The Naval Pioneers of Australia Part 15

deposed governor landed, and at first thought he would be able to re-establish his authority, but the spirit of rebellion had taken hold; he was compelled to re-embark soon after, but he remained in Tasmanian waters on board ship until Governor Macquarie arrived from England.

For the English Government, in due course, had heard of the state of affairs, and woke up to the necessity for strong action. In December, 1809, there arrived in Sydney Harbour a 50-gun frigate and a transport, bringing Governor Macquarie, with his regiment of Highlanders, the 73rd.

His orders were to restore Bligh for twenty-four hours and send home the New South Wales Corps, with every officer who had been concerned in the rebellion under arrest, and the regiment, as we said in a former chapter, was disbanded; Macquarie was himself then to take over the government.

The absence of Bligh from the colony prevented his restoration being literally carried out, but Macquarie issued proclamations which served the purpose, and restored all the officials who had been put out by the rebels. Macquarie soon made himself popular with the colonists, and the best proof of his success is the fact that he governed the colony for twelve years, and his administration, though an important epoch in its history, cannot be gone into here as he was not a naval man.

Bligh, the last of the naval governors, arrived in England in October, was made a rear-admiral, and died in 1817. Johnston was tried by court-martial and cashiered, and returned to the colony, becoming one of its best settlers and the founder of one of Sydney's most important suburbs.

MacArthur was ordered not to return to the colony for eight years. He returned in 1817, bringing with him sons as vigorous as himself.

Ultimately he became a member of the Legislative Council, and his services and those of his descendants will justly be remembered in Australia long after the petty annoyances to which he was subjected and the improper manner in which he resisted them have been totally and happily forgotten.

The history of Australia up to, and until the end of Bligh's appointment, can be summed up in half a dozen sentences. Phillip, during the term of his office, had repeatedly urged upon the home Government the necessity of sending out free men. Convicts without such a leaven could not, in his opinion, successfully lay the foundation of the "greatest acquisition England has ever made." Time proved the correctness of his judgment. The population of the colony, from something more than 1000 when he landed, had been increased at the close of King's administration to about 7000 persons. Half a dozen settlements had been formed at places within a few miles of Sydney; advantage had been taken of the discoveries of Ba.s.s and Flinders, and settlements made at Hobart and at Port Dalrymple; while an attempt (resulting in failure on this occasion and described later on) was made to colonize Port Phillip. A good deal of country was under cultivation, and stock had greatly increased, so that in the seventeen years that had elapsed some progress had been made, but the state of society at Botany Bay had grown worse rather than better. In the direction of reformation the experiment of turning felons into farmers was not a success. Few free emigrants had arrived in the colony, and those who came out were by no means the best cla.s.s of people. n.o.body worked more than they could help; drinking, gambling, and petty bickering occupied the leisure of most. This was the state of affairs which Captain Bligh was sent to reform, and we have seen how his mission succeeded.

In the case of the mutiny of the _Bounty_, it is reasonably believed that the mutineers were, at any rate, partially incited to their crime by the seductions of Tahiti; in the case of the revolt in New South Wales, it is known that allegiance to const.i.tuted authority had no part in the character of Bligh's subjects. Therefore, notwithstanding that Bligh was the victim of two outbreaks against his rule, posterity, without the most indisputable evidence to the contrary, would have held him acquitted of the least responsibility for his misfortunes. In the case of the _Bounty_ mutiny the evidence of Bligh's opponents that the captain of the _Bounty_ was a tyrannical officer remains uncontradicted by any authority but that of the _Bounty's_ captain; in the case of the New South Wales revolt we can only judge of the probabilities, for the witnesses at the Johnston court-martial were of necessity upon one side. But the court-martial, a tribunal not at all likely to err upon the side of mutineers, came to the same conclusion as we have, and, so far as we are aware, most other writers acquainted with the subject have been driven to: that Bligh, to say the least of it, behaved with great indiscretion.

Our references to this matter have been entirely to [Sidenote: 1829]

the minutes of the court-martial and to writers who wrote long enough ago to have had a personal knowledge of the subject or acquaintance with actors in the events. The lady whose letter we have quoted in the first pages of this chapter refers us to Lang's _History_ for a justification of Bligh, and Dr. Lang, as is well known to students of Australian history, wrote more strongly in that governor's favour than did any other writer.

Dr. Lang tells us that the behaviour of certain subordinates towards MacArthur was highly improper, and that MacArthur's speech in open court was "calculated to give great offence to a man of so exceedingly irritable disposition as Governor Bligh." Again, Dr. Lang says that Bligh by no means merited unqualified commendation for his government of New South Wales, and that the truth lies between the most unqualified praise and the most unqualified vituperation which the two sides of this quarrel have loaded upon his memory.

