New South Wales 1800-1808
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
failur
. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.