Events in Australia - 1800 - 1810

1800

Jan 11 Minerva arrives at Port Jackson with 188 convicts, including Father James Harold and "General" Joseph Holt; passengers include Lt William Cox. Thynne, under charter to officers of the NSW Corps, arrives from Bengal with large quantity of spirits.
Feb 14 Robert Campbell returns to Sydney from Calcutta to establish a trading and importing business.
16 Friendship arrives at Port Jackson with 114 convicts, including Father James Dixon and James Meehan.
Mar 3 Reliance (Henry Waterhouse) leaves Port Jackson for England with Matthew Flinders aboard.
Apr 15 Capt. Philip Gidley King arrives at Port Jackson in the Speedy to replace John Hunter as Governor; also aboard are George Caley, Francis Barrallier, and 50 convicts.
26 William Balmain receives a land grant of 550 acres on the west side of Cockle Bay (Balmain).
Jun 26 Maj. Joseph Foveaux appointed Lt-Governor of Norfolk Is., replacing Thomas Rowley.
Jul 16 Revs. Richard Johnson and Samuel Marsden open a church school at
Kissing Point (Ryde).
- Henry Kable and James Underwood establish a business partnership for manufacturing, sealing, shipbuilding, etc.
Sep 7 Holt arrested on suspicion of being involved in a planned insurrection of
Irish political prisoners. (Later released.)
Concerned about the possible insurrection, Hunter forms Loyal Associations—the first volunteer corps in the colony—in Sydney (commanded by Balmain) and Parramatta (Richard Atkins).
28 King takes over from Hunter as Governor.
29 Col. William Paterson appointed Lt-Governor.
Oct 1 King issues a general order aimed at ending monopolies in trade and forbids
traffic in spirits without permission.
10 Import duties imposed on liquor; ships required to pay entry and victualling charges.
17 Balmain appointed Naval Officer (i.e., harbourmaster).
Paterson arrests George Johnston on charges of paying spirits to a sergeant as part of his pay.
21 Buffalo leaves for England carrying Hunter, Rev. Richard Johnson, George Johnston (under arrest), and eight sample merino fleeces from John Macarthur's farm.
Nov 6 Porpoise (with John Murray as master's mate) arrives at Port Jackson with four tons of copper coins.
19 King fixes the value of coinage in circulation.
21 Royal Admiral arrives at Port Jackson with 257 convicts, including the West Indian George Howe (subsequently Government Printer), 43 having died of typhoid fever on the voyage; passengers include Ensign William Lawson.
26
Dec 3 Lady Nelson (Lt James Grant) arrives in southern Australian waters to begin survey work; Grant names Cape Northumberland, Cape Banks, Mt Schanck, and Mt Gambier.
7 Grant names Portland Bay and Cape Otway, then passes through Bass
Strait, the first to do so from the west. (Arrives Port Jackson 16 Dec.)
14 Foveaux suppresses an incipient rebellion on Norfolk Is.; hangs two Irish prisoners.
18 Atkins appointed deputy Judge-Advocate following the death of Dore.

