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CHAPTER IV.
1. Governor King.—Governor Hunter, who left Sydney in the year
1800, was succeeded by Captain King, the young officer who has been already
mentioned as the founder of the settlement at Norfolk Island. He was a man of
much ability, and was both active and industrious; yet so overwhelming at this time
were the difficulties of Governorship in New South Wales, that his term of
office was little more than a distressing failure. The colony consisted chiefly
of convicts, who were—many of them—the most depraved and hardened villains to
be met with in the history of crime. To keep these in check, and to maintain
order, was no easy task; but to make them work, to convert them into
industrious and well-behaved members of the community, was far beyond any
Governor’s power. King made an effort, and did his very best; but after a time
he grew disheartened, and, in his disappointment, complained of the folly which
expected him to make farmers out of pickpockets. His chances of success would
have been much increased had he been properly seconded by his subordinates.
But, unfortunately, circumstances had arisen which caused the officers and
soldiers not only to render him no assistance whatever, but even to thwart and
frustrate his most careful plans.
2. The New South Wales Corps.—In 1790 a special corps had been organised
in the British army for service in the colony; it was called the New South
Wales Corps, and was intended to be permanently settled in Sydney. Very few
high-class officers cared to enter this service, so far from home and in the
midst of the lowest criminals. Those who joined it generally came out with the
idea of quickly gathering a small fortune, then resigning their commissions and
returning to England. The favourite method of making money was to import goods into
the settlement and sell them at high rates of profit; and, in their haste to
become rich, many resorted to unscrupulous devices for obtaining profits. A
trade in which those who commanded were the sellers, whilst the convicts and
settlers under their charge were the purchasers, could hardly fail to ruin
discipline and introduce grave evils, more especially when ardent spirits began
to be the chief article of traffic. It was found that nothing sold so well
among the convicts as rum, their favourite liquor; and, rather than not make
money, the officers began to import large quantities of that spirit, thus
deliberately assisting to demoralise still further the degraded population
which they had been sent to reform. So enormous were the profits made in this debasing
trade that very few of the officers could refrain from joining it. Soon the New
South Wales Corps became like one great firm of spirit merchants, engaged in
the importing and retailing of rum. The most enterprising went so far as to
introduce stills and commence the manufacture of spirits in the colony. By an
order of the Governor in Council this was forbidden, but many continued to work
their stills in secret. This system of traffic, demoralising to every one
engaged in it, was shared even by the highest officials in the colony. In the
year 1800 the chief constable was a publican, and the head gaoler sold rum and
brandy opposite the prison gates.
3. State of the Colony.—Under these circumstances, drunkenness
became fearfully prevalent; the freed convicts gave themselves up to
unrestrained riot, and, when intoxicated, committed the most brutal atrocities;
the soldiers also sank into the wildest dissipation; and many of the officers
themselves led lives of open and shameless debauchery. This was the community
Governor King had to rule. He made an effort to effect some change, but failed;
and we can hardly wonder at the feeling of intense disgust which he entertained
and freely expressed.
4. Mutiny of Convicts.—Most of the convicts, on their arrival in the
colony, were “assigned”—that is, sent to work as shepherds or farm-labourers
for the free settlers in the country; but prisoners of the worst class were
chained in gangs and employed on the roads, or on the Government farms. One of
these gangs, consisting of three or four hundred convicts, was stationed at
Castlehill, a few miles north of Parramatta. The prisoners, emboldened by their
numbers and inflamed by the oratory of a number of political exiles, broke out
into open insurrection. They flung away their hoes and spades, removed their
irons, seized about two hundred and fifty muskets, and marched towards the
Hawkesbury, expecting to be there reinforced by so many additional convicts
that they would be able to overpower the military. Major Johnstone, with
twenty-four soldiers of the New South Wales Corps, pursued them; they halted
and turned round to fight, but he charged with so much determination into their
midst that they were quickly routed, and fled in all directions, leaving
several of their number dead on the spot. Three or four of the ringleaders were
caught and hanged; the remainder returned quickly to their duty.
5. Origin of Wool-growing.—During Governor King’s term of office a
beginning was made in what is now an industry of momentous importance to
Australia. In the New South Wales Corps there had been an officer named
Macarthur, who had become so disgusted with the service that, shortly after his
arrival in Sydney, he resigned his commission, and, having obtained a grant of
land, became a settler in the country. He quickly perceived that wool-growing,
if properly carried on, would be a source of much wealth, and obtained a number
of sheep from the Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope, with which to make a
commencement. These were of a kind which did not suit the climate, and his
first attempt failed; but in 1803, when he was in England on a visit, he spoke
so highly of New South Wales as a country adapted for wool-growing, that King
George III. was interested in the proposal, and offered his assistance. Now,
the sheep most suitable for Macarthur’s purpose were the merino sheep of Spain;
but these were not to be obtained, as the Spaniards, desirous of keeping the
lucrative trade of wool-growing to themselves, had made it a capital crime to
export sheep of this kind from Spain. But it so happened that, as a special
favour, a few had been given to King George, who was an enthusiastic farmer;
and when he heard of Macarthur’s idea, he sent him one or two from his own
flock to be carried out to New South Wales. They were safely landed at Sydney,
Governor King made a grant of ten thousand acres to Mr. Macarthur, at Camden,
and the experiment was begun. It was not long before the most marked success
crowned the effort, and in the course of a few years the meadows at Camden were
covered with great flocks of sheep, whose wool yielded annually a handsome
fortune to their enterprising owner.
