The Naval Pioneers of Australia Part 5

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 s.h.i.+pboard men acquire something more. On land a man learns his particular business in the world; at sea his s.h.i.+p 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 pa.s.sages 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 hara.s.sing 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 hara.s.sed 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 doc.u.ments 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 a.s.sumed 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 s.h.i.+pmaster 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 s.h.i.+pwrecked 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 s.h.i.+pmate 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 s.h.i.+pwrecked, 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 fas.h.i.+on of the time. After obtaining his rating as A.B., and then as mids.h.i.+pman, he pa.s.sed 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 mids.h.i.+pman 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 flags.h.i.+p, 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 ent.i.tled 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 n.o.bleman 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 s.h.i.+p, when Phillip a.s.sumed his sh.o.r.e duties, should be commanded by a post-captain. A few days after the arrival of the fleet Hunter set to work, and in the s.h.i.+p'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 Ba.s.s.

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 s.h.i.+pwreck, 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 s.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+p. 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 mids.h.i.+pman stationed at the solitary look-out on the south head of Port Jackson, shall tell the rest of the story:--

[Ill.u.s.tration: CAPTAIN JOHN HUNTER. From an engraving in the "Naval Chronicle" for 1801.] _To face p. 96._

"Nothing more of these [the two s.h.i.+ps] 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 sh.o.r.e, and the s.h.i.+p 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 circ.u.mstance, 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 s.h.i.+p, 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 s.h.i.+ps company, together with Captain Hunter, &c., are left there on acc't of const.i.tuting 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 quant.i.ty there on the part of the reinforcement. The whole of the crew were saved, every exertion being used, and all a.s.sistance received from the _Supply_ and colonists on sh.o.r.e. The pa.s.sengers 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 s.h.i.+p 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 sh.o.r.e. By this a stout hawser was convey'd, and those on sh.o.r.e 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 sh.o.r.e, the other to haul it on board. On this the s.h.i.+pwreck'd seated themselves, two or more at a time, and thus were dragged on sh.o.r.e thro' a das.h.i.+ng 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 sh.o.r.e safe, and his hurts are by no means dangerous. Many private effects were saved, the sea driving them on sh.o.r.e 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 s.h.i.+p--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 pa.s.sage could be made to England in those days.

He writes:--

"You will be pleased to inform their lords.h.i.+ps 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 pa.s.sage to England for the remaining officers and company of His Majestie's late s.h.i.+p 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 pa.s.sed to the westward of it. As the master did not feel himself qualified to navigate a s.h.i.+p in these unknown seas, he had, upon our leaving Port Jackson, requested my a.s.sistance, which he had. In sailing to the northward we fell in with several islands and shoals, the situations of which we determined.... No s.h.i.+p that I have heard of having sail'd between New Britain and New Ireland since that pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sed thro' the Strait of Maca.s.sar, and arrived at Batavia on the 27th of September, after a most tedious and destressing pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sage 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 sh.o.r.e. 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; anch.o.r.ed 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 s.h.i.+pmaster, whose life was saved by Hunter, but the quarrel resulted in a regular engagement between the natives and people on the s.h.i.+p, 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 _via_ 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 s.h.i.+pwrecked 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 s.h.i.+p'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 flags.h.i.+p, 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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, pa.s.sively 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 emanc.i.p.ated 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 emanc.i.p.ated 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.