MACARTHUR, JOHN (1767-1834),
pioneer and founder of the wool industry,

was born in 1767 near Plymouth, Devonshire. His father, Alexander Macarthur, had fought for Prince Charles Edward in 1745, and after Cullodon had fled to the West Indies. Some years later he returned to England and established a business at Plymouth. His son John was educated at a private school and entered the army in 1782 as an ensign, but having been placed on half pay in 1783, went to live at Holsworthy in Devonshire. He spent some time in study and thought of reading for the bar, but in 1788 was in the army again and, about this time, married Elizabeth, daughter of a country gentleman named Veale. In June 1789 he was appointed a lieutenant in the New South Wales Corps. He sailed for Australia on 14 November 1789 in the Neptune with his wife and child and immediately quarrelled with the captain with whom he fought a duel, without injury to either, at Plymouth. After a long and trying voyage the Neptune arrived at Port Jackson on 28 June 1790. Mrs Macarthur was the first educated woman to arrive in Australia, and for some time was the only woman received at the governor's table. Later on in this year Macarthur was involved in a dispute with his brother officer, Captain Nepean. The details have been lost, but a court-martial could not be held on account of the absence of some of the other officers. The matter was patched up and the two men became reconciled. In February 1793, during the administration of Francis Grose (q.v.), Macarthur was appointed an inspector of public works and received his first grant of land, 100 acres adjoining the site of Parramatta. An additional grant of 100 acres was made in April 1794. He was promoted captain between June and October 1795. On 25 October Governor Hunter (q.v.), in a dispatch to the Duke of Portland, informed him that he had judged it necessary for the good of the service to continue Macarthur in his office of inspector of the public works, "a situation for which he seems extremely well qualified". However, in September 1796, the governor in another dispatch stated that "scarcely anything short of the full power of the governor would be considered by this person (Macarthur) as sufficient for conflicting the duties of his office". The governor found it necessary to check him in his interfering with other officers not responsible to him, and Macarthur promptly sent in his resignation. Hunter "without reluctance" accepted. But Macarthur had other interests. In September 1795 he was working his land with a plough, the first to be used in the colony, and experimenting in the breeding of sheep. He had imported sheep from both India and Ireland and produced a cross-bred wool of some interest. In 1796 he obtained a few merino sheep from the Cape of Good Hope, the progeny of which were carefully kept pure-bred. A few years later he purchased nine rams and a ewe from the Royal flock at Kew, and eventually raised a flock from which has grown the Australian wool industry. It was Macarthur's greatest achievement. He was engaged in a quarrel with Richard Atkins who had succeeded him as an inspector of public works, in connexion with Atkins having reported that soldiers were stealing turnips from the governor's garden. Atkins objected as a magistrate to not being given the title of esquire. Macarthur in reply wrote to the governor complaining that he had been grossly insulted, and stating that Atkins could be proved to be "a public cheater, living in the most boundless dissipation, without any visible means of maintaining it than by imposture on unwary strangers". David Collins (q.v.) as judge-advocate held an inquiry and reported in favour of Atkins, and having been vindicated Atkins wrote a furious letter to Macarthur. Hunter was about to appoint Atkins as judge-advocate, when Macarthur requested that he might institute criminal proceedings for libel in respect to Atkins's letter. Hunter, however, saw that Macarthur's real motive was to embarrass the civil power, and so reported to the English authorities. But Macarthur was a dangerous man to quarrel with. He wrote a long letter to England with many complaints against Hunter, which arrived in England early in 1797 and was sent out for reply to Hunter. His answering letter was dated 25 July 1798, but Macarthur had had a long start and undoubtedly was largely responsible for Hunter's recall. Hunter had only done his duty in endeavouring to restore to the civil administration the control of the land and the law courts, but this did not suit Macarthur and the other officers, who had been in full power between the departure of Phillip and the coming of Hunter, and in the fight that ensued Macarthur was the leading figure.

In 1798 when Dr Balmain while carrying out his duties came into conflict with the officers, Balmain found that his only resort was to challenge Macarthur to a duel. Macarthur's reply was that the corps would "appoint an officer to meet him, and another, and another, until there is no-one left to explain". In August 1801 his quarrel with Lieutenant Marshall led to Macarthur endeavouring to get the officers of the corps to unite in refusing to meet Governor King (q.v.). His commanding officer, Colonel Paterson (q.v.) refused to join in, and eventually Paterson challenged Macarthur to a duel and was severely wounded. King sent Macarthur to England under arrest to stand his trial by court-martial, and prepared a formidable indictment of him. King took every precaution he could for the safety of this document, but it was stolen on the way to England. Mr Justice Evatt in his Rum Rebellion says, "The inference is irresistible that either he (Macarthur) or some close associate of his arranged that the damning document should be stolen and destroyed". Whoever was responsible Macarthur arrived in London able to exercise his personality to his own advancement. He could be friendly when he wanted to be, and managed to become on good terms with officials in the colonial office. Samples of the fine wool he had produced had previously been sent to England, and he was able to show how valuable the development of its production would be. He proposed that a company should be formed to "encourage the increase of fine-woolled sheep in New South Wales" but it was never formed. Having addressed a memorial to the committee of the privy council appointed for the consideration of all matters of trade and foreign plantation, Macarthur gave evidence before this committee which decided that his plan should be referred to the governor of New South Wales, with instructions to give every encouragement to the growth of fine wool. Another recommendation was that Macarthur should be given a conditional grant of lands of a reasonable extent. The theft of King's dispatch was not investigated, Macarthur resigned his commission, and was allowed to return to New South Wales where he arrived on 9 June 1805. Apparently Macarthur had so impressed his views on the English authorities that long before this they had decided to recall Governor King. His successor, William Bligh (q.v.), was appointed in 1805, but did not arrive at Sydney until August 1806.