Judge Therry, who came to New South Wales in 1829, in a judicial summing up of the causes of this revolt, gives Bligh full credit for his attempt to govern well, and condemns in strong terms the outrageous conduct of the New South Wales Regiment; but he describes Bligh as a despotic man who "had proved his incapacity to govern a ship's crew whom he had driven to mutiny, yet had been made absolute ruler of a colony." Says Therry:--

"The extravagant and illegal proceedings to which these men" (the Judge-Advocate and his blackguard attorney) "had recourse contributed perhaps more than even the shortcomings of Bligh himself to the catastrophe that ensued. The governor's conflicts with many, but especially with MacArthur, were bitter and incessant through his career."

Says Dr. West, writing in 1852:--

"The governor resolved to bring to trial the six officers, who had repelled the Judge-Advocate, for treasonable practices; and, as a preliminary step, ordered that they should appear before the bench of magistrates, of whom Colonel Johnston, their commander, was one. It was now supposed that Bligh intended to const.i.tute a novel court of criminal jurisdiction, and that he had resolved to carry to the last extremes the hostility he had declared. Colonel Johnston, as a measure of self-defence, was induced to march his regiment to Government House, and place His Excellency under arrest, demanding his sword and his commission as governor. This transaction throughout caused a very strong sensation, both in the colony and at home. Opinions widely differ respecting its origin and its necessity. That it was illegal, it may be [Sidenote: 1811]

presumed, no one will deny; that it was wanton is not so indisputable. The unfortunate termination of Bligh's first expedition to Tahiti, the imputations of harshness and cruelty for ever fastened to his name, and the disreputable agents he sometimes employed in his service made the position of the officers extremely anxious, if not insecure. Bligh had become popular with the expired settlers, who reckoned a long arrear of vengeance to their military taskmasters, and who, with the law on their side or encouragement from the governor, might have been expected to show no mercy. Had Bligh escaped to the interior, the personal safety of the officers might have been imperilled. The settlers, led on by the undoubted representative of the Crown, would have been able to justify any step necessary for the recovery of his authority, and at whatever sacrifice of life."

The court-martial on Johnston was held at Chelsea Hospital, and lasted from May 11th till June 5th, 1811. Bligh complained that many of his papers had been stolen, and the want of these was detrimental to his case.

Johnston, in the course of his defence, said:--

"My justification of my conduct depends upon my having proved to the satisfaction of this honourable court that such was the state of the public mind on the 26th of January, 1808, that no alternative was left for me but to pursue the measures I did or to have witnessed an insurrection and ma.s.sacre in the colony, attended with the certain destruction of the governor himself. In doing this, I have endeavoured to show not only the fact of Captain Bligh's general unpopularity, and the readiness of the people to rise against him, and the probability that they would be joined by the soldiery, but also the causes of that unpopularity, founded on the general conduct of the governor."

The court came to the following decision:--

"The court having duly and maturely weighed and considered the whole of the evidence adduced on the prosecution, as well as what has been offered in defence, are of opinion that Lieutenant-Colonel Johnston is guilty of the act of mutiny as described in the charge, and do therefore sentence him to be cashiered";

and approval of the sentence is thus recorded:--

"His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, in the name and on the behalf of His Majesty, was pleased, under all the circ.u.mstances of the case, to acquiesce in the sentence of the court. The court, in pa.s.sing a sentence so inadequate to the enormity of the crime of which the prisoner has been found guilty, have apparently been actuated by a consideration of the novel and extraordinary circ.u.mstances which, by the evidence on the face of the proceedings, may have appeared to them to have existed during the administration of Governor Bligh, both as affecting the tranquillity of the colony and calling for some immediate decision. But although the Prince Regent admits the principle under which the court have allowed the consideration to act in mitigation of the punishment which the crime of [Sidenote: 1811]

mutiny would otherwise have suggested, yet no circ.u.mstances whatever can be received by His Royal Highness in full extenuation of an a.s.sumption of power so subversive of every principle of good order and discipline as that under which Lieutenant-Colonel Johnston has been convicted."

If Bligh had no part in bringing these disasters upon himself, he was a very unfortunate man (he was never given another command), and his enemies were extremely lucky in coming off so well. Mutineers whom he accused of taking active part against him, instead of getting hanged, rise to high rank in the service of the King; the military leader of an insurrection, in place of being shot on a parade-ground, is mildly dismissed the service, and becomes a prosperous settler upon the soil on which he raised the standard of revolution. But, whatever may have been his faults, arising from his ungovernable temper and arbitrary disposition, the statements of his military traducers reflecting on his personal courage may be dismissed with the contempt they deserve.

CHAPTER XII.

OTHER NAVAL PIONEERS, AND THE PRESENT MARITIME STATE OF AUSTRALIA--CONCLUSION.

