be taken for
granted that beyond such books as Dampier's _Voyage,_ De Brosses' volumes,
and such charts as the library of the _Endeavour_ furnished, old maps
afforded no help to Cook in his survey of New Holland. Of the charts Cook
says something in his journal. In September, 1770, he writes:--
"The charts with which I compared such parts of this coast as I
visited are bound up with a French work entitled _Histoire des
Navigations aux Terres Australes_, which was published in 1756,
and I found them tolerably exact."
As to what Cook did in the matter of dry geographical details, if the
reader wants them he must go to one or other of the hundred or more books
on the subject. In a few words, he sailed between the two main islands of
New Zealand, discovering for himself the existence of the straits
separating them. He first saw the south-east coast of New Holland at Point
Hicks, named by him after his first lieutenant, and now called Cape
Everard, in the colony of Victoria; from here he ran north to Botany Bay,
where he anchored, took in water and wood, and buried a sailor named Forby
Sutherland, who died of consumption and whose name was given to the
southern headland of the bay. It is worth noting that in every original
document relating to this voyage, save one chart, this bay is called
Stingray Bay, after, as Cook himself says, the great number of stingrays
caught in it. In one chart, in Cook's own writing, the name Botany Bay is
given; but all the _Endeavour_ logs call it Stingray Bay, and the name
Botany Bay was probably an afterthought.
From here Cook coasted north, marking almost every point and inlet with
such accuracy and such minuteness as fully justifies in its particular
meaning the statement that Cook discovered and surveyed the whole of the
eastern coast of Australia. He then sailed through Torres Straits, proving
that New Guinea was a separate island, and thence made his way to Batavia.
Before leaving the coast he landed on August 21st on Possession Island,
which lies about a couple of miles off the western shore of the Cape York
peninsula, and there formally took possession of the continent, observing
the usual ceremony of hoisting the colours and firing a volley. According
to Hawkesworth, Cook took possession of the country, and named it New
South Wales. There is no evidence whatever of this, and Hawkesworth
himself was probably the first person to write the name. In none of the
official log-books or other documents does any other name than New Holland
occur, and until Flinders suggested the name "Australia," "New Holland"
was the generally accepted title of the continent.
Another remarkable mis-statement, which is believed by many, relates to
the discovery and naming of Port Jackson, the port of Sydney. On Sunday,
May 6th, 1770, Cook's official log contains this entry:--
"Abrest of an open bay; dist. off the nearest shore, two or three
miles. Lat'd. obs., 33 degrees 47.
"At this time (noon) we were between two or three miles distant
from the land, and abrest of a bay or harbour, in which there
appeared to be a good anchorage, and which I called Port Jackson."
It is still often written that the "open bay" was so named after a seaman
by the name of Jackson on board the ship; but Sir George Jackson, who
afterwards changed his name to Duckett, was at this time, with Mr. Philip
Stephens, joint secretary to the Admiralty. Cook named Port Jackson and
Port Stephens after these two officials, and there was no seaman named
Jackson on board the _Endeavour_. Cook did not enter Port Jackson, and the
discovery of the finest harbour in the world was left for another less
well remembered, but no less efficient and zealous, naval officer.
The simple entries in the _Endeavour's_ logbooks, to the sailor who reads
them, tell far better than the fine writing of Dr. Hawkesworth the
difficulties which Cook laboured under on this voyage. For example, His
Majesty's ship _Endeavour_ was so well found that on April 14th, 1770,
Cook has this entry:--
"The spritsail topsail being wore to rags, it was condemned as
unfit for its proper use, and taken to repair the topgall'ntsails,
they being so bad as not to be worth the expense of new canvas,
but, with the help of this sail, will be made to last some time;
also took out one of the ship's tents (50) yards of canvas to
repair the jibb that was split on the 1st instant, there being
neither new canvas nor twine in the ship to spare for that
purpose."
But the most serious trouble was when on the 11th of June the _Endeavour_
got ashore on the Barrier Reef. Here is Cook's entry:--
"Shoal'd the water from 20 to 17 faths., and before the man in the
chains could have another cast the ship struck and lay fast on
some rocks, upon which we took in all sail, hoisted out the boats,
and sounded round the ship, and found that we had got upon the
edge of a reef of coral rocks, which lay to the N.W. of us, having
in some places round the ship 3 or 4 fathoms, and in others about
as many feet; but about 100 feet from her starboard side, she
laying with her head to the N.E., were 7, 8, and 10 fathom.
Carried out the stream anchor and two hawsers on the starboard
bow and the coasting anchor and cable upon the starboard quarters,
got down yards and topmasts, and hove taught upon the hawser and
cable; but as we had gone ashore about high water, the ship by
this time was quite fast. Turned all hands to lighten the ship,
and in order to do this we not only started water, but hove
overboard guns, iron and stone ballast, casks, hoops, staves,
oyl-jars, stores, and whatever was of weight or in the way at
coming at heavy articles. All this time the ship made but little
water. Being now high water, as we thought, hove a strain upon the
stern anchor, as I found the ship must go off that way, if at all,
but all we could do was to no purpose, she not being afloat by a
foot or more, notwithstanding we had hove overboard 40 or 50-ton
weight; but as this was not sufficient, we continued to lighten
her by every method we could think of. By that time she begun to
make water as much as two pumps could free. At noon she lay with
three streaks heel to starboard. Lat obs'ed, 15 degrees 45 So."
This was off what Cook called Cape Tribulation, and on the two following
days these entries appear:--
"Light airs and fine weather, which gave us an opportunity to
carry out boath the bowers, the one on the starboard quarter and
the other right astern. The spare stream anchor we likewise
carried out, and got purchases upon all the cables, and hove
taught upon all the 5 anchors. At 4 it was low water, so far as we
could judge by the rocks about the ship and part of the shoal
being dry, which we had not seen before. The rise and fall of the
water did not appear to exceed 3 or 4 feet. As the tide began to
rise the leak incresed, which obliged us to set the 3rd pump to
work, which we should have done the 4th also could we have made it
deliver any water. The ship now righted, and the leak gained on
the pumps in such a manner that it became a matter of
consideration whether we should heave her off or no in case she
floated, for fear of her going down with us in the deep water; but
as I thought we should be able to run her ashore, either upon the
same shoal or upon the main, in case we could not keep her, I
resolved at all risks to heave her off if possible, and
accordingly tur'nd as many men to the capstan and windlass as
could be spar'd from the pumps, and at 20 minutes past ten hove
her afloat and into deep water." (He did not do this without
losing his anchors, as he tells us, but)
"The pumps gain'd on the leak these 4 hours. Some hands employ'd
sowing oakem, wool, etc., into a sail to fother the ship. Weigh'd
the coasting anchor and warped out to the S.E., and at 11 got
under sail, with a light breeze at E.S.E., and stood in for the
land, having a small boat laying upon the point of the shoal, the
south point of which at noon bore north, distant one mile. The
pumps gain'd upon the leak this 4 hours. Light airs and clear
weather. Standing off the shore in for the main. Got up the main
topmast and main-yard. Having got the sail ready for fothering the
ship, we put it over under the starboard fore chains, where we
suspected she suffer'd most, and soon after the leak decreas'd so
much as to be kept clear with one pump with ease. This fortunate
circumstance gave new life to everyone on board. Anchor'd in 17
fathom water, 5 leagues from the land, and about 3 miles from the
shore."
On the 17th they found a harbour where they hove the ship down and
repaired her, when it was found that--
"One of the holes, which was big enough to have sunk us if we had
had eight pumps instead of four, and had been able to keep them
incessantly going, was in great measure plugged up by a fragment
of the rock, which, after having made the wound, was left sticking
in it; so that the water which had at first gained upon our pumps
was what came in at the interstices between the stone and the
edges of the hole that received it."
Endeavour River, Cape Flattery, Providential Channel, and other names on
the chart commemorate the accident; yet after all this trouble Cook
continued his survey, sailing safely through the cluster of rocks between
New Guinea and the mainland. This passage and the Barrier Reef are
probably two of the most dangerous places in the world, and more vessels
have been wrecked on that bit of coast between the southern end of the
Barrier Reef and the Indian Ocean side of Torres Straits than on any
similar stretch of coast-line anywhere.
So far the voyage had been without other disaster than this, but on the
way back the _Endeavour_ put into Batavia to refresh, and in a letter to
the Secretary of the Admiralty, dated the 9th of May, 1771, Cook wrote:--
"That uninterrupted state of health we have all along enjoyed was,
soon after our arrival at Batavia, succeeded by a general
sickness, which delayed us there so much that it was the 20th of
December before we were able to leave that place. We were
fortunate enough to loose but few men at Batavia, but on our
passage from thence to the Cape of Good Hope we had twenty-four
men died, all, or most of them, of the bloody flux. This fatal
disorder reign'd in the ship with such obstinacy that medicines,
however skilfully administered, had not the least effect. I
arrived at the Cape on the 14th of March, and quitted it again on
the 14th of April, and on the 1st of May arrived at St. Helena,
where I joined His Maj.'s ship _Portland_, which I found ready to
sail with the convoy";
and on the 12th of July he brought up in the Downs, reporting one more
death--that of Lieutenant Hicks.
For his services Cook was promoted a step. His after-life and death need
no mention here, and although in both his second and third voyages he
touched at New Zealand and Tasmania, his connection with Australia
practically ends with the _Endeavour_ voyage. But a word or two about the
_Endeavour's_ officers, taken from documents recently obtained by the New
South Wales Government, which perhaps contain some things new to many
readers.
In the Record Office, London, there are no fewer than ten logs of Cook's
voyage; three of these are anonymous, but six of them are signed by the
ship's officers, and one, from circumstantial evidence, is no doubt by
Green, the astronomer. The signed logs are by Hicks, Cook's first
lieutenant; Forwood, the gunner; and Pickersgill, Clerke, Wilkinson, and
Bootie, mates. Hicks, as we have seen, died on the passage home; Forwood,
after the _Endeavour's_ return, is not heard of again. Pickersgill was
promoted to be master on the death of that officer (Robert Molineux) in
April, 1771. He had previously served as a midshipman under Wallis in
1766-1788, and he served again under Cook in the _Resolution_ as third
lieutenant. On the return of Cook from his second voyage, Pickersgill was
appointed commander of the _Lion_, and sent to survey Baffin's Bay, but he
was relieved of the command early in 1777, and then we lose sight of him.
Wilkinson also had served under Wallis, but he died soon after the return
of the _Endeavour_, and Bootie died on the way home.
The best-known of these log-writers is Charles Clerke. Though only a
youngster, he had seen much service. When the Seven Years' War in 1756
broke out, he was, at fifteen years of age, serving on a man-of-war. He
was on the _Bellona_ in her celebrated engagement with the _Courageux_,
off Vigo, in 1761, and he accompanied Byron in the _Dolphin_, afterwards
serving in America, where it is probable Cook first met him. Consequent on
the many deaths, Clerke was made third lieutenant of the _Endeavour_ after
the ship left Batavia, and Cook, referring to his appointment, wrote to
the Admiralty that Clerke was a young man well worthy of the step. He
again served with Cook as second lieutenant of the _Resolution_, and in
Cook's third voyage he was captain of the _Discovery_ and second in
command of the expedition. When Cook was killed on February 14th, 1779, he
took charge, but only survived his superior until the 22nd of August. He
died off the Kamschatka coast, and was buried at the harbour of St. Peter
and St. Paul. His shipmates erected a board with an inscription upon it
over his grave; and La Pérouse, when in 1787 he visited the spot, caused
the board to be replaced by a copper plate, on which the inscription was
re-engraved.
In a volume of the _New South Wales Records_ is printed for the first
time a batch of letters from Clerke to Sir Joseph Banks, and these
documents so well depict poor Clerke's cheery disposition, notwithstanding
that he was suffering from a fear of the King's Bench, and, what was more
serious, the sad disease which ended in his death, that we may be pardoned
for reproducing extracts from them. The first was written just before
Clerke sailed with Cook on that fatal third voyage as commander of the
_Discovery_:--
"DEAR SIR,--I am very sorry to inform you that I am fairly cast
away. The damnation Bench of Justices fell out among themselves,
upset and fairly frustrated the friendly intentions of Sir
Fletcher Norton, &c., wrote a rascally letter, hoping that I would
not find any inconvenience from it, and put off the adjournment to
Monday se'nnight. Now, you know, this is quite beyond our reach;
it seems the whole legends of the Bench do not furnish such
another incident. Indeed, there's a fatality attends my every
undertaking; those people whom I most honour and esteem, that
favour me with the name of friend--to them I become a trouble and
burthen. However, though we cannot help misfortunes, we can help
deserving them, and I am determined that want of gratitude and
attention shall never be an accusation against me; therefore I'm
resolved to decamp without beat of drum and, if I can, outsail the
Israelites, get to sea, and make every return in my power. I think
I had better write to Lord Sandwich to thank him, as I cannot now
wait upon him--for my visitations must be very private--and ask
him if he has any orders for me. Do tell me what I must do on that
head, and if you would have me wait on you ere I depart, &c., &c.,
and believe me in prosperity or adversity.
