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 in the colony quarrelling with one another and to a duel
between MacArthur and his commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Paterson,
the latter being wounded. King put MacArthur under arrest, and sent him to
England for trial with the remark that if he was sent to the colony again
it had better be as governor, as he already owned half of it, and it would
not be long before he owned the other half.
The Advocate-General of the army, however, sent him back to the colony
with a recommendation that the squabble should be dropped.
During King's administration several political prisoners who had been
concerned in the 1798 rebellion were sent out; and, by the governor's good
offices, these men were given certain indulgences, and generally placed
upon a different footing to felons, a distinction that had not been
provided for by the Imperial Government. King has had very little credit
for this, and because he _did_ deal severely with Irish rebels has been
put down by many as a cruel man, but the home Government at first sent out
prisoners without any history of their crimes, and King was unable to
tell the dangerous from the comparatively inoffensive until he had seen
how the exiles behaved in the colony. During King's administration there
was an open revolt of the convicts. They assembled at a place called
Castle Hill, about 20 miles from Sydney, to fight a "battle for liberty."
Here is the report of the officer who suppressed the rebellion:--
"_Major Johnston to Lieutenant-Colonel Paterson_.
"HEADQUARTERS, SYDNEY,
"_9th March, 1804_.
"Sir,--I beg leave to acquaint you that about half-past 1 o'clock
on Monday morning last I took the command of the detachment
marched from headquarters accompanied by Lieutenant Davies,
consisting of two officers, two sergeants, and 52 rank and file of
the New South Wales Corps, and, by His Excellency Governor King's
orders, I proceeded immediately to Parramatta, where we arrived at
the dawn of day. I halted at the barracks about 20 minutes to
refresh my party, and then marched to Government House, and,
agreeable to His Excellency's orders, divided my detachment,
giving Lieutenant Davies the command of half and taking
Quartermaster Laycock and the other half, with one trooper,
myself, having the Governor's instructions to march in pursuit of
the rebels, who, in number about 400, were on the summit of the
hill. I immediately detached a corporal, [Sidenote: 1804]
with four privates and about six inhabitants, armed with musquets,
to take them in flank whilst I proceeded with the rest up the
hill, when I found the rebels had marched on for the Hawkesbury,
and after a pursuit of about ten miles I got sight of them. I
immediately rode forward, attended by the trooper and Mr. Dixon,
the Roman Catholic priest, calling to them to halt, that I wished
to speak to them. They desired I would come into the middle of
them, as their captains were there, which I refused, observing to
them that I was within pistol-shot, and it was in their power to
kill me, and that their captains must have very little spirit if
they would not come forward to speak to me, upon which two persons
advanced towards me as their leaders, to whom I represented the
impropriety of their conduct, and advised them to surrender, and I
would mention them in as favourable terms as possible to the
Governor. C. replied they would have death or liberty.
Quartermaster Laycock with the detachment just then appearing in
sight, I clapped my pistol to J.'s head, whilst the trooper did
the same to C.'s and drove them with their swords in their hands
to the Quartermaster and the detachment, whom I ordered to advance
and charge the main body of the rebels then formed in line. The
detachment immediately commenced a well-directed fire, which was
but weakly returned, for, the rebel line being soon broken, they
ran in all directions. We pursued them a considerable way, and
have no doubt but that many of them fell. We have found 12 killed,
6 wounded, and have taken 26 prisoners.
"Any encomiums I could pass on Quartermaster Laycock and the
detachment I had the honour to command would fall far short of
what their merit entitles them to, and I trust their steady
perseverance, after a fatiguing march of upwards of 45 miles, to
restore order and tranquillity will make their services
acceptable. Return of arms taken from the rebels: 26 muskets, 4
bayonets on poles, 8 reaping-hooks, 2 swords, a fowling-piece, and
a pistol."
The revolt seems to have been the result more than anything else of the
number of political prisoners which at that time had been transported to
the colony and the quantity of liquor available. Certainly King's
government was not severe enough to provoke an outbreak. Sir Joseph Banks,
writing to him, said:--
"There is only one part of your conduct as governor which I do not
think right; that is your frequent reprieves. I would have justice
in the case of those under your command who have already forfeited
their lives, and been once admitted to a commutation of
punishment, to be certain and inflexible, and no one case on
record where mere mercy, which is a deceiving sentiment, should be
permitted to move your mind from the inexorable decree of blind
justice. Circumstances may often make pardon necessary--I mean
those of suspected error in conviction; but mere whimpering
soft-heartedness never should be heard."