Long after Bligh, the last naval governor, was in his grave, the pioneer work of naval officers went on; and if not the chief aid to the settlement of Australia, it played an important part in its development. Begun at the foundation of the colony, when the marine explorer did his work in open boats; carried on, as the settlement grew, in locally built fore-and-aft vessels down to the present, when navigating officers are year in, year out, cruising "among the South Sea Islands," or on the less known parts of the northern and western Australian coast-line, surveying in up-to-date triple-expansion-engined steam cruisers or in steam surveying yachts, the work of chart-making has always been, and still is, done so thoroughly as to command the admiration of all who understand its [Sidenote: 1793]

its meaning, and withal so modestly that the shipmaster, whose Admiralty charts are perhaps little less or even more valuable to him than his Bible, scarcely ever thinks, if he knows, how they are made.

In the earliest days of the colony, Phillip and Hunter were land as well as sea explorers; Dawes and Tench, of the Marines, and Quartermaster Hacking, of the _Sirius_, in 1793 and 1794, made the first attempts to cross the Blue Mountains. Shortlands (father and son), Ball, of the _Supply_, and half a dozen other naval lieutenants, all made discoveries of importance; Vancouver, McClure, and Bligh (the latter twelve years before he was thought of as a governor) each did a share of early charting.

The list might be extended indefinitely. Let us take only one or two names and tell their stories; and these examples, with the narrative of Flinders and Ba.s.s, must stand as ill.u.s.trative of the work of all.

In land exploring the military officers were not behindhand. Beside the work of the marines, a young Frenchman, Francis Louis Barrallier, an ensign of the New South Wales Corps, who came out with King, distinguished himself. King made him artillery and engineer officer, and he did much surveying with Grant in the _Lady Nelson_. Inland he went west until stopped by the Blue Mountains barrier; and King tells us an amusing story of this trip. Paterson, in command of the regiment, told King that he could not spare Barrallier for exploring purposes, so King, to get over the difficulty, appointed him his aide-de-camp, and then sent him on an "emba.s.sy to the King of the Mountains."

Barrallier went home in 1804, and saw a great deal of service in various regiments, distinguishing himself in military engineering, among his works being the erection of Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square. He died in London in 1853.

The _Lady Nelson_ was a little brig of 60 tons burden, one of the first built with a centre-board, or sliding keels, as the idea was then termed.

She was designed by Captain Schanck, one of the naval transport commissioners, and when she sailed from Portsmouth to begin her survey service in Australia, she was so deeply laden for her size that she had less than three feet of freeboard.

Lieutenant James Grant was, through the influence of [Sidenote: 1800]

Banks, appointed to command this little vessel. He has much to say on the subject of sliding keels, for which see his _Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery_. The _Lady Nelson_ was well built, and Grant showed his respect for her designer by his naming of Cape Schanck in Victoria and Mount Schanck in South Australia. In one of his letters to Banks, Grant says that, with all his stores of every description on board, he could take his vessel into seven feet of water, and could haul off a lee sh.o.r.e, by the use of sliding keels, "equal to any ship in the navy." On the night of January 23rd, 1800, it blew such a gale in the Channel that six vessels went on sh.o.r.e, and several others were reported missing. This gale lasted for nine days, and during that time the _Lady Nelson_ rode comfortably at her anchor in the Downs.

Grant's instructions when he left England were to proceed through the newly discovered Ba.s.s' Straits on his way, report himself at Sydney, and then set to work and survey the coast, beginning with the southern and south-western parts of it. The brig sailed, with a crew of seventeen all told, in February, 1800, and arrived on December 16th of the same year, being the first vessel to pa.s.s through Ba.s.s' Straits on the way from England to Australia. On the voyage Grant discovered and named many points on the Victorian coast-line; then, as soon as the vessel arrived and received a thorough overhaul, she was sent to sea again to continue the work in company with a small intercolonial vessel, the _Bee_.

They sailed on March 8th, 1801, and were surveying until May 2nd, when Grant sums up the work done in these words:--

"We have now gained a complete survey of the coast from Western Point to Wilson's Promontory, with the situation of the different islands of the same, and ascertained the lat.i.tudes of the same, which from our different observations we have been able to do sufficiently correct.... These points being ascertained so far as lays in our power, I judge it most prudent to make the best of our way to port, keeping the sh.o.r.e well in sight to observe every particular hitherto unknown."

The portions left out in this extract refer to the lat.i.tudes and longitudes, which are so correctly given that the only ascertainable difference between them and the figures in a recent addition of Norrie is in the case of Wilson's Promontory, which Grant says is [Sidenote: 1801]

in longitude between 146 25' and 146 14', and Norrie's table gives us 146 25' 37".