"Yours, &c.,
"CHAS. CLERKE."
This is followed by another, written on the evening of the same day, in
which he says:--
"I this day received a letter from Lord Sandwich, acquainting me
he shall certainly order the _Discovery_ to sea very soon, in
short giving me to understand that if I cannot leave town by the
10th or 11th instant I must give up all. Now, that completes the
wretchedness of my situation. I find the Jews are exasperated and
determined to spare no pains to arrest me if they could once catch
me out of the rules of the Bench; this, you know, would be
striking the finishing stroke. Let me, my good friend, entreat the
influence of your friendship here. I shall certainly be cleared
the 16th or 18th instant, and shall then be happy."
He got away all right, and on November 23rd, 1776, wrote from the Cape of
Good Hope:--
"Here I am hard and fast moor'd alongside my old friend Capt'n
Cook, so that our battles with the Israelites cannot now have any
ill effects upon our intending attack upon the North Pole. I think
I acquainted you from Plymouth, on the 1st of August, that I was
getting under-way; I then got a good outset with [Sidenote: 1779]
a fresh easterly breeze, and made a very good passage to within
a few leagues of this land without any kind of accident befalling
us.... We shall now sail in a very few days, and return to the old
trade of exploring, so can only say adieu, adieu, my very good
friend. Be assured that, happen what will, it is wholly out of
the power of durance of time or length of space in the least to
alleviate that sense of gratitude your goodness has inspired; but,
indeed, I shall ever endeavour upon all and every occasion to acquit
myself," etc.
The next letter is a pathetic farewell to his friend, written on the 17th
of August, 1779, five days before the author's death:--
"MY EVER-HONOURED FRIEND,--The disorder I was attacked with in the
King's Bench Prison has proved consumptive, with which I have
battled with various success, although without one single day's
health, since I took leave of you in Burlington Street; it is now
so far got the better of me that I am not able to turn myself in
my bed, so that my stay in this world must be of very short
duration. However, I hope my friends will have no occasion to
blush in owning themselves such, for I have most perfectly and
justly done my duty to my country as far as my abilities would
enable me, for where that has been concerned the attention to my
health, which I was most sensible was in the most imminent danger,
has never swerved me a single half-mile out of the road of duty;
so that I flatter myself I shall leave behind that character that
it has ever been my utmost ambition to attain, which is that of an
honest and faithful servant to the public whom I had undertaken
to serve.
"I have made you the best collections of all kinds of matter I
could that have fallen in our way in the course of the voyage; but
they are by no means so complete as they would have been had my
health enabled me to pay more attention to them. I hope, however,
you will find many among them worthy of your attention and
acceptance. In my will I have bequeathed you the whole of every
kind. There are great abundance, so that you will have ample
choice.
"I must beg you to present my warmest and most affectionate
compliments to Dr. Solander, and assure him I leave the world
replete with the most social ideas for his much-esteemed and
ever-respected friendship.
"I must beg leave to recommend to your notice Mr. Will. Ellis, one
of the surgeon's mates, who will furnish you with some drawings
and accounts of the various birds which will come to your
possession. He has been very useful to me in your service in that
particular, and is, I believe, a very worthy young man, and, I
hope, will prove worthy of any services that may be in your way to
confer upon him.
"The two clerks of the two ships, Mr. W. Dewar and Mr. Greg
Santham, have, I believe, been very honest servants in their
stations, and having by Captain Cook's (and very soon by my death)
lost those to whom they looked up to for protection, are, I fear,
destitute of friends. If it should be in your power to render them
any services, I flatter myself they will be worthy of such
attention.
"If I should recollect anything more to say to you, I will
trouble my friend Mr. King with it, who is so kind as to be my
amanuensis on this occasion. He is my very dear and particular
friend, and I will make no apology in recommending him to a share
in your friends ship [sic: friendship], as I am perfectly assured
of his being
deserving of it, as in that also of the worthy doctors.
"Now, my dear and honoured friend, I must bid you a final adieu.
May you enjoy many happy years in this world, and in the end
attain that fame your indefatigable industry so richly deserves.
These are most sincerely the warmest and sincerest wishes of your
devoted, affectionate, and departing servant,
"CHARLES CLERKE."
It will take nothing from the fame of Cook to call his connection with the
discovery of Australia an accident. He himself says that, having
circumnavigated New Zealand, "we intended to return home by the Cape of
Good Hope or by Cape Horn to determine the question of a southern
continent," but the season of the year was against this course, and "we
ultimately resolved to return by the East Indies. With this in view, we
resolved to steer west till we should fall in with the coast of New
Holland, and then follow that coast to the north till we should arrive at
its northern extremity."
Having adopted this course and having reached the coast, Cook made the
very best use of his time, and surveyed it as probably no other man then
living would have done, but that he did so is unquestionably due to the
fact that the season did not admit of the old regulation pursuit of
explorers--the search for the solution of the southern continent problem.
CHAPTER IV. [Sidenote: 1779]
ARTHUR PHILLIP, FOUNDER AND FIRST GOVERNOR OF NEW SOUTH WALES.
Captain Cook's "discovery" of New Holland was turned to no account until a
generation later, and to Sir Joseph Banks more than to any other man
belongs the credit of the suggestion. In 1779 a commission of the House of
Commons was appointed to inquire into the question of transportation,
then, in consequence of the loss of the American colonies, an important
problem needing a speedy solution. At this period, indeed up to a much
later time, the English prison administration was notoriously bad. The
gaols were crowded and filthy, and there was no discipline; no system
governed them other than the system of rascality practised by many of the
gaolers.
Mr. Banks (as he then was) gave evidence before the House of Commons, and
strongly urged the establishment of a penal colony at Botany Bay, giving
his opinion, of course, as the botanist who had accompanied Cook and had
seen what prospect there was of establishing a settlement at New Holland.
Banks from this time till his death took a keen interest in the New South
Wales colonizing scheme, and had much influence for good in the future of
the colony. He was a man of independent means, and there is not the
slightest reason nor the least evidence to the contrary, to doubt his
perfect disinterestedness in all that he did. But when President of the
Royal Society the caricaturists and the satirists had little mercy on him,
believing him more courtier than scientist. Peter Pindar's _Sir Joseph
Banks and the Emperor of Morocco_ is only one of the many satires of which
Banks was the principal victim.
The proposals of one Jean Maria Matra and of Admiral Sir George Young for
forming new colonies to take the places of those lost to us in America,
with the evidence and subsequent advocacy of Banks, ultimately led to the
Government's decision to colonize New South Wales. But it was not until
1786 that that decision was reached, and a year later still when Captain
Arthur Phillip was given a commission as captain of the expedition and
governor of the new colony.
All that is known of Phillip prior to his appointment is contained in a
semi--official account of the expedition called _Phillip's Voyage,_
published about a hundred years ago. We are here told that his father was
a German teacher of languages who settled in London, his mother the widow
of Captain Herbert, of the royal navy, and that young Phillip was born in
Bread Street, in the parish of All Hallows, London.
It may be presumed that, by the influence of his mother's connections
through her first marriage, he was sent to Greenwich School, and thence
into the navy, where he began his career under Captain Michael Everett at
the outbreak of war in 1755.
At twenty-three he was serving as a lieutenant in the _Stirling Castle_,
and later on, when peace came, after a turn of farming in the New Forest,
he volunteered to serve under the Portuguese Government. Leaving the
Portuguese service with distinction, he rejoined the English navy in 1778,
and the Admiralty at once made him master and commander of the _Basilisk_,
fireship, soon afterwards appointing him post captain. He commanded the
_Ariadne_, frigate, later on the _Europe_, and was then selected for the
command of the first fleet to New South Wales. All the remarkable story of
the colonizing expedition does not belong to this chapter on Phillip, but
it runs through the lives of the four naval governors.
Lord Sydney, the Home Secretary of the day, selected Phillip, and Lord
Howe, then at the head of the Admiralty, expressed this opinion on the
appointment:--
"I cannot say the little knowledge I have of Captain Phillip would
have led me to select him for a service of this complicated
nature; but as you are satisfied of his ability, and I conclude he
will be taken under your direction, I presume it will not be
unreasonable to move the King for having His Majesty's pleasure
signified to the Admiralty for these purposes as soon as you see
proper, so that no time may be lost in making the requisite
preparations for the voyage."
It took a long time to prepare the expedition, and when the fleet sailed
from Spithead on May 13th, 1787, the transports had been lying off the
Motherbank with their human freight on board for months before; yet,
through the neglect of the shore officials, they sailed without clothing
for the women prisoners and without enough [Sidenote: 1787]
cartridges to do much more than fill the pouches of the marine guard.
There were eleven sail altogether: the _Sirius_, frigate, the _Supply_,
tender, six transports, and three storeships. The frigate was an old East
Indiaman, the _Berwick_. She had been lying in Deptford Yard, had been
burnt almost to the water's edge not long before, and was patched up for
the job. The _Supply_ was a brig, a bad sailer, yet better in that respect
than the _Sirius_, though much overmasted; she was commanded by Lieutenant
Ball.
The expedition was a big affair, and it seems curious enough nowadays that
so little interest was taken in it. There were more than a thousand people
on board, and one would have thought that if the departure of the convicts
did not create excitement, the sailing of the bluejackets and the guard of
about 200 marines bound for such an unknown part of the world would have
set Portsmouth at any rate in a stir. But the Fitzherbert scandal, the
attack on Warren Hastings, and such-like stirring events were then town
talk, and at that period there were no special correspondents or, for the
matter of that, any newspapers worth mentioning, to work up popular
excitement over the event.
On the way out the fleet called at Teneriffe, at Rio, and at the Cape to
refresh; and Phillip's old friends, the Portuguese, gave him a hearty
welcome and much assistance at the Brazils. When the ships reached Botany
Bay in January, 1788, the voyage of thirty-six weeks had ended without
serious misfortune of any kind. Lieutenant Collins, of the Marines,
Judge-Advocate and historian of the expedition, thus sums up the case:--
"Thus, under the blessing of God, was happily completed in eight
months and one week a voyage which, before it was undertaken, the
mind hardly dared to contemplate, and on which it was impossible
to reflect without some apprehension as to its termination. This
fortunate completion of it, however, afforded, even to ourselves,
as much matter of surprise as of general satisfaction; for in the
above space of time we had sailed 5021 leagues, had touched at the
American and African continents, and had at last rested within a
few days' sail of the antipodes of our native country without
meeting with any accidents in a fleet of eleven sail, nine of
which were merchantmen that had never before sailed in that
distant and imperfectly explored ocean. And when it is considered
that there was on board a large body of convicts, many of whom
were embarked in a very sickly state, we might be deemed
peculiarly fortunate that of the whole number of all descriptions
of persons coming to form the new settlement only thirty-two had
died since their leaving England, among whom were to be included
one or two deaths by accidents, although previous to our departure
it was generally conjectured that before long we should have been
converted into an hospital ship. But it fortunately happened
otherwise; and the spirits visible in every eye were to be
ascribed to the general joy and satisfaction which immediately
took place on finding ourselves arrived at that port which had
been so much and so long the theme of our conversation."
[Illustration: CAPTAIN ARTHUR PHILLIP. From an engraving after a portrait
by F. Wheatly, prefixed to "The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay"
[London, 1789]. _To face p_. 78.]