Dr. Lang published his _History of New South Wales_ in 1834; Judge Therry
wrote a book of personal reminiscences dating from 1829. Both these
writers describe things they knew, and relate stories told to them by men
who had come out in the first fleet. Therry and Lang were as opposite as
the poles: the first was an Irish barrister and a Roman Catholic; the
second was a Scotchman and a Presbyterian minister. The two men are
substantially in agreement in the pictures they draw of the colony's early
governors and of life as it was in New South Wales down to the twenties.
Lang and Therry both relate anecdotes of King. The stories do not present
him in a light to command respect; the official records rather confirm
than contradict the stories. Governing a penal colony seems to have had an
unhealthy influence upon the sailor governors; Phillip only escaped it.
King, Phillip's right hand, when a lieutenant, makes a voyage to England
in fashion heroic; he commands Norfolk Island at a critical time, when no
one but a _man_ could have controlled its affairs; he is appointed to the
supreme command in New South Wales, and before he has been many months in
office becomes a laughing-stock.
It is due to the first governor's successors to remember that they had no
force behind them. Phillip's marines were soldiers; the New South Wales
Corps were dealers in rum, officers and men were duly licensed to sell it,
and every ship that came into the harbour brought it. "In 1802, when I
arrived, it was lamentable to behold the drunkenness. It was no uncommon
occurrence for men to sit round a bucket of spirits and drink it with
quart pots until they were unable to stir from the spot." Thus wrote a
surgeon. "It was very provoking to see officers draw goods from the public
store to traffic in them for their private gain, which goods were sent out
for settlers, who were compelled to deal with the huckster officers,
giving them from 50 to 500 per cent, profit and paying them in grain."
Thus wrote Holt, the Irish rebel general.
These men are true witnesses, and the extracts among the mildest
statements made by any contemporary writer. Yet, be it remembered, the
colony was a penal settlement. The prison chronicles of England at this
period are not a whit less disgraceful reading; the stone walls of
Newgate, in the heart of London, hid scenes no less disgraceful than the
stockades of Botany Bay.
But, though the naval governors controlled New South Wales before free
emigration had leavened its population, and in consequence are remembered
but as gaolers, they were something better than this: their pioneering
work should not be forgotten.
During King's administration sea exploration was carried on vigorously
(the work of Flinders and Bass will form the subject of the next chapter);
settlements were made at Van Diemen's Land in place of Port Phillip, where
an attempt to colonize was abandoned, to be successfully carried out later
on; the important town of Newcastle was founded; the whale fisheries made
a fair start; and several expeditions were conducted into the interior,
always to be stopped by the Blue Mountains barrier. Above all, MacArthur,
in spite of every discouragement, made a success of his wool-growing,
resigned his commission, and returned to the colony, the first of the
great pastoralists. King, to his credit, forgot his differences with
MacArthur, and lent a willing hand to the colonist. The first newspaper,
the _Sydney Gazette_, was published just before King left the colony, and
free settlers began to come out in numbers.
The French expedition under Baudin called at Port Jackson to refresh, and
certain matters in connection with their visit are worth telling. Two
unfortunate incidents occurred: one an accusation against the French
officers of selling on shore certain liquor King had given them permission
to purchase from a merchantman for the use of their ships' companies;
another incident was the manner of hoisting the English ensign on board
one of the French ships, which was "dressed" for a holiday. Baudin
explained these matters easily enough. The flag was wrongly hoisted by
accident, and the accusation for selling liquor was unfounded, and certain
officers of the New South Wales Corps who made the statements did not come
out of the affair very creditably.
[Illustration: SIR JOSEPH BANKS. From a picture by Thomas Phillips, R.A.,
in the National Portrait Gallery. _To face p._ 158.]