On the return of the little vessel, she took part in an interesting ceremony, which the following proclamation by Governor King, dated May 29th, best describes:--

"Thursday next being the anniversary of His Majesty's birth, will be observed as a holyday. The present Union will be hoisted at sunrise. At a quarter before nine the New South Wales Corps and a.s.sociation to be under arms, when the Royal Proclamation for the Union between Great Britain and Ireland will be publicly read by the Provost-Marshall, and on the New Union flag being displayed at Dawes Point and on board His Majesty's armed vessel _Lady Nelson_ the military will fire three rounds, which the batteries will take up, beginning at the main guard, Bennilong and Dawes Points, at the Windmill Hills, and at the barracks. When finished, His Majesty's armed vessel the _Lady Nelson_ will fire 21 guns, man ship, and cheer. At noon the salute will be repeated from the batteries, New South Wales Corps and a.s.sociation will fire three rounds, and at one o'clock the _Lady Nelson_ will fire 21 guns in honour of His Majesty's birthday. The Governor will be ready to receive the compliments of the officers, civil and military, on those happy occasions, at half-past one o'clock."

King had a high opinion of Grant as a seaman, but he considered him an unscientific man, not suitable for surveying, and wrote to England to that effect. Grant himself confirms this in a letter asking to go home, as from the "little knowledge I have of surveying, ... where I may be enabled to be more serviceable to my country." His faith in sliding keels had been somewhat shaken by this time, and he complained that he could not claw his vessel off a lee sh.o.r.e, and so Flinders found, when Grant with the _Lady Nelson_ kept him company along the Barrier Reef when the _Investigator_ was surveying that part of the coast. The _Nelson_ had been ordered to act as tender to the _Investigator_, but she was so unsuited to the work that Flinders lost patience and sent her back to Sydney, where she did a great deal of surveying in the exploration of the Hunter River and its vicinity.

Grant went home, and cut a much better figure as a fighting officer, was promoted commander, and died in 1838. On his way home he took a box of King's despatches to convey to England, and when the despatch-box was opened it was found to be empty. King, writing of this matter, said:--

"I do not blame Lieutenant Grant so much for the [Sidenote: 1802]

villainous transaction respecting the loss of my despatches as I deprecate the infamy of those who had preconcerted the plan.

Before the vessel he went in left the colony, it was told me that such an event would happen, and the master's conduct prior to his leaving this fully justified the report. I would not suffer the vessel to leave the port before a bond of 500 was given that neither Lieutenant Grant or the despatches should be molested.

Under these circ.u.mstances and Lieutenant Grant's knowledge of the master, he ought to have been more guarded, as I gave my positive directions that the vessel should be seen a certain way to sea, and the box was not given from my possession before the vessel was under way. However, the plan was too well laid and bound with ill-got gold to fail. Let the villain enjoy the success of his infamy. As to any publication of Mr. Grant's, I believe nothing new or original can arise from his pen without the aid of auxiliary fiction."

Lieutenant Murray, of the _Porpoise_, relieved Grant in the _Lady Nelson_, and Murray and his mate. Lieutenant Bowen, further explored Ba.s.s' Straits and the Victorian coast, their chief achievement being the discovery of Port Phillip.

The _Lady Nelson_ was off the heads of Port Phillip on January 5th, 1802, but the weather was too bad to enter, and Bowen was sent to examine the bay in one of the brig's boats. This he did, and the _Lady Nelson_ entered, and anch.o.r.ed off what is now the quarantine station on February 15th. Murray took possession of the place on March 9th, naming it Port King, and Surveyor Grimes made a survey of it. They left on March 12th.

The Frenchman Baudin, with the _Geographe_ and _Naturaliste_, eighteen days later ran along this coast and claimed its discovery, although the Englishmen, Flinders in particular, had already surveyed and named nearly all his discoveries; but Baudin was gracious enough to admit that Port Phillip, which he had only sighted, had been first entered by the _Lady Nelson_. Flinders sailed into the bay on April 26th, thinking that he had made a new discovery, until, on his arrival at Port Jackson, he heard of the _Lady Nelson's_ prior visit, and that Governor King, with modesty and regard for his old chief, had altered Murray's name of Port King to Port Phillip.

In consequence of Murray's services in the _Lady Nelson_, King appointed him acting lieutenant, and strongly recommended the Admiralty should confirm the appointment.

With the recommendation, Murray sent home, through the governor, the following certificate of his services, which is interesting as showing how such certificates were then written, and because of what came of this particular recommendation:--

"In pursuance of the directions of Sir Roger Curtis, Bart., Vice-Admiral of the White and Commander-in-chief of His Majesty's ships and vessels employed and to be employed at the Cape of Good Hope and the seas adjacent, dated the 8th July, 1800.