To understand fully what Phillip's good management had effected, without
going into detail, it may be said at once that no succeeding voyage, in
spite of the teachings of experience, was made with such immunity from
sickness or mutiny. The second voyage, generally spoken of as that of the
second fleet, for example, was so conducted that Judge-Advocate Collins
says of it:--
"The appearance of those prisoners who did not require medical
assistance was lean and emaciated. Several of these miserable
people died in the boats as they were rowing on shore or on the
wharf as they were being lifted out of the boats, both the living
and the dead exhibiting more horrid spectacles than had ever been
witnessed in this country. All this was to be attributed to
confinement, and that of the worst species--confinement in a small
space and in irons, not put on singly, but many of them chained
together. On board the _Scarborough_ a plan had been formed to
take the ship.... This necessarily, on that ship, occasioned much
future circumspection; but Captain Marshall's humanity
considerably lessened the severity which the insurgents might
naturally have expected. On board the other ships the masters, who
had the entire direction of the prisoners, never suffered them to
be at large on deck, and but a few at a time were permitted there.
This consequently gave birth to many diseases. It was said that on
board the _Neptune_ several had died in irons; and what added to
the horror of such a circumstance was that their deaths were
concealed for the purpose of sharing their allowance of provisions
until chance and the offensiveness of a corpse directed a surgeon
or someone who had authority in the ship to the spot where it
lay."
Phillip's commission made him governor-in-chief, and captain-general over
all New South Wales, which then meant from Cape York, in the extreme north
of Australia, to the "south cape of Van Diemen's Land," then, of course,
supposed to be part of the main continent. He was ordered to land at
Botany Bay and there form the settlement, but was given a discretionary
power to change the site, if he considered it unsuitable.
[Illustration: A VIEW OF BOTANY BAY. From an engraving from a drawing by
R. Cleveley, in "The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay" [London,
1789].]
Recognizing the unsuitability of Botany Bay, Phillip, before all the ships
of the first fleet were arrived, set out in an [Sidenote: 1788]
open boat to explore the coast; and so, sailing northward, entered that
bay only mentioned by Cook in the words before quoted, "abrest of an open
bay," and by Hawkesworth (writing in the first person as Cook) thus:--
"At this time" (noon May 6th, 1770) "we were between two and three
miles from the land and abrest of a good bay or harbour, in which
there appeared to be a good anchorage, and which I called Port
Jackson."
Perhaps, when Phillip's boat passed between the north and south heads of
Port Jackson, he exclaimed what has so often been repeated since: "What a
magnificent harbour!" And so on the 26th January, 1788, Sydney was founded
upon the shores of the most beautiful bay in the world.
Phillip's "eye for ground" told him that the shores of Port Jackson were a
better site for a settlement than the land near Botany Bay, but he had no
sooner landed his people than the need for better soil than Sydney
afforded was apparent. Then began a series of land expeditions into the
interior, in which, with such poor means as these pioneers possessed, the
country was penetrated right to the foot of the Blue Mountains. The first
governor, despite the slight foothold he had established at Sydney--little
better such a home than the deck of a ship--persistently searched for good
land, and before his five years of office had expired agricultural
settlement was fairly under way.
On the seaboard, although he was almost without vessels (scarcely a decent
open boat could be mustered among the possessions of the colonists), with
the boats of the _Sirius_ the coast was searched by Phillip in person as
well as by his junior officers.
Major Ross, who commanded the Marines, and who was also
lieutenant-governor, described the settlement thus:--
"In the whole world there is not a worse country than what we have
yet seen of this. All that is contiguous to us is so very barren
and forbidding, that it may with truth be said, 'Here nature is
reversed, and if not so, she is nearly worn out'; for almost all
the seed we have put in the ground has rotted, and I have no doubt
it will, like the wood of this vile country, when burned or rotten
turn to sand;"
Captain Tench, one of Ross' officers, wrote:--
"The country is very wretched and totally incapable of yielding to
Great Britain a return for colonising it.... The dread of
perishing by famine stares us in the face. [Sidenote: 1792]
The country contains less resources than any in the known world;"
and the principal surgeon, White, described the colony in these words:--
"I cannot, without neglect of my duty to my country, refrain from
declaring that if a 'favourable picture' has been drawn, it is a
'gross falsehood and a base deception.'"
Yet shortly before Phillip left it, in 1792, Collins says:--
"In May the settlers were found in general to be doing very well,
their farms promising to place them shortly in a state of
independence of the public stores in the articles of provisions
and grain. Several of the settlers who had farms at or near
Parramatta, notwithstanding the extreme drought of the season
preceding the sowing of their corn, had such crops that they found
themselves enabled to take off from the public store some one, and
others two convicts, to assist in preparing their grounds for the
next season."
In June, according to the same authority, the ground sown with wheat and
prepared for maize was of sufficient area, even if the yield per acre did
not exceed that for the previous season, to produce enough grain for a
year's consumption.
The last returns relating to agriculture, prepared before Phillip left,
show that the total area under cultivation was 1540 acres, and the
previous year's returns show that the area had doubled as a result of the
year's work. Besides this, considerable progress had been made with public
buildings; and the convict population, which by the arrival of more
transports had now reached nearly 4000 souls, were slowly but surely
settling down as colonists.
With a thousand people to govern, in the fullest meaning of the word, and
a desolate country, absolutely unknown to the exiles, to begin life in,
Phillip's work was cut out. But, more than this, the population was
chiefly composed of the lowest and worst criminals of England; famine
constantly stared the governor in the face, and his command was increased
by a second and third fleet of prisoners; storeships, when they were sent,
were wrecked; many of Phillip's subordinates did their duty indifferently,
often hindered his work, and persistently recommended the home Government
to abandon the attempt to colonize. Sum up these difficulties, remember
that they were bravely and uncomplainingly overcome, and the character of
Phillip's administration can then in some measure be understood.
With the blacks the governor soon made friends, and such moments as
Phillip allowed himself for leisure from the care of his own people he
chiefly devoted in an endeavour to improve the state of the native race.
[Illustration: VIEW OF THE SETTLEMENT OF SYDNEY COVE, PORT JACKSON, 20th
AUGUST, 1788. Drawn by E. Dayes from a sketch by J. Hunter. From "An
Historical Journal of Transactions at Port Jackson," by Captain John
Hunter. _To face p_.84.]
As soon as the exiles were landed he married up as many of his male
prisoners as could be induced to take wives from the female convicts,
offered them inducements to work, and swiftly punished the lazy and
incorrigible--severely, say the modern democratic writers, but all the
same mildly as punishments went in those days.
When famine was upon the land he shared equally the short commons of the
public stores; and when "Government House" gave a dinnerparty, officers
took their own bread in their pockets that they might have something to
eat.
As time went on he established farms, planned a town of wide, imposing
streets (a plan afterwards departed from by his successors, to the
everlasting regret of their successors), and introduced a system of land
grants which has ever since formed the basis of the colony's land laws,
although politicians and lawyers have too long had their say in
legislation for Phillip's plans to be any longer recognizable or the
existing laws intelligible.[B]
[Footnote B: A leader of the Bar in New South Wales, an eminent Q.C. of
the highest talent, has publicly declared (and every honest man agrees
with him) that the existing land laws are unintelligible to anyone, lawyer
or layman.]
The peculiar fitness of Phillip for the task imposed on him was, there is
little doubt, due largely to his naval training, and no naval officer has
better justified Lord Palmerston's happily worded and well-deserved
compliment to the profession, "Whenever I want a thing well done in a
distant part of the world; when I want a man with a good head, a good
heart, lots of pluck, and plenty of common-sense, I always send for a
captain of the navy."
A captain of a man-of-war then, as now, began at the bottom of the ladder,
learning how to do little things, picking up such knowledge of detail as
qualified him to teach others, to know what could be done and how it ought
to be done. In all professions this rule holds good, but on shipboard men
acquire something more. On land a man learns his particular business in
the world; at sea his ship is a man's world, and on the completeness of
the captain's knowledge of how to feed, to clothe, to govern, his people
depended then, and in a great measure now depends, the comfort, the lives
even, of seamen. So that, being trained in this self-dependence--in the
problem of supplying food to men, and in the art of governing them, as
well as in the trade of sailorizing--the sea-captain ought to make the
best kind of governor for a new and desolate country. If your sea-captain
has brains, has a mind, in fact, as well as a training, then he ought to
make the ideal king.
Phillip's despatches contain passages that strikingly show his peculiar
qualifications in both these respects. His capacity for detail and
readiness of resource were continually demonstrated, these qualifications
doubtless due to his sea-training; his sound judgment of men and things,
his wonderful foresight, which enabled him to predict the great future of
the colony and to so govern it as to hold this future ever in view, were
qualifications belonging to the _man_, and were such that no professional
training could have given.
Barton, in his _History of New South Wales from the Records_, incomparably
the best work on the subject, says: "The policy of the Government in his
day consisted mainly of finding something to eat." This is true so far as
it goes, but Barton himself shows what finding something to eat meant in
those days, and Phillip's despatches prove that, although the food
question was the practical every-day problem to be grappled with, he, in
the midst of the most harassing famine-time, was able to look beyond when
he wrote these words: "This country will yet be the most valuable
acquisition Great Britain has ever made."
In future chapters we shall go more particularly into the early life of
the colony and see how the problems that harassed Phillip's administration
continued long after he had returned to England; we shall then see how
immeasurably the first governor was superior to the men who followed him.
And it is only by such comparison that a just estimate of Phillip can be
made, for he was a modest, self-contained man, making no complaints in his
letters of the difficulties to be encountered, making no boasts of his
success in overcoming them. The three sea-captains who in turn followed
him did their best to govern well, taking care in their despatches that
the causes of their non-success should be duly set forth, but these
documents also show that much of their trouble was of their own making. In
the case of Phillip, his letters to the Home Office show, and every
contemporary writer and modern Australian [Sidenote: 1801-14]
historian proves, that in no single instance did a lack of any quality of
administrative ability in him create a difficulty, and that every problem
of the many that during his term of office required solution was solved by
his sound common-sense method of grappling with it.
He was wounded by the spear of a black, thrown at him in a
misunderstanding, as he himself declared, and he would not allow the
native on that account to be punished. This wound, the hard work and
never-ending anxiety, seriously injured the governor's health. He applied
for leave of absence, and when he left the colony had every intention of
returning to continue his work, but his health did not improve enough for
this. The Government accepted his resignation with regret, and appointed
him to the command of the _Swiftsure_, with a special pension for his
services in New South Wales of £500 a year; in 1801 he was promoted
Rear-Admiral of the Blue, in 1804 Rear-Admiral of the White, in 1805
Rear-Admiral of the Red, in 1809 Vice-Admiral of the White, and on July
31st, 1810, Vice-Admiral of the Red.
He died at Bath on August 31st, 1814, and was buried in Bathampton Church.
For many years those interested in the subject, especially the New South
Wales Government, spent much time in searching for his burial-place, which
was only discovered by the Vicar of Bathampton, the Rev. Lancelot J. Fish,
in December, 1897, after long and persistent research.
Those by whom the services of the silent, hard-working, and self-contained
Arthur Phillip are least appreciated are, curiously enough, the Australian
colonists; and it was not until early in 1897 that a statue to him was
unveiled in Sydney. At this very time, it is sad to reflect, his last
resting-place was unknown. Phillip, like Cook, did his work well and
truly, and his true memorial is the country of which he was practically
the founder.
CHAPTER V.
GOVERNOR HUNTER.
Admiral Phillip's work was, as we have said, the founding of Australia;
that of Hunter is mainly important for the service he did under Phillip.
From the time he assumed the government of the colony until his return to
England, his career showed that, though he had "the heart of a true
British sailor," as the old song says, he somewhat lacked the head of a
governor.
John Hunter was born at Leith in 1737, his father being a well-known
shipmaster sailing out of that port, while his mother was of a good
Edinburgh family, one of her brothers having served as provost of that
city. Young Hunter made two or three voyages with his father at an age so
young that when shipwrecked on the Norwegian coast a peasant woman took
him home in her arms, and seeing what a child he was, put him to bed
between two of her daughters.
He had an elder brother, William, who gives a most interesting account of
himself in vol. xii. of the _Naval Chronicle_ (1805). William saw some
very remarkable service in his forty-five years at sea in the royal and
merchant navies. Both brothers knew and were friendly with Falconer, the
sea-poet, and John was shipmate in the _Royal George_ with Falconer, who
was a townsman of theirs. The brothers supplied many of the particulars of
the poet's life, written by Clarke, and the name Falconer in connection
with both Hunters often occurs in the _Naval Chronicle_.