But the most noteworthy incident is explained in this extract from a
letter dated Sydney, May 9th, 1803, from King to Sir Joseph Banks:--
"Whilst the French ships lay here I was on the most friendly
footing with Mons'r Baudin and all his officers. _Entre nous_, he
showed me and left with me his journals, in which were contained
all his orders from the first idea of his voyage taking place, and
also the whole of the drawings made on the voyage. His object was,
by his orders, the collection of objects of natural history from
this country at large and the geography of Van Diemen's Land. The
south and south-west coast, as well as the north-west and north
coast, were his particular objects. It does not appear by his
orders that he was at all instructed to touch here, which I do not
think he intended if not obliged by distress. With all this
openness on his part, I could only have general ideas on the
nature of their visit to Van Diemen's Land. I communicated it to
Mons'r Baudin, who informed me that he knew of no idea that the
French had of settling on any part or side of this continent. They
had not been gone more than a few hours when a general report was
circulated that it had been the conversation of the French
officers that Mons'r Baudin had orders to fix on a place for a
settlement at Van Diemen's Land, and that the French, on receiving
his accounts, were to make an establishment at 'Baie du Nord,'
which, you will observe, in D'Entrecasteaux's charts is what we
call 'Storm Bay Passage,' and the French 'Canal D'Entrecasteaux.'
It seemed one of the French officers had given Colonel Paterson a
chart, and described the intended spot."
So King sent for the colonel, and then,
"without losing an instant, a colonial vessel was immediately
equipped and provided with as many scientific people as I could
put into her, and despatched after Mons'r Baudin. The instruction
I gave the midshipman who commanded her was to examine Storm Bay
Passage and leave His Majesty's colours flying there with a guard,
and that it was my intention to send an establishment there by the
_Porpoise_. This order, you will observe, was a blind, and as such
was to be communicated to Mons'r Baudin, as my only object was to
make him acquainted with the reports I had heard, and to assure
him and his masters that the King's claim would not be so easily
given up. The midshipman in the _Cumberland_ had other private
orders not to go to Storm Bay Passage, but to follow the French
ships as far as King's Island, and that he was to make the
pretext of an easterly wind forcing him into the straits, and as
he was enjoined to survey King's Island and Port Phillip, that
service he should perform before he went to Storm Bay Passage.
"This had the desired effect. He overtook _Geographe_ and
_Naturaliste_ at King's Island the day the _Naturaliste_ parted
company with the _Geographe_ on the former returning to France,
and as an officer of the colony was going passenger in her, the
mid. was instructed to give him privately a packet for the
Admiralty and Lord Hobart, in which, I believe, was one for you.
These letters contained the particulars. The mid. was received by
Mons'r Baudin with much kindness. In the latter's answer to me he
felt himself rather hurt at the idea that 'had such an intention
on his part existed, that he should conceal it.' However, he put
it on the most amicable footing, altho' the mid. planted His
Majesty's colours close to their tents, and kept them flying
during the time the French ships stayed there."
Notwithstanding their first little differences, King and Baudin parted the
best of friends, and to an orphan asylum established by King in Sydney,
Baudin sent a donation of £50; but King's action in sending the
_Cumberland_ after him struck the Frenchman in a different light. He wrote
to King telling him that if he had wanted to annex Van Diemen's Land he
would have made no secret of it, that Tasman anyhow had not discovered it
for the benefit of Englishmen only, and that--
"I was well convinced that the arrival of the _Cumberland_ had
another motive than merely to bring your letter, but I did not
think it was for the purpose of hoisting the British flag
precisely on the spot where our tents had been pitched a long time
previous to her arrival. I frankly confess that I am displeased
that such has taken place. That childish ceremony was ridiculous,
and has become more so from the manner in which the flag was
placed, the head being downwards, and the attitude not very
majestic. Having occasion to go on shore that day, I saw for
myself what I am telling you. I thought at first it might have
been a flag which had served to strain water and then hung out to
dry; but seeing an armed man walking about, I was informed of the
ceremony which had taken place that morning. I took great care in
mentioning it to your captain, but your scientists, with whom he
dined, joked about it, and Mr. Petit, of whose cleverness you are
aware, made a complete caricature on the event. It is true that
the flag sentry was sketched. I tore up the caricature as soon as
I saw it, and gave instructions that such was not to be repeated
in future."
Towards the latter end of 1803 King grew very tired of the petty
annoyances of the officers of the New South Wales Corps, and he wrote home
asking that either a commission should be appointed to inquire into the
government of the colony, or that he should be permitted to go to England
himself and report upon the state of affairs. With the letter he sent
home copies of lampoons which he alleged were anonymously written and
circulated by officers of the regiment. Here is a sample of one:--
EXTEMPORE ALLEGRO.
"My power to make great
O'er the laws and the state
Commander-in-Chief I'll assume;
Local rank, I persist,
Is in my own fist:
To doubt it who dares to presume.