Bligh, a stronger man than either Hunter or King, proceeded to carry out his instructions to suppress the rum trade. But this touched the pockets of the officers and other monopolists, and less than six months after the governor's arrival Macarthur in a letter described him as "violent, rash, tyrannical". Apparently the settlers on the Hawkesbury took another view, for on the very day of Macarthur's letter, a large number of them signed a letter in which they spoke of the governor's "just and humane wishes for the public relief", and promised "at the risk of their lives and properties" to support the "just and benign" government under which they were living. (Sydney Gazette 8/2/1807). In Bligh's dispatch to Windham dated 7 February 1807 he stated that he had "considered this spirit business in all its bearings, and am come to the determination to prohibit the barter being carried on in any way whatever. It is absolutely necessary to be done to bring labour to a due value and support the farming interest" (H.R. of N.S.W., vol. VI, p. 250). In September of the same year principal surgeon Jamison a friend of Macarthur's was dismissed by Bligh from the position of magistrate, and Macarthur was evidently becoming openly hostile to the governor. Before the end of the year Macarthur was charged with sedition and committed for trial. Evatt in his Rum Rebellion examines the evidence and the law, and comes to the conclusion that a jury should have found Macarthur guilty on two out of the three counts. When the trial began on 25 January 1808 Macarthur objected to Atkins, the judge advocate, sitting on various grounds, mostly absurd or irrelevant. During the reading of Macarthur's speech Atkins intervened and said that Macarthur was defaming him and should be committed to prison. Atkins eventually left the court and proceeded to government house to consult Bligh. Gore the provost marshal also left and ordered away the constables on duty. The six officers who had been sitting with Atkins agreed that Macarthur's objections to Atkins were valid, and asked the governor to appoint an acting judge-advocate which Bligh refused to do. The officers then allowed Macarthur out on bail. Next morning the officers met in the court room at 10 a.m., but in the meantime Macarthur had been arrested by the provost marshal and put in gaol. The officers took up a perfectly illegal position and announced that they intended to bring Gore the provost marshal to justice. Bligh on the previous day had sent for Colonel Johnston who declined to come on the ground of illness, and he now wrote to the six officers summoning them to government house next day. Johnston apparently was now well enough to come to town and sign an order to release Macarthur, and that evening the New South Wales Corps marched in military formation to government house and arrested Bligh. It is generally admitted that Macarthur was the leading spirit in the deposing of Bligh, and undoubtedly he and his associates were guilty of high treason. Macarthur, always fully conscious of his own rectitude, wrote an affectionate note to his wife to tell her that he had been "deeply engaged all day in contending for the liberties of this unhappy colony. . . . The tyrant is now no doubt gnashing his teeth with vexation at his overthrow". At a new trial for sedition held seven days after the rebellion Macarthur was acquitted.

Immediately the rebel government was formed Macarthur was appointed colonial secretary, and until after the arrival of Paterson was the real ruler of the colony. The rum traffic was restored, and though in The Early Records of the Macarthurs of Camden it is stated that "the public expenditure was greatly reduced by Macarthur exchanging surplus cattle from the government herds for grain", Evatt refers to it as a "system of peculation". It seems clear that the recipients of government cows and oxen were practically all officers or supporters of the rebel administration. On 31 March 1809 Macarthur left for England with Johnston where they arrived in October 1809. In the previous May Viscount Castlereagh had given instructions that Johnston was to be sent to England to be tried, and that Macarthur was to be tried at Sydney. Johnston was tried by court-martial. Legally his position was extremely bad, and the defence made was that the extreme measures taken were necessary to save the colony. Macarthur in his evidence did his best to discredit Bligh, and no doubt helped Johnston in preparing his defence, which has been described as a masterpiece of specious insinuations against Bligh. On 2 July 1811 Johnston was found guilty and cashiered, the mildness of his punishment no doubt being on account of the full realization that he had been a mere tool of Macarthur.

Macarthur was quite aware that if he returned to Sydney the new governor, Macquarie (q.v.), would arrest him. In