After Hunter, senior, was shipwrecked, John was sent to his uncle, a
merchant of Lynn, who sent the boy to school, where he became acquainted
with Charles Burney, the musician. Dr. Burney wanted to make a musician of
him, and Hunter was nothing loth, but the uncle intended the boy for the
Church, and sent him to the Aberdeen University. There his thoughts once
more turned to the sea, and he was duly entered in the _Grampus_ as
captain's servant in 1754, which of course means that he was so rated on
the books in the fashion of the time. After obtaining his rating as A.B.,
and then as midshipman, he passed his examination as lieutenant in
February, 1760; but it was not until twenty [Sidenote: 1760]
years later, when he was forty-three, that he received his lieutenant's
commission, having in the interval served in pretty well every quarter of
the globe as midshipman and master's mate. In 1757 he was under Sir
Charles Knowles in the expedition against Rochefort; in 1759 he served
under Sir Charles Saunders at Quebec; in 1756 he was master of the
_Eagle_, Lord Howe's flagship, so skilfully navigating the vessel up the
Delaware and Chesapeake and in the defence of Sandy Hook that Lord Howe
recommended him for promotion in these words:--
"Mr. John Hunter, from his knowledge and experience in all the
branches of his profession, is justly entitled to the character of
a distinguished officer."
It was some years, however, before Hunter was given a chance, which came
to him when serving in the West Indies, under Sir George Rodney, who
appointed him a lieutenant, and the appointment was confirmed by the
Admiralty.
In 1782 he was again under Lord Howe as first lieutenant of the _Victory_,
and soon after was given the command of the _Marquis de Seignelay_. Then
came the Peace of Paris, and Hunter's next appointment was to the
_Sirius_. There is very little doubt from a study of the _Naval
Chronicle's_ biographies and from the letters of Lord Howe that, if that
nobleman had had his way, Hunter would have been the first governor of New
South Wales, and it is equally likely that, if Hunter had been appointed
to the chief command, the history of the expedition would have had to be
written very differently, for brave and gallant as he was, he was a man
without method.
When Phillip was appointed to govern the colonizing expedition and to
command the _Sirius_, Hunter was posted as second captain of the frigate,
in order that the ship, when Phillip assumed his shore duties, should be
commanded by a post-captain. A few days after the arrival of the fleet
Hunter set to work, and in the ship's boats thoroughly surveyed Port
Jackson. He was a keen explorer, and besides being one of the party who
made the important discovery of the Hawkesbury river, he charted Botany
and Broken Bays; and his charts as well as land maps, published in a
capital book he wrote giving an account of the settlement, show how well
he did the work.[C]
[Footnote C: _An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson,
etc., etc.,_ by John Hunter, Esq., Post-Captain R.N. (London, 1793.)]
In September, 1788, Hunter sailed from Port Jackson [Sidenote: 1788]
for the Cape of Good Hope, to obtain supplies for the half-starving
colony. On the voyage he formed the opinion that New Holland was separated
from Van Diemen's Land by a strait, an opinion to be afterwards confirmed
in its accuracy by Bass.
The poor old _Sirius_ came in for some bad weather on the trip, and a
glimpse of Hunter's character is given to us in a letter written home by
one of the youngsters (Southwell) under him, who tells us that Hunter,
knowing the importance of delivering stores to the half-famished settlers,
drove the frigate's crazy old hull along so that--
"we had a very narrow escape from shipwreck, being driven on that
part of the coast called Tasman's Head in thick weather and hard
gales of wind, and embay'd, being twelve hours before we got
clear, the ship forced to be overpressed with sail, and the hands
kept continually at the pumps, and all this time in the most
destressing anxiety, being uncertain of our exact situation and
doubtful of our tackling holding, which has a very long time been
bad, for had a mast gone, or topsail given way, there was nothing
to be expected in such boistrous weather but certain death on a
coast so inhospitable and unknown. And now to reflect, if we had
not reached the port with that seasonable supply, what could have
become of this colony? 'Twould have been a most insupportable
blow, and thus to observe our manifold misfortunes so attemper'd
with the Divine mercy of these occasions seems, methinks, to
suggest a comfortable lesson of resignation and trust that there
are still good things in store, and 'tis a duty to wait in a
moderated spirit of patient expectation for them. 'Tis worthy of
remark, the following day (for we cleared this dreaded land about
2 in the morning, being April the 22nd, 1789), on examining the
state of the rigging, &c., some articles were so fearfully chafed
that a backstay or two actually went away or broke."
Soon after came the end of the old ship. She had been sent to Norfolk
Island, with a large proportion of the settlers at Port Jackson, to
relieve the strain on the food supply. The contingent embarked with a
marine guard under Major Ross in the _Sirius_ and the Government brig
_Supply_, and sailed on the 6th of March, 1790. Young Southwell, the
signal midshipman stationed at the solitary look-out on the south head of
Port Jackson, shall tell the rest of the story:--
[Illustration: CAPTAIN JOHN HUNTER. From an engraving in the "Naval
Chronicle" for 1801.] _To face p. 96._
"Nothing more of these [the two ships] were seen 'till April the
5th, when the man who takes his station there at daybreak soon
came down to inform me a sail was in sight. On going up I saw her
coming up with the land, and judged it to be the _Supply_, but was
not a little surprised at her returning so soon, and likewise,
being alone, my mind fell to foreboding an accident; and on
going down to get ready to wait on the gov'r [Sidenote: 1790]
I desired the gunner to notice if the people mustered thick on her
decks as she came in under the headland, thinking in my own mind,
what I afterwards found, that the _Sirius_ was lost. The _Supply_
bro't an account that on the 19th of March about noon the _Sirius_
had, in course of loading the boats, drifted rather in with the
land. On seeing this they of course endeavoured to stand off, but
the wind being dead on the shore, and the ship being out of trim
and working unusually bad, she in staying--for she would not go
about just as she was coming to the wind--tailed the ground with
the after-part of her keel, and, with two sends of the vast surf
that runs there, was completely thrown on the reef of dangerous
rocks called Pt. Ross. They luckily in their last extremity let go
both anchors and stopper'd the cables securely, and this, 'tho it
failed of the intention of riding her clear, yet caused her to go
right stern foremost on the rocks, by which means she lay with her
bow opposed to the sea, a most happy circumstance, for had she
laid broadside to, which otherwise she would have had a natural
tendency to have done, 'tis more than probable she must have
overset, gone to pieces, and every soul have perish'd.
"Her bottom bilged immediately, and the masts were as soon cut
away, and the gallant ship, upon which hung the hopes of the
colony, was now a complete wreck. They [the _Supply_] brought a
few of the officers and men hither; the remainder of the ships
company, together with Captain Hunter, &c., are left there on
acc't of constituting a number adequate to the provision, and
partly to save what they possibly can from the wreck. I understand
that there are some faint hopes, if favor'd with extraordinary
fine weather, to recover most of the provision, for she carried a
great quantity there on the part of the reinforcement. The whole
of the crew were saved, every exertion being used, and all
assistance received from the _Supply_ and colonists on shore. The
passengers fortunately landed before the accident, and I will just
mention to you the method by which the crew were saved. When they
found that the ship was ruined and giving way upon the beam right
athwart, they made a rope fast to a drift-buoy, which by the surf
was driven on shore. By this a stout hawser was convey'd, and
those on shore made it fast a good way up a pine-tree. The other
end, being on board, was hove taut. On this hawser was placed the
heart of a stay (a piece of wood with a hole through it), and to
this a grating was slung after the manner of a pair of scales. Two
lines were made fast on either side of the heart, one to haul it
on shore, the other to haul it on board. On this the shipwreck'd
seated themselves, two or more at a time, and thus were dragged on
shore thro' a dashing surf, which broke frequently over their
heads, keeping them a considerable time under water, some of them
coming out of the water half drowned and a good deal bruised.
Captn. Hunter was a good deal hurt, and with repeated seas knock'd
off the grating, in so much that all the lookers-on feared greatly
for his letting go; but he got on shore safe, and his hurts are by
no means dangerous. Many private effects were saved, the sea
driving them on shore when thrown overboard, but 'twas not always
so courteous. Much is lost, and many escaped with nothing more
than they stood in."
Hunter and his crew were left at Norfolk Island [Sidenote: 1792]
for many weary months before a vessel could be obtained in which to send
them to England, and it was not until the end of the following March--a
year after the loss of their ship--that they sailed from Sydney in the
_Waaksamheyd_, a small Dutch _snow_.[D]
[Footnote D: A favourite rig of that period. A snow was similar to a brig,
except that she carried upon a small spar, just abaft the mainmast, a kind
of trysail, then called the spanker.]
In this miserable little vessel Hunter made a remarkable voyage home, of
which he gives an account in his book. His official letter to the
Secretary of the Admiralty, dated Portsmouth, April 23rd, 1792, tells in a
few words what sort of a passage could be made to England in those days.
He writes:--
"You will be pleased to inform their lordships that upon my
arrival from Norfolk Island at Port Jackson (26th February, 1791)
I found that Governor Phillip had contracted with the master of a
Dutch _snow_, which had arrived at that port from Batavia with a
cargo of provisions purchased there for the use of the settlement,
for a passage to England for the remaining officers and company of
His Majestie's late ship the _Sirius_, under my command, in
consequence of which agreement I was directed to embark, and we
sail'd from Port Jackson on the 27th of March, victuall'd for
sixteen weeks, and with fifty tons of water on board. We were in
all on board 123 people, including those belonging to the
vessel.... We steer'd to the northward, and made New Caledonia 23
April, and passed to the westward of it. As the master did not
feel himself qualified to navigate a ship in these unknown seas,
he had, upon our leaving Port Jackson, requested my assistance,
which he had. In sailing to the northward we fell in with several
islands and shoals, the situations of which we determined.... No
ship that I have heard of having sail'd between New Britain and
New Ireland since that passage was discovered by Captain Carteret
in H.M. sloop _Swallow_, I was the more desirous to take that rout
from his having found two very accessable harbours in New Ireland,
where we hoped to get a supply of water....
"We passed thro' the Strait of Macassar, and arrived at Batavia on
the 27th of September, after a most tedious and destressing
passage of twenty-six weeks, during a great part of which time we
had been upon a very small ration of provision. We buried on the
passage Lieutenant George William Maxwell and one seaman of the
_Sirius_, with one belonging to the _snow_. My transactions at
Batavia will be fully seen in the narrative. I left that place on
the 20th October, and arrived at the Cape on the 17th December,
but being unable to reach the proper anchorage, I was on the 20th
driven to sea again, with the loss of two anchors and cables. On
the 22nd we again reached the bay, with a signal of distress
flying, and thro' the exertions of Captain Bligh, who was there in
the _Providence_, we were got into safety, and receiv'd anchors
and cables from the shore. My people being very sickly, the
effects of that destructive place Batavia, their slow progress in
recovery detained me at the Cape longer than I intended to have
staid. I sailed from Table Bay 18th January, but left five sick
behind me; anchored at St. Helena 4th February, to complete our
water, left that island the 13th, and arrived here late last
night."
On the way home the _Waaksamheyd_ got into trouble with the natives of
Mindanao, one of the Dutch Archipelago. The rajah of the place would not
supply refreshment to the vessel, and her master threatened to fire upon
the native canoes, notwithstanding the remonstrances of Hunter. In the
course of the dispute the rajah lost his temper and attacked the
shipmaster, whose life was saved by Hunter, but the quarrel resulted in a
regular engagement between the natives and people on the ship, in which
the crew of the _Sirius_, for their own safety, were compelled to take
part. The canoes were ultimately driven off, with great loss of life to
the people in them, and the Europeans escaped unhurt.
Hunter's experience on this voyage taught him that the proper route home
from Australia was not north about, nor _viâ_ the Cape of Good Hope, but
round the Horn, and he wrote to the Admiralty to that effect, but it was
years later before sailors woke up to the fact. At the Cape of Good Hope
a number of English shipwrecked sailors were prisoners of the Dutch, and
Hunter's spirited remonstrance brought about their release, and for this
he was thanked by the Admiralty. A court-martial was duly held, and Hunter
and the ship's company honourably acquitted of all blame for the loss of
the _Sirius_.
When it became apparent that Phillip's health would not permit him to
return to New South Wales, Hunter (in October, 1793), who was serving as a
volunteer captain in Lord Howe's flagship, the _Queen Charlotte_, applied
for the position of governor of the colony, and four months later he was
given the appointment. Lord Howe, who had been his constant patron, thus
satisfying his desire to give Hunter an important command, and thereby
depriving the sea service of a very able naval officer, neither to the
advantage of Hunter nor the colony he was sent to govern.