6. Governor Bligh.—In 1806 Governor King was succeeded by
Captain Bligh, whose previous adventures have made his name so well known. In
his ship, the Bounty, he had been sent by the British Government to the
South Sea Islands for a cargo of bread-fruit trees. But his conduct to his
sailors was so tyrannical that they mutinied, put him, along with eighteen
others, into an open boat, then sailed away, and left him in the middle of the
Pacific Ocean. Bligh was a skilful sailor, and the voyage he thereupon
undertook is one of the most remarkable on record. In an open boat he carried
his little party over 3,500 miles of unknown ocean to the island of Timor,
where they found a vessel that took them home.
In appointing Captain Bligh to rule the
colony, the English Government spoiled an excellent seaman to make a very
inefficient Governor. It was true that New South Wales contained a large
convict population, who required to be ruled with despotic rigour; yet there
were many free settlers who declined to be treated like slaves and felons, and
who soon came to have a thorough dislike to the new Governor. Not that he was
without kindly feeling; his generous treatment of the Hawkesbury farmers, who
were ruined by a flood in 1806, showed him to have been warm-hearted in his
way; he exerted himself to the utmost, both with time and money, to alleviate
their distress, and received the special thanks of the English Government for
his humanity. And yet his arbitrary and unamiable manners completely obscured
all these better qualities. He caused the convicts to be flogged without mercy
for faults which existed only in his own imagination; he bullied his officers,
and, throughout the colony, repeated the same mistakes which had led to the
mutiny of the Bounty. At the same time, he was anxious to do what he
conceived to be his duty to his superiors in England. He had been ordered to
put a stop to the traffic in spirits, and, in spite of the most unscrupulous
opposition on the part of those whose greed was interested, he set himself to
effect this reform by prompt and summary measures, and with a contemptuous
disregard of the hatred he was causing; but, in the end, the officers were too
strong for him, and in the quarrel that ensued the Governor was completely
defeated.
7. Expulsion of Bligh.—Month after month Bligh became more and more
unpopular; those whom he did not alienate in the course of his duty he offended
by his rudeness, until, at last, there was scarcely any one in the colony who
was his friend. Many were inflamed by so bitter a hatred that they were ready
to do anything for revenge, and affairs seemed to be in that critical state in
which a trifling incident may bring about serious results.
This determining cause was supplied by a
quarrel which took place between Mr. Macarthur and Mr. Atkin, the new
judge-advocate of the colony. Mr. Macarthur was condemned to pay a heavy fine
for neglect, in having permitted a convict to escape in a vessel of which he
was partly the owner. He refused to pay, and was summoned before the court, of
which Atkin was the president. He declined to appear, on the ground that Atkin
was his personal enemy. Thereupon Atkin caused him to be seized and put in
gaol. Bligh appointed a special court to try him, consisting of six officers,
together with Atkin himself. Macarthur was brought before it, but protested
against being judged by his enemy, stating his willingness, however, to abide
by the decision of the six officers. The officers supported his protest, and
the trial was discontinued. Bligh was exceedingly angry, and, by declaring he
would put the six officers in gaol, brought matters to a crisis. The officers
of the New South Wales Corps all took part with their comrades; they assisted
Mr. Macarthur to get up a petition, asking Major Johnstone, the military
commander, to depose Governor Bligh, and himself take charge of the colony.
Major Johnstone was only too glad of the opportunity. He held a council of
officers, at which Mr. Macarthur and several others were present. Their course
of action was decided upon, and next morning the soldiers marched, with colours
flying and drums beating, to the gate of the Governor’s house. Here they were
met by Bligh’s daughter, who endeavoured to persuade them to retire; but they
made her stand aside and marched up the avenue. Meantime the Governor had
hidden himself in the house; the soldiers entered and searched everywhere for
him, till at length they discovered him behind a bed, where he was seeking to
hide important papers. He was arrested, and sentinels were posted to prevent
his escape. Major Johnstone assumed the Governor’s position, and appointed his
friends to the most important offices in the Government service. He continued
to direct affairs for some time, until Colonel Foveaux superseded him. Foveaux,
in his turn, was superseded by Colonel Patterson, who came over from Tasmania
to take charge of the colony until a new Governor should be sent out from home.
Patterson offered Bligh his liberty if he would promise to go straight to
England, and not seek to raise a disturbance in the colony. This promise was
given by Bligh, and yet no sooner was he free than he began to stir up the
Hawkesbury settlers in his behalf. They declined to assist him, however, and
Bligh went over to Tasmania, where the settlement to be described in the next
chapter had been formed. Here he was received with great good-will, until the
news arrived from Sydney that, according to the solemn promise he had given, he
ought at that time to have been on his way to England. An attempt was made to
capture him, but he escaped to England, where his adventures in New South Wales
were soon forgotten, and he rose to be an admiral in the English navy. When the
news of the rebellion reached the authorities in England, Major Johnstone was
dismissed from the service, and Major-General Lachlan Macquarie was sent out to
be Governor of the colony. Major Johnstone retired to a farm in New South
Wales, where he lived and prospered till his death in 1817.
CHAPTER V.
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