"On Monday keep shop,
In two hours' time stop
To relax from such kingly fatigue,
To pillage the store
And rob Government more
Than a host of good thieves--by intrigue.
"For infamous acts from my birth I'd an itch,
My fate I foretold but too sure;
Tho' a rope I deserved, which is justly my due,
I shall actually die in a ditch,
And be damned."
By way of reply, Lord Hobart, then at the Home Office, informed King, that
although the Government had the fullest appreciation of the good service
he had done, yet the unfortunate differences between himself and the
officers would best be ended by relieving him of his [Sidenote: 1805]
command as soon as a successor could be chosen. The successor, in the
person of Bligh, was chosen in July, 1805, and King a few months later
returned to England.
In Hobart's letter to King informing him of the decision to recall him,
the former refers not only to the unfortunate difference "between you and
the military officers," but to the fact that these disputes "have extended
to the commander of H.M.S. _Glatton_." Highly indignant, King replied to
this in the following paragraph of a despatch dated August 14th, 1804:--
"In what relates to the commander of His Majesty's ship _Glatton_,
had I, on his repeated demands, committed myself, by the most
flagrant abuse of the authority delegated to me, by giving him a
free pardon for a female convict for life, who had never landed
from the _Glatton_, to enable her to cohabit with him on his
passage home, I might, in that case, have avoided much of his
insults here and his calumnious invective in England; but after
refusing, as my bounden duty required, to comply to his
unwarrantable demands, which, if granted, must have very justly
drawn on me your lordship's censure and displeasure, with the
merited reproach of those deserving objects to whom that last mark
of His Majesty's mercy is so cautiously extended, from that
period, my lord, the correspondence will evidently show no
artifice or means on his part were unused to insult not only
myself as governor of this colony, but the military and almost
every other officer of the colony."
There is, of course, another side to this. Captain Colnett, of the
_Glatton_, asked for the woman's pardon on the ground that she had
supplied him with information which enabled him to anticipate a mutiny of
the convicts on the passage out. On the return of the _Glatton_ to
England, the _St. James Chronicle_ informs its readers that at a dinner at
Walmer Castle Colnett dined with William Pitt. Perhaps over their wine the
two discussed Governor King, and hence perhaps Hobart's letter of recall.
During King's period of office there were, besides the Irish rebels, many
prisoners whose names are famous, or infamous, in story. Pickpocket George
Barrington, who came out in Governor Phillip's time, once the Beau Brummel
of his branch of rascality, had settled down into a respectable settler,
and was in King's government, superintendent of convicts, at £50 a year
wages. Sir Henry Browne Hayes, at one time sheriff of Cork city, was sent
out for life in King's time for abducting a rich Quaker girl; he was
pardoned, and returned to England in 1812, leaving behind him a fine
residence which he had built for himself, and which [Sidenote: 1808]
is still one of the beauty spots at the entrance of Sydney harbour.
Margarot, one of the "Scotch martyrs," also fell foul of King, who sent
him to Hobart for seditious practices. The governor seems to have punished
Scotch and Irish pretty impartially, for Hayes and Margarot were coupled
together as disturbing characters and both sent away.
The "martyrs," it will perhaps be remembered, were Muir, Palmer, Skirving,
Gerald, and Margarot, transported at Edinburgh for libelling the
Government in August, 1793, and most harshly dealt with, as everyone
nowadays admits.
King was a Cornishman, a native of Launceston. When he went home in 1790
he married a Miss Coombes, of Bedford. By this lady he had several
children. The eldest of them, born at Norfolk Island in 1791, he named
Phillip Parker, after his old chief. This youngster was sent into the navy
to follow his father's footsteps, and in a later chapter of this book he
will be heard of again.
The ex-governor wrote in September, 1808, a letter from Bath.
"As this letter may probably reach you before you sail, I just
write to say that I came here on Tuesday with Mr. Etheridge, on
his return to London, merely to see Admiral Phillip, whom I found
much better than I possibly could expect from the reports I had
heard, although he is quite a cripple, having lost the entire use
of his right side, though his intellects are very good, and his
spirits are as they always were."
This letter was to the boy Phillip, then a year-old sailor, on the eve of
his departure on a cruise in the Channel. Seven days later the writer had
slipped his moorings, and years earlier than his old comrade had "gone
before to that unknown and silent shore."