[Illustration: ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN THE CREW OF THE WAAKSAMHEYD TRANSPORT
AND THE NATIVES OF AN ISLAND NEAR MINDANAO. CAPTAIN HUNTER, R.N. From the
"Naval Chronicle" for 1801. _To face p_. 102.]
In the interval between Phillip's departure for England (December, 1792)
and Hunter's arrival in the colony on September 7th, 1795, the settlement
was governed successively by two lieutenant-governors. These two officers
were Major Grose, the commandant of the New South Wales Corps, who ruled
until December, 1794, and Captain Paterson, of the same regiment, who had
charge until the arrival of Hunter. The New South Wales Corps had such an
influence on the lives of these naval governors of Australia that in the
next chapter it will be necessary to give a sketch of this remarkable
regiment; meanwhile it may be merely mentioned that the commanding officer
of the military, during the period of the four New South Wales naval
governors, held a commission as lieutenant-governor, and so took command
in the absence of the governor.
Upon Hunter's arrival he did not at all like the state of affairs. Major
Grose had permitted to grow up a system of trade in which his officers had
secured monopolies, and, as a leading article of this commerce was rum, it
can easily be understood in what a state of disorder Hunter found the
colony. Instead of the prisoners being kept at work cultivating the
ground, the officers of the New South Wales Regiment employed more than a
proper proportion of them in their private affairs; and the consequence
was, the settlement had made little or no progress on the road to
independence--that is, of course, independence in the matter of growing
its food supply, not its politics. Further than this, Grose's methods of
governing a colony and administering its laws were the same as those he
employed in commanding his regiment. He was not able to rise above this;
and under him martial law was practically, if not nominally, the form of
the colony's government. Paterson, his successor, passively carried on
until the arrival of Hunter the same lines as his predecessor; and the
consequence was, the colony existed for the benefit of the officers of the
regiment, who, by huckstering in stores, were rapidly acquiring fortunes.
A few free settlers had already arrived in the colony, and by degrees
emancipated prisoners and emigrants from Great Britain were forming a
small free population, and were beginning to have "interests." Thus there
were slowly growing the elements of a pretty quarrel, a triangular duel,
in which officials, free emigrants, and emancipated convicts had all
interests to serve, and which for many long years after was the constant
bugbear of the governor of the colony.
By the time Hunter arrived there were a number of time-expired prisoners
in the settlement, and these became an increasing and constant danger.
Retreating into the back country, and herding with the blacks, or
thieving from the farmers, they merged into what were known later on as
bushrangers. From these men and the ill-disciplined and gaol-bird soldiers
of the New South Wales Corps the peaceably disposed inhabitants were in
much greater danger than they ever were from the aborigines.
But although Hunter's despatches are full of complaints of the soldiers,
of the want of stores, and the need of honest, free men to cultivate the
soil by way of a leaven to the hundreds of convicts who were arriving
every year, he, like Phillip, believed that New South Wales would
ultimately become a prosperous colony. More than this, it was under Hunter
that Bass and Flinders did most of their surveying; that Shortland
discovered Newcastle; and to no governor more than to Hunter is credit due
for the interest he took in exploration.
Here is a picture of the colony in the time of Hunter's governorship,
painted by certain missionaries who had been driven by the natives of
Tahiti from their island, and who had taken refuge in New South Wales:--
"His Majesty's ship the _Buffalo_, Captain Kent, being on the eve
of sailing from the colony for the Cape of Good Hope, we embrace
the opportunity of confirming our letter to you of the 1st
September, 1798, by the _Barwell_. Here we have to contend with
the depravity and corruptions of the human heart heightened and
confirmed in all its vicious habits by long and repeated
indulgences of inbred corruption, each one following the bent of
his own corrupt mind, and countenancing his neighbour in the
pursuit of sensual gratifications. Here iniquity abounds, and
those outward gross sins which in Europe would render a person
contemptible in the public eye, and obnoxious to the civil law,
are become fashionable and familiar--adultery, fornication, theft,
drunkenness, extortion, violence, and uncleanness of every kind,
the natural concomitants of deism and infidelity, which have
boldly thrown off the mask, and stalk through the colony in the
open face of the sun, so that it is no uncommon thing to hear a
person say, 'When I was a Christian, I thought so and so.'"
This is strong, but it is true.
This letter was addressed to the directors of the London Missionary
Society, and many of similar purport written by Johnson and Marsden, the
chaplains of the settlement, are to be found in the records. All these
writers agree on one point: the colony had fallen from grace under the
military administration. Phillip had left it in good order, and Hunter at
the time, these witnesses testified, was doing his best to improve
matters.
Lang (not a reliable authority in many things, but to be believed when
not expressing opinions), in his _History of New South Wales_, tells an
anecdote of Hunter which is worth retelling. Captain Hunter was on one
occasion the subject of an anonymous letter addressed by some disreputable
colonist to the Duke of Portland, then Home Secretary. (There was no
Colonial Secretary in those days.) The Duke sent back the letter without
comment to Hunter, who one day handed it to an officer who was dining with
him. "You will surely notice this?" said the officer. "No," replied
Hunter. "The man has a family, and I don't want to ruin them."
It was this good-nature, this disinclination to fight his enemies to the
bitter end, that ultimately had much to do with Hunter's recall. A certain
Captain John MacArthur, of the New South Wales Corps, of whom we shall
presently hear very much, was, when Hunter arrived, filling the civil post
of Inspector of Public Works. He was also a settler in the full meaning of
the word, owning many acres and requiring many assigned servants to work
them and to look after his flocks and herds, and from some cause connected
with these civil occupations he came into collision with the governor.
This presently led to much correspondence between the Home Office, the
governor, and MacArthur. In these letters Hunter and his subordinate say
very unkind things of each other, which nowadays may well be forgotten.
The settlement was so small, the life was such an uneventful one, that it
would be wonderful indeed if men did not quarrel, and these two men were
naturally antagonistic to each other.
Hunter was an old-fashioned naval officer, sixty years of age, and fifty
of those years had been spent in disinterested service to his country, "a
pleasant, sensible old man," says a young ship's officer, writing home to
his father; and in another letter, published in a newspaper of 1798, we
are told that "much may be expected from Captain Hunter, whose virtue and
integrity is as conspicuous as his merit."
MacArthur was a comparatively young man, who had come to the colony less
with the intention of soldiering than of making himself a home. He was an
excellent colonist and a perfectly honourable man, but he was the very
worst kind of a subordinate that a man with Hunter's lack of strong
personality could have under him. MacArthur wanted to develop the
resources of the colony and improve his farm at the same time, and that he
had it in him to do these things is proved by after-events. The name of
MacArthur, the father of the merino wool industry, is the best-remembered
name in Australia to-day; but poor old Hunter could not recognise the
soldier man's merits, and so he added to his legitimate quarrel with the
meaner hucksters of his officials the quarrel with the enterprising
MacArthur; and, although there is no written evidence to prove it, there
is little doubt that MacArthur's letters to England had due effect upon
the minds of the home authorities.
The Duke of Portland wrote to Hunter early in 1799 requesting him to
afford the fullest refutation of a number of charges that had been made
against the administration of the colony. Wrote the Duke:--
"I proceed to let you know that it is asserted that the price of
necessary articles is of late doubled; that the same wheat is
received into the Government stores at ten shillings per bushel
which the settler is under the necessity of selling to the
huckster at three shillings; that spirits or other articles are
purchased by the officers of His Majesty's forces in New South
Wales, and retailed by them at the most exorbitant prices to the
lowest order of the settlers and convicts; that the profit on such
articles is often at the rate of one hundred shillings for one;
that this sort of traffic is not confined to the officers, but is
carried on in the Government House, although it is not affirmed
that you have any participation in such proceedings; that the
officers and favoured individuals are allowed to send large
quantities of grain into the Government stores, whilst those who
have only the ability to raise small crops are refused, and
consequently are obliged to sell their produce to hucksters at the
low rate above mentioned."
Now many of these allegations were true, for Hunter himself had written
repeatedly complaining of the existence of such abuses, and had been
answered, "Well, put a stop to them." Then he would publish a "Public
Order" or some similar document telling the hucksters they were not to do
these things; the offenders would go on offending, and Hunter would go on
publishing more "Public Orders."
Hunter received the above letter from Portland in November, 1799. Before
he could write a reply to it, the Duke wrote him another letter. There
were several pages relating to details of administration; but it might
have been written by a woman, for the last paragraph contained the
all-important part in these words:--
"Having now made all the observations which appear to me to be
necessary on the points contained in your several despatches which
are now before me, it is with my very sincere concern that I find
myself obliged to add that I feel myself called upon by the sense
of the duty which I owe to the situation in [Sidenote: 1800]
which I have the honour to be placed to express my disapprobation
of the manner in which the government of the settlement has been
administered by you in so many respects; that I am commanded to
signify you the King's pleasure to return to this kingdom by the
first safe conveyance which offers itself after the arrival of
Lieutenant-Governor King, who is authorized by His Majesty to take
upon him the government of that settlement immediately on your
departure from it."
The poor old governor was very indignant. He denounced in strong language
the "anonymous assassin" who he thinks accused him to His Grace of
conniving at the trading he was endeavouring to suppress.
"Can it be suppos'd, my lord, that a man at my time of life,
holding the rank I have the honour to be arriv'd at in the
profession I have been bred in, and to which I have risen by
virtue of a character never yet stain'd by one mean, base, or
dishonourable action--can it be conceived that after having by a
life truly and sincerely devoted to the service of my sovereign,
after having spent forty-six years of that life in constant and
active employment in all the quarters of the world, during which I
have risen thro' all the ranks and gradations of my profession and
at last arriv'd at the highly flattering and exalted office of
being appointed the representative of His Majesty in this remote
part of his dominions--can it be believ'd, my lord, that a man
possessing a single spark of virtuous principles could be
prevailed on thro' any latent object, any avaricious view, by any
act so mean, so low, so contemptible, as that of which this
anonymous villain has dared to suppose me capable, to bring
disgrace upon that elevated situation? No, my lord, I thank God I
possess a share of pride sufficient to keep me far above any mean
or degrading action. I am satisfied with what the Crown allows me,
altho' that, in my situation in this expensive country, is small
enough, yet, my lord, I am satisfied, nor do I conceive it
consistent with the dignity of my office to endeavour in any way
whatever to gain more, were it even in a less censurable manner
than that which has been mention'd. Let me live upon bread and
water with a pure and unpolluted conscience, a fair and
respectable character, in preference to rolling in wealth obtained
by such infamous, such shameful, such ignominious means as this
letter-writer alludes to."
It is a long while ago since this letter was written by a rough old
sailor, and its quaint wording may raise a smile, but Hunter was very much
in earnest; and if his failure to govern convicts and "officers and
gentlemen" who traded in rum is to count against him, leaving but a
contemptuous pity for a weak old man as an impression on the mind, go back
to his sea-days, when he fought the crazy old _Sirius_ through a hurricane
to bring food to these shore-people, and remember him for this closing
anecdote of his life:--
In 1801, soon after his arrival in England, Hunter [Sidenote: 1801-1821]
commanded the _Venerable_ (74). He was cruising off Torbay, when a man
fell overboard. Hunter attempted to put the ship about to pick him up; she
missed stays, ran ashore, and became a wreck. At the court-martial (at
which Hunter was honourably acquitted) he was asked whether he thought he
was justified in putting the ship about in such circumstances, to which
question he replied, "I consider the life of a British seaman of more
value than any ship in His Majesty's navy."
When he returned to England, he was granted a pension, for his services as
governor, of £300 per annum; was promoted rear-admiral in October, 1807,
and became vice-admiral of the Red in July, 1810. He died in Judd Street,
London, in March, 1821, aged eighty-three, and was buried in Hackney
churchyard, where a tombstone with a long inscription records his
services.
CHAPTER VI.
THE MARINES AND THE NEW SOUTH WALES CORPS.
The service of the Marines in the colonization of Australia was, as it
always has been, _per mare, per terram_, such as reflected the highest
credit upon the corps. They were not "Royal" in those days, nor were they
light infantry; the first title came to them in 1802, when their facings
were changed from white to royal blue, and it was not until 1855 that they
were designated light infantry.
The Marine force in the first fleet under Captain Phillip numbered,
including women and children, 253 persons, made up of a major commanding,
1 judge-advocate, 2 captains, 2 captain-lieutenants, 9 first lieutenants,
3 second lieutenants, 1 adjutant, 1 quarter-master, 12 sergeants, 12
corporals, 8 drummers, 160 privates, 30 women, and 12 children. The
detachment was drawn from the Portsmouth and Plymouth divisions in equal
numbers. This expedition to Botany Bay was a service more remote from home
than any the corps had before been engaged in, and the men so looked upon
it, as may be seen from the following tedious memorial, which one company
addressed to the officer commanding:--
"We, the marines embarked on board the _Scarborough_, who have
voluntarily entered on a dangerous expedition, replete with
numberless difficulties, which in the faithful discharge of our
duty we must necessarily be exposed to, and supposing ourselves to
be on the same footing as if embarked on any of His Maj's ships of
war, or as the seamen and marines on the same expedition with
us--we hope to receive the same indulgence, now conceive ourselves
sorely aggrieved by finding the intentions of Government to make
no allowance of spirituous liquor or wine after our arrival at the
intended colony in New South Wales. A moderate distribution of the
above-mentioned article being indispensibly requisite for the
preservation of our lives, which change of climate and the extreme
fatigue we shall be necessarily exposed to may probably endanger,
we therefore humbly entreat you will be pleased to convey these
our sentiments to Major Ross. Presuming, sir, that you will not
only be satisfied that our demand is reasonable, but will also
perceive the urgent necessity there is for a compliance with our
request, we flatter ourselves you will also use your influence to
cause a removal of the uneasiness we experience under the idea of
being restricted in the supply of one of the principal necessarys
of life, without which, for the reasons above stated, we cannot
expect to survive the hardships incident to our situation. You may
depend on a chearful and ready discharge of the public duties that
may be enjoyned on us. The design of Government is, we hope, to
have a feeling for the calamities we must encounter. So, as to
induce them to provide in a moderate and reasonable degree for our
maintenance and preservation, we beg leave to tender our most
dutiful assurances of executing to the utmost of our power our
several abilities in the duty assign'd, so that we remain in every
respect loyal subjects to our king and worthy members of society."
The request was granted, and a three years' supply of spirits was put on
board the transports.
Several officers of this force are entitled to be remembered in connection
with the founding of New South Wales. Major Ross, the commandant and
lieutenant-governor of the colony, was a captain in the Plymouth division
when appointed to New South Wales, and was then given the rank of
brevet-major. From the day of his arrival in the colony until his return
to England he was a constant thorn in the side of the governor. A man more
unsuitable for the particular service could not have been chosen. He was a
most excellent pipe-clay and stock type of soldier, and his men appear to
have been kept well in hand, in spite of [Sidenote: 1788-1792]
a service peculiarly calculated to subvert discipline, but there his
qualifications ended.
He conceived that the sole duty of himself and his command was to defend
the settlement from foreign invasion and to mount guard over the
prisoners. The governor wanted to form a criminal court, as empowered by
his commission, and to do this it was necessary to call upon the marine
officers to sit upon it. Ross would have nothing to do with it until
Phillip, by superior diplomacy, conquered his objections. Ross, in fact,
would have it that no civilian duty should be expected of him; and when
Phillip forced him to admit that the British Government had sent him out
to do more than mount guard, he quoted regulations and many other red-tape
reasons why he should not be anything but a soldier. To crown this, he
quarrelled with all his subordinate officers in turn, and at one time had
them nearly all under arrest together. During his service in the colony he
wrote many letters to the home authorities urging the abandonment of the
settlement asserting that it was utterly impossible that it could be
colonized. He returned to England early in 1792, and the Government showed
its appreciation of his value by making a recruiting officer of him, and
he died in that service at Ipswich in June, 1794.
There are three other officers whose names are familiar to most
Australians: Tench, Collins, and Dawes. The last-named acted as artillery
and engineer officer to the colony, and did incalculable service in
surveying work. He built an observatory and a battery at the head of
Sydney Cove, which, though altered out of recognition, still bears the
name of Dawes' Battery. Captain Tench wrote the most readable book giving
an account of the settlement, and as about half a dozen books were written
by different officers of the first fleet, this, if it is all, is something
to be said about him.
Lieutenant Collins is the best-known officer. He wrote an official
history, and was associated with the colony's progress for many years
after the marines went home. His book is drier reading than that of Tench,
but it is the standard authority; and all the history-makers, good and
bad, have largely drawn upon him for their materials.
In the memoirs of Holt, the "Irish rebel general," who was transported to
Australia, and knew Collins well, appears the following truthful account
of him:--
"Colonel David Collins was the eldest son of General Arthur
Tooker Collins and Harriet Frazer, of Pack, in the King's County,
Ireland, and grandson of Arthur Collins, author of _The Peerage of
England_, etc. He was born on the 3rd of March, 1756, and received
a liberal education under the Rev. Mr. Marshall, master of the
Grammar School at Exeter, where his father resided. In 1770 he was
appointed lieutenant of marines, and in 1772 was with the late
Admiral McBride when the unfortunate Matilda, Queen of Denmark,
was rescued by the energy of the British Government, and conveyed
to a place of safety in the King's (her brother's) Hanoverian
dominions. On that occasion he commanded the guard that received
Her Majesty, and had the honour of kissing her hand. In 1775 he
was at the battle of Bunker's Hill, in which the first battalion
of marines, to which he belonged, so signally distinguished
itself, having its commanding officer, the gallant Major
Pitcairne, and a great many officers and men, killed in storming
the redoubt, besides a very large proportion wounded. In 1777 he
was adjutant of the Chatham division, and in 1784 captain of
marines on board the _Courageux_, of 74 guns, commanded by Lord
Mulgrave, and participated in the partial action that took place
with the enemy's fleet when Lord Howe relieved Gibraltar. Reduced
to half-pay at the peace of 1782, he settled at Rochester, in
Kent, and was finally appointed Judge-Advocate to the intended
settlement at Botany Bay, and in May, 1787, sailed with Governor
Phillip, who, moreover, appointed him his secretary, which
situation he filled until his return to England in 1797.
"The history of the settlement, which he soon after published,
will be read and referred to as a book of authority as long as the
colony exists whose name it bears. The appointment of
Judge-Advocate, however, eventually proved injurious to his own
interests. While absent he had been passed over when it came to
his turn to be put on full pay; nor was he permitted to return to
England to reclaim his rank in the corps, nor could he ever obtain
any effectual redress, but was afterwards compelled to come in as
a junior captain of the corps, though with his proper rank in the
army. The difference this made in regard to his promotion was that
he died a captain instead of a colonel-commandant, his rank in the
army being merely brevet. He had the mortification of finding
that, after ten years' distinguished service in the infancy of a
colony, and to the sacrifice of every real comfort, his only
reward had been the loss of many years' rank--a vital injury to an
officer: a remark which his wounded feelings wrung from him at the
close of the second volume of his history of the settlement, and
which appears to have awakened the sympathy of those in power, as
he was, almost immediately after its publication, offered the
government of the projected settlement in Van Dieman's Land, which
he accepted, and sailed once more for that quarter of the globe
where he founded his new colony, struggled with great
difficulties, which he overcame, and after remaining there eight
years, was enjoying the flourishing state his exertions had
produced, when he died suddenly, after a few days' confinement
from a slight cold, on the 24th March, 1810.
"His person was remarkably handsome, and his manners extremely
prepossessing, while to a cultivated understanding and an early
fondness for the _belles lettres_ he joined the most social
disposition.
"He had the goodwill, the good wishes, and the good word of
everyone in the settlement. His conduct was exemplary, and his
disposition most humane; his treatment of runaway convicts was
conciliatory, and even kind. He would go into the forests, among
the natives, to allow these poor creatures, the runaways, an
opportunity of returning to their former condition; and, half dead
with cold and hunger, they would come and drop on their knees
before him, imploring pardon for their behaviour.
"'Well,' he would say to them, 'now that you have lived in the
bush, do you think the change you made was for the better? Are you
sorry for what you have done?'
"'Yes, sir.'
"'And will you promise me never to go away again?'
"'Never, sir.'
"'Go to the storekeeper, then,' the benevolent Collins would say,
'and get a suit of slops and your week's rations, and then go to
the overseer and attend to your work. I give you my pardon, but
remember that I expect you will keep your promise to me.'
"I never heard of any governor or commandant acting in this
manner, nor did I ever witness such leniency from any governor."
Of the marines it has already been said they behaved fairly well. Some of
them were punished--six, as a matter of fact, were hanged for thieving
from the public stores, a crime then of the greatest magnitude--but the
crimes committed were by individuals, and offences were very severely
punished in those days, even in England. Read what Colonel Cooper King
says as to the life of a marine:--
"Some of the marine regimental records are interesting as showing
the inner life of the sea, or even land, soldier a hundred years
ago. In the tailor's shop in 1755, for example, the idea of an
eight hours' working day was not evidently a burning question, for
the men worked from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m., with one hour for meals.
Again, punishments were severe, as the sentences passed on three
deserters in 1766 show; for, while one was shot, the other two
were to receive 1000 and 500 lashes respectively. In 1755 two
'private men absent from exercise' were 'to be tyed neck and heels
on the Hoe half an hour'; while thirteen years later a sergeant,
for taking 'coals and two poles' from the dockyard, was sentenced
to 500 lashes, and to be 'drummed out with a halter round his
neck,' after, of course, being reduced to the ranks."[E]
[Footnote E: _The Story of the British Army_, by Lieutenant-Colonel C.
Cooper-King, F.G.S. (Methuen & Co., 1897.)]
Before taking leave of the marines the story of what happened when the
_Sirius_ was lost at Norfolk Island should be told. Lieutenant King, of
the _Sirius_, had been sent to colonize the island by Governor Phillip,
and was acting as governor of it, but when the _Sirius_ went ashore Major
Ross thought proper to establish martial law, [Sidenote: 1789-1790]
and so (the quotation is from King's journal)--
"at 8 a.m. on March 22nd, 1790, every person in the settlement was
assembled under the lower flagstaff, where the Union flag was
hoisted. The troops were drawn up in two lines, having the Union
at their head in the centre, with the colours of the detachment
displayed, the _Sirius's_ ship's company on the right and the
convicts on the left, the officers in the centre, when the
proclamation was read declaring the law-martial to be that by
which the island was in future to be governed until further
orders. The lieutenant-governor addressed the convicts, after
which the whole gave three cheers, and then every person,
beginning with the lieutenant-governor and Captain Hunter, passed
under the Union in token of a promise or oath to submit and be
amenable to the law-martial then declared. The convicts and the
_Sirius's_ ship's company were then sent round to Cascade Bay,
where proportions of flour and pork were received from the
_Supply_ and brought round to the settlement."
In June, 1789, the Home Government determined to form a corps for special
service in New South Wales and bring the marines home. Several suggestions
had been made to this effect, and offers from more than one officer had
been received to raise a regiment. Ultimately an offer by Major Grose was
accepted to raise 300 rank and file. The short and ignoble story of this
corps can be traced in the records of New South Wales, and Mr. Britton,
in his volume of official history, devotes a chapter to an admirable
summary of the annals of the regiment.
Grose was the son of Francis Grose, the antiquarian, who died in 1791.
Francis the younger entered the army as ensign in the 52nd Regiment in
1775; served in the American War of Independence; fought at Bunker's Hill;
was twice wounded; went home on account of his wounds; was promoted to
captain; did two years' recruiting; was then promoted a major in the 96th;
then raised the New South Wales Regiment; was promoted lieutenant-colonel
while serving in the colony where he, as already has been said, acted as
governor for two years between the time of Phillip's departure and
Hunter's arrival. In 1795, owing to his wounds troubling him, he was
compelled to return to England, where he was given a staff appointment,
and in 1805 was promoted major-general.
Nicholas Nepean, the senior captain, entered the service in the Plymouth
division of the marines, and had served under Admiral Keppel. He left New
South Wales after a couple of years' service, and joined the 91st, and was
rapidly promoted, until in 1807 he was made brigadier-general and given a
command at Cape Breton. He was a brother of Evan Nepean, Under-Secretary
at the Home Office at the time of the foundation of the colony; and the
Nepean river, the source of Sydney's water supply, to this day reminds
Australians of the family connection.
The only other officers worth noting are Captain Paterson, who had been an
African traveller, and had written a book on his travels, and Lieutenant
MacArthur, whose name has already been mentioned in the chapter on Hunter,
and will reappear to some purpose later on. The last thing MacArthur did
before leaving England for New South Wales was to fight a duel. The
_Morning Post_ of December 2nd, 1789, tells how in consequence of a
dispute between Mr. Gilbert, the master of the transport _Neptune_, and
Lieutenant MacArthur, of the Botany Bay Rangers, the two landed at the old
gun wharf near the lines, Plymouth, and, attended by seconds, exchanged
shots twice. The seconds then interposed, and the business was settled by
MacArthur declaring that Captain Gilbert's conduct was in every respect
that of a gentleman and a man of honour, and in the evening he repeated
the same expressions on the quarterdeck of the _Neptune_ to the
satisfaction of all parties. The quarrel originated in the refusal of
Gilbert to admit MacArthur to his private mess-table, although he offered
the soldier every other accommodation for himself and wife and family. The
Government settled the affair by appointing a new master to the _Neptune_
and allowing MacArthur to exchange to another transport.
The corps was raised in the fashion of the time. Grose received a letter
of service:--
"Yourself and the three captains now to be appointed by His
Majesty will each be required to raise a complete company (viz.,
three sergeants, three corporals, two drummers, and sixty-seven
private men), in aid of the expenses of which you will be allowed
to name the lieutenant and ensign of your respective companies,
and to receive from the public three guineas for every recruit
approved at the headquarters of the corps by a general or field
officer appointed for the purpose."
Grose made what he could by the privilege of nominating and by any
difference there was between the price he paid for recruits and the public
money he was paid for them; this sort of business was common enough in
those days. Later on he received permission to raise two hundred more men,
and a second major, who paid £200 for his commission, was appointed. Such
men of the old marine force as chose to accept their discharge in New
South Wales were allowed that privilege, and were given a land grant to
induce them to become settlers, and these men were, on the arrival of the
New South Wales Corps, formed into an auxiliary company under the command
of Captain-Lieutenant George Johnson, who had been a marine officer in the
first fleet, and who, like MacArthur, was later on to make a chapter of
history. The regiment at its maximum strength formed ten companies,
numbering 886 non-coms, and privates.
It may be interesting to record on what conditions the marines were
granted discharges. First they must have served three years (a superfluous
condition, seeing that the corps was not relieved until long after three
years' service had expired); there was then granted to every non-com. 100
acres and every private 50 acres for ten years, after which they were to
pay an annual quit rent of a shilling for every ten acres. A bounty of £3
and a double grant of land was allowed to all men who re-enlisted in the
New South Wales Corps, and they were also given the further privilege of a
year's clothes, provisions, and seed grain, and one or more assigned
convict servants, at the discretion of the governor. The only available
return shows that about 50 of the men, a year before the force left the
colony, had accepted the offer of discharge and settled at Parramatta and
Norfolk Island, then the two principal farming settlements.
The Home Government made no provisions for grants to officers, and as to
free emigrants, they were a class in those days so little contemplated
that the early governors' instructions merely provided that they were to
be given every encouragement short of "subjecting the public to expense."
Grants of land equal to that given to non-commissioned officers could be
made, and assigned servants allowed, but nothing else.
Any modern emigrant who has seen what a grant of uncleared land in
Australia means knows what a poor chance of success the most industrious
settler could have on these terms, and the early governors were in despair
of getting people settled, since they could not provide settlers with
seeds, tools, clothing, or anything else without disobeying the order not
to subject the public to expense.
Emancipated convicts, on the other hand, were allowed much the same
privileges as discharged marines. Phillip repeatedly wrote to England on
this subject, and he, on his own responsibility, on more than one
occasion, departed from his instructions, and gave privileges to _bonâ
fide_ selectors of all classes.
The English Government was perfectly right in the plan laid down. Its
object was to encourage those people to go upon the land who were prepared
to remain there, and military and civil officials were not likely to
become permanent occupants of their land grants. An opportunity, as a
matter of fact, was given to them to supply information as to whether or
not they wanted to settle. At that time things looked unpromising, and
most of them answered, "No." When it became apparent to the Government
that there was a desire to settle, further instructions were issued by
which officers were allowed to take up land, but the permission was given
without providing proper security for permanent occupation or without
limiting the area of land grants. From the omission of these provisions
many abuses grew up. A scale of fees absurdly small, seeing that fees were
not chargeable to military and convict settlers, but only to people who,
it might well be supposed, could afford to pay, was also provided by the
Government, and regulations for the employment of assigned convicts were
drawn up.
In Governor Phillip's time there was no authority to grant officers any
land; in Lieutenant-Governor Grose's time there was no limit to the land
they might be granted, and as little value was attached to the Crown lands
of the colony, lands probably of less value then than any other in the
possession of civilized people, Grose's officers, who had to do a great
deal of extra civil work, were given land in payment for that work. Much
abuse has been heaped upon Grose for his alleged favouring of officers by
giving them huge grants of land, but, as a matter of fact, Grose behaved
very honourably; and Mac Arthur, who owned more land than any other
officer in 1794, had only 250 acres in cultivation, and the grants to
other officers never exceeded in any one case 120 acres. If Grose's land
policy was bad, he was not to blame, but the trafficking which he
permitted to grow up and practically encouraged was a different matter
altogether.
Phillip warned the home Government before he left the colony that rum
might be a necessity, but it would certainly turn out a great evil. Soon
after Grose took command of the colony there arrived an American ship with
a cargo of provisions and rum for sale. The American skipper would not
sell the provisions without the purchaser also bought the spirits. This
was the beginning of the rum traffic; and ships frequently arrived
afterwards with stores, and always with quantities of spirits--rum from
America and brandy from the Cape. The officers purchased all the spirits,
and paid the wages of the convicts who were assigned to them with the
liquor; not only this, but they hired extra convict labour, paying for it
the same way, and strong drink became the medium of exchange.
All this has been an apparent digression from the history of the New South
Wales Corps, but, as will be seen, the subjects are intimately connected.
A later governor, who found the colony not so bad as it was at this time,
said its population consisted of people who had been, and people who ought
to have been, transported. Little wonder then that the New South Wales
Corps, enlisted from the lowest classes of the English population, became
demoralized. Most of the recruits came from that famous "clink" the Savoy
Military Prison. They had little drill or discipline when they were
embarked for the colony, and the character of the service they were
employed in was the very worst to make good soldiers of them.
In consequence they became a dangerous element in the early life of the
colony; there were frequently breaches of discipline, there were cases of
downright mutiny, and their career in New South Wales ended in a
rebellion. The responsibility for the last crime, however, is with the
officers, and not the men. One mutiny was that of the detachment on the
_Lady Shore_ in 1798.
This ship was on her way out with female prisoners and a few of the better
sort of male convicts. The soldiers joined with the seamen and seized the
ship, turning those who would not take side with them adrift in the boats.
Among these loyal people were some of the male convicts. The boats made
their way to Rio Janeiro, whence the people ultimately reached England.
Among the "respectable" convicts was one Major Semple, a notorious
swindler of the time, who on this occasion behaved well, risking his life
for the protection of the ship's officers--from the soldiers who had been
put on board to support law and order! (He afterwards settled in the
Brazils, and received his pardon from England.) The ship was carried by
the mutineers into Monte Video and there given up to the Spaniards, who
later, finding the true character of the people on board of her, hanged
the ringleader and delivered up others of her crew to the English naval
authorities. The female convicts had been carried off by the soldiers, and
when the Rev. William Gregory arrived at Monte [Sidenote: 1798-1807]
Video (a prisoner of war taken in the missionary ship _Duff_ on her second
voyage), he found these women there. They had by their conduct given the
Spaniards a curious idea of the morality of Englishwomen.[F] Among the
rebellious soldiers were many foreigners, and when the mutineers seized
the vessel they announced that they had taken her in the name of the
French Republic. They addressed one another as "Citizen" this and
"Citizen" that, and behaved generally in the approved manner of those
"reformers" of the period who had been inspired by the French
revolutionists.
[Footnote F: The _Duff was_ captured by the _Bonaparte_, privateer. Among
her passengers were several ladies--wives of the missionaries--and at
first the citizens of Monte Video classed them with the _Lady Shore's_
female passengers.]
In the chapters on King and Bligh the mutinies of this remarkable regiment
form almost the principal episodes, so we may conclude this chapter with
what short regimental history the corps possessed.
As the colony grew in population the corps was increased in strength,
until, in 1807, it reached a total of 11 companies, numbering 886
non-commissioned officers and men. In 1808 came the Bligh episode, yet to
be described. The home Government recalled the corps, and a battalion of
the 73rd, 700 strong, was sent out to relieve it. Authority was, however,
given to make up the 73rd to the strength of 1000 by taking volunteers
from the corps. This was done, and a veteran company was also formed, and
the strength of the 73rd then reached a total of 1234 soldiers, of whom
something like 500 men originally belonged to the New South Wales Corps.
The remainder of the old corps went home, and was placed on the army list
as the 102nd Regiment. Before this its official title was the New South
Wales Corps, but the newspapers of the day often varied this by calling it
the Botany Bay Rangers and similar appropriate names.
The 102nd served at various home stations until 1812, when it was sent to
the Bermudas, and in 1814 took part in an expedition against Mosse Island,
in America. In 1816 the 102nd became the 100th [Sidenote: 1823-1870]
Regiment; and on the 24th of March, 1818, the regiment was disbanded, and
the regiments which were afterwards thus numbered have no connection with
it.
The veteran company lasted until 1823, being linked to each regiment of
foot that came out to the Australian station. The 73rd was followed by the
46th; then came the 48th, and soon afterwards the New South Wales Veteran
Company, as it was called, was abolished. Imperial troops from that time
onward garrisoned the Australian colonies until 1870, when they were
withdrawn, and their places taken by the permanent artillery regiment, the
militia, and the volunteer forces, raised under constitutional government.
CHAPTER VII.
GOVERNOR KING.
For the reason that all the contemporary historians were officers, and
their writings little more than official accounts of the colonization of
Australia, the personality of the naval governors never stands out from
their pages. The German blood in Phillip seems to have made him a
peculiarly self-contained man; the respect due to Hunter, as a fine type
of the old sea-dog, just saves him from being laughed at in his
gubernatorial capacity; King, however, by pure force of character, is more
sharply defined. In reading of his work we learn something of the man
himself; and of all Phillip's subordinates in the beginning of things
Australian, he, and he alone, was the friend of his cold, reserved chief.
Philip Gidley King was twenty years younger than Phillip, and was thirty
years of age when he, in 1786, joined the _Sirius_ as second lieutenant.
In a statement of his services sent by himself to the Admiralty in 1790,
he supplied the following particulars:--
"Served in the East Indies from the year 1770 to 1774 on board His
Majesty's sloop and ships _Swallow, Dolphin_, and _Prudent_; in
North America in His Majesty's ships _Liverpool, Virginia,
Princess_, and _Renown_ from the year 1775 to 1779. I was made a
lieutenant into the last ship by Mr. Byron November 26th, 1778. On
Channel service, Gibraltar, and Lisbon, in His Majesty's sloop and
ship _Kite_ and _Ariadne_ from 1780 to 1783; in the East Indies in
His Majesty's ship _Europe_ from 1783 to 1785; in New South Wales
in His Majesty's ship the _Sirius_ from 1786 to 1790. This time
includes the ship being put in commission, and my stay at Norfolk
Island to this date. In His Majesty's service twenty years; twelve
years a lieutenant."
King had entered the service when he was twelve years of age, and
was previously under Phillip in the _Europe_. He was probably the
best educated of the officers in the first fleet, and from his
knowledge of French there happened an episode which is a matter
not only of Australian, but of European, interest.
While the first fleet were lying at anchor in Botany Bay, two
strange sail were seen in the offing. That official historian,
Tench, of the marines, in a little touch of descriptive ability,
which he sometimes displayed, described the incident:--
"The thoughts of removal" (in search of a better site for a
settlement) "banished sleep, so that I rose at the first dawn of
the morning. But judge of my surprise on hearing from a sergeant,
who ran down almost breathlessly to the cabin where I was
dressing, that a ship was seen off the harbour's mouth. At first I
only laughed, but knowing the man who spoke to me to be of great
veracity, and hearing him repeat his information, I flew upon
deck; and I had barely set my foot, when the cry of 'Another
sail!' struck on my astonished ear. Confounded by a thousand ideas
which arose in my mind in an instant, I sprang upon the baracado,
and plainly descried two ships of considerable size standing in
for the mouth of the bay. By this time the alarm had become
general, and everyone appeared in conjecture. Now they were
Dutchmen sent to dispossess us, and the moment after storeships
from England with supplies for the settlement. The improbabilities
which attended both these conclusions were sunk in the agitation
of the moment. It was by Governor Phillip that this mystery was at
length unravelled, and the cause of the alarm pronounced to be two
French ships, which, it was recollected, were on a voyage of
discovery in the Southern Hemisphere. Thus were our doubts cleared
up, and our apprehensions banished."
[Illustration: GOVERNOR KING. From a heliotype published in "The
Historical Records of New South Wales" [Sydney, 1889, etc.], after a
portrait in the possession of the Hon. P.G. King. _To face p_. 138.]
The two ships were the _Boussole_ and the _Astrolabe_, the French
expedition under the illstarred La Pérouse. Phillip was at Port Jackson
selecting a site for the settlement, and the English ships, before the
Frenchmen had swung to their anchors, were on their way round to the new
harbour. But certain courtesies were exchanged between the representatives
of the two nations, and King was the officer employed to transact business
with them. La Pérouse gave him despatches to send home by the returning
transports. These letters and the words spoken to and recorded by King
("In short, Mr. Cook has done so much that he has left me nothing to do
but admire his work") were the last the world heard from the unfortunate
officer, whose fate from that hour till forty years later remained a
mystery of the sea.
Norfolk Island was discovered by Cook in October, 1774, and in his one
day's stay there he noted its pine-trees and its flax plant. The people at
home thought that the flax and the timber of New Zealand might be used for
naval purposes, and as Cook's report said that Norfolk Island contained
similar products, the colonization of the island as an adjunct to the New
South Wales settlements no doubt suggested itself. Phillip was therefore
ordered to "send a small establishment thither to secure the same to us
and prevent its occupation by any other European power."
A separate command like this had to be entrusted to a reliable man, and
Phillip, though no doubt loth to lose the close-at-hand service of King,
yet felt the importance of the work, and so chose him for it. King left
for the island on February 15th, 1788, in the _Supply_, taking with him
James Cunningham, master's mate; Thomas Jamison, surgeon's mate; Roger
Morley, a volunteer adventurer, who had been a master weaver; 2 marines
and a seaman from the _Sirius_; and 9 male and 6 female convicts. This
complement was to form the little colony. The _Supply_, under Lieutenant
Ball, was ordered to return as soon as she had landed the colonists. On
the way down, Ball discovered and named Lord Howe Island, and on March 8th
the people were landed at their solitary home.
King remained on the island until March, 1790, doing such good work there
that not only were the people keeping themselves, but, as we have seen,
Phillip sent to him a large proportion of his half-famished settlers from
New South Wales, and when King left the population numbered 418, excluding
80 shipwrecked people of the _Sirius_.
[Illustration: JEAN FRANÇOIS GALAUP, COMTE DE LA PÉROUSE.]
As governor of the island, King combined in himself [Sidenote: 1788]
the functions of the criminal and civil courts, and the duties of
chaplain. Every Sunday morning, we are told, he caused the people to be
assembled for religious service. A man beat the head of an empty cask for
a church bell. His punishments for offences then punishable by death were
always remarkable for their mildness, as leniency was measured in those
days when floggings were reckoned by the hundred lashes.
King left Norfolk Island to go to England with despatches from Phillip. He
sailed from Port Jackson in April, 1790, in the _Supply_ for Batavia. The
brig returned to the colony with such food as she could obtain, and King
chartered a small Dutch vessel to convey him to the Cape of Good Hope.
The voyage home was one of the most remarkable ever made. Five days after
leaving Batavia the crew, including the master of the vessel and the
surgeon, fell ill from the usual cause: "the putrid fever of Batavia."
Only four well men were left. King took command of them, put up a tent on
deck to escape the contagion, ministered to the sick, buried the seventeen
who died, was compelled to go below with his respiratory organs masked by
a sponge soaked in vinegar, and through all this navigated the vessel to
the Mauritius in a fortnight.
At Port Louis he was offered a passage to France in a French warship, but,
fearful that war might have broken out by the time he reached the Channel,
and he might thus be delayed in his mission, he refused the offer, and
having cleaned and fumigated his ship, he shipped a new crew and sailed
for the Cape, which he reached eighteen days later.
At the Cape he found Riou with the wreck of the _Guardian_, he who fell at
Copenhagen, and whose epitaph is written in Nelson's despatch, telling how
"the good and gallant Captain Riou" fought the _Amazon_. The _Guardian_,
loaded with stores for Port Jackson, had struck an iceberg, and her wreck
had been navigated in heroic fashion by Riou to the Cape. To the colony
her loss was a great misfortune, and King realized that there was so much
the greater need for hurry, and two months later he reached England. This
was on the 20th of December, eight months from Port Jackson!
At home his superiors quickly recognized that King was a good officer, and
Phillip's warm recommendations were acted upon. [Sidenote: 1792]
He was given a commission as lieutenant-governor of Norfolk Island, £250 a
year, and the rank of commander. He spent three months in England,
married, and sailed again in the _Gorgon_, which was the first warship,
unless the _Sirius_ and _Supply_ and the Frenchmen are counted as such, to
visit Sydney.
Phillip went home, Grose took charge at Sydney, and King returned to his
island command, which during his absence had been under Major Ross, of the
Marines, and martial law. Then began serious trouble. In England,
curiously enough, no thought of New Zealand had been taken yet. Some of
the masters of transports to New South Wales, who were already beginning
to experiment in whaling (whales in plenty had been seen from Dampier's
time), had visited the coasts of New Zealand, and King himself was
strongly of opinion that a settlement should be attempted there.
The expedition under Vancouver was, in 1792, in New Zealand and Australian
waters. Vancouver induced a couple of Maoris to leave their home for the
purpose of teaching the colonists how to use the flax plant, promising the
natives that they should be returned to New Zealand. The Maoris were
despatched by Vancouver in the _Daedalus_ to Port Jackson, and Grose sent
them on to Norfolk Island. Little was to be learnt from them, and, as a
matter of fact, the attempt to grow and use flax never came to anything.
King was very kind to the two natives, who became much attached to him,
and he, anxious to carry out the promise of the white man to return them
to their homes, did a very imprudent thing. The _Britannia_, a returning
storeship, was detained by contrary winds at the island on her way to the
East Indies. The wind served for New Zealand. King chartered her to take
the two natives home, and himself accompanied them on the passage to the
Bay of Islands. King's reasons for the step were--
"the sacred duty that devolves upon Englishmen of keeping faith
with native races, and the desire to see for himself what could be
done towards colonizing New Zealand."
These reasons would justify British officers in many circumstances, but
they scarcely warranted King in leaving even for the short period of ten
days, the time occupied over the transaction, such an awkward command as
the government of a penal settlement. The senior officer under King was
Lieutenant Abbott, of the New South Wales Corps; and, instead of
appointing him to the command of the island in his absence, King left
Captain Nepean, of the same regiment, in charge. This officer was at the
time about to go to England on sick leave, and King's reason for his
selection was that he had no confidence in either Abbott or the subaltern
under him. There is plenty of evidence that King was right in his want of
confidence in these officers, but the action gave mortal offence to Grose,
and King's absence from the command gave Grose his opportunity. But King
did worse: Grose was his superior officer, and until Abbott had "got in
first" with his grievances King never offered any explanation of his acts
to the senior officer, but sent his account of the trip, his reasons for
undertaking it and for giving the command to Nepean, directly to the Home
Office.
Grose was unjustly severe, was downright offensive over the business; but,
to do him justice, he afterwards realized this, and ultimately
considerably moderated his behaviour. But there was another and a greater
cause of irritation to the lieutenant-governor at Port Jackson, who, be it
remembered, was also the officer commanding the New South Wales Regiment:
This was the way in which King suppressed a serious military mutiny at
Norfolk Island.
Naturally enough, the men of the New South Wales Corps stationed on the
little island fraternized with the convicts. The two classes of the
population drank and gambled together, and of course quarrelled; then the
soldiers and the prisoners' wives became too intimate, and the quarrels
between parties grew serious. A time-expired prisoner caught his wife and
a soldier together; the aggrieved husband struck the soldier, and the
latter complained. The man was fined _20s_., bound over to keep the peace
for twelve months, and allowed by King time to pay the fine. This
exasperated the whole military detachment. The idea of an ex-convict
striking a soldier who had done him the honour to seduce his wife, and
being fined a paltry sovereign, with time to pay!
Then, in January, 1794, a number of freed men and convicts were, by
permission of the governor, performing a play; this had been a regular
Saturday evening's amusement for some weeks. Just before the performance
began a sergeant of the corps entered the theatre and forcibly tried to
take a seat that had been allotted to one of the lieutenant-governor's
servants. A discharged convict, who was one of the [Sidenote: 1794]
managers of the theatre, remonstrated with the soldier, who replied with a
blow. The ex-convict then turned the man out of the building, and the
performance began, King entering the theatre when all was quiet, but
having his suspicions aroused by the threatening aspect of the soldiers.
At the conclusion of the performance the disturbance was renewed outside,
and a number of the soldiers went to the barracks, got their side-arms,
and returned to the scene, threatening what they would do. King heard the
noise, and rushing out from his house, seized a man who was flourishing
his bayonet, and handing him over to the guard, ordered that they should
take him to the guard-room.
This was the critical moment. After a second's hesitation King was obeyed,
and the soldiers, at the order of Lieutenant Abbott, their officer,
retired to the barracks, where they held a meeting, and resolved to free
their comrade by force, if he was not released in the morning. King, who
had kept his ears open, took counsel with the military and civil officers,
and a unanimous decision was arrived at to disarm the detachment.
This could only be effected by stratagem, although it was believed that
but a portion of the men were disaffected. All those suspected of
complicity were in the morning marched, under one of their officers, to a
distant part of the island on the pretence of collecting wild fowl
feathers. While they were away, King, with the remainder of the military
and civil officers, went to the guard-room and took possession of all the
arms. The lieutenant-governor then swore in as a militia 44 marines and
seamen settlers, armed them, and all danger was over.
Just as this was completed, the Government schooner arrived from Port
Jackson, and King sent ten ringleaders of the mutiny to Sydney for trial,
pardoning ten others. The vessel was despatched in a hurry, and King sent
a very meagre letter to Grose, leaving a lieutenant of the corps in charge
of the guard sent with the mutineers to explain matters.
Grose assembled a court of inquiry, and its finding severely censured King
for daring so to disgrace the soldiers as to disarm them. Grose sent an
offensive letter with this finding, in which King was ordered to disband
his militia, and generally to reverse everything that had been done; and
King did exactly as he was ordered to do. At home the Duke of Portland
approved of all King's acts, objecting only [Sidenote: 1797-1800]
to his leaving his command to take home the New Zealanders without first
getting permission from Grose.
King left Norfolk Island in 1797, and on his arrival in England, tired of
civil appointment, set about looking for a ship. But Sir Joseph Banks,
whose disinterested regard for the colony and its affairs had given him
considerable influence with the Home Office, procured him a dormant
commission as governor of New South Wales, under which he was to act in
the event of the death or absence of Hunter. He arrived in the colony
early in 1800, bringing with him a despatch recalling Hunter, and it can
easily be understood that the ex-governor did not display very good
feeling towards his successor, who was sent to replace him in this rough
and ready fashion.
The state of the colony at this time has already been described, and
although during King's administration many events of colonial importance
happened, we have only space for those of more general interest. King
displayed great firmness and ability in dealing with the abuses which had
grown up owing to the liquor traffic; but the condition of affairs
required stronger remedies than it was in his power to apply, so things
went on much the same as before, and the details of life then in New South
Wales are of little interest to general readers.
King's determination and honesty of purpose earned for him the hatred of
the rum traders, and the New South Wales Corps was in such a state that in
a despatch, after praising the behaviour of the convicts, he wrote that he
wished he could write in the same way of the military, "who," says King,
"after just attempting to set their commanding officer and myself at
variance and failing, they have ever since been causing nothing but the
most vexacious trouble both with their own commandant and myself."
Captain MacArthur had by this time imported his Spanish sheep, and had
become the greatest landowner and pastoralist in the colony. MacArthur
wanted to go to England, and offered the lot to the Government for £4000.
King had the good sense to see the value of the offer, and in a letter to
the Home Office advised its acceptance. To this came replies from both the
Duke of Portland and the War Office, expressing the strongest disapproval
of the idea and stating that it was highly improper that an officer in the
service should have become such a big trader. In 1801 MacArthur
quarrelled with one of his brother officers, and this led to almost all
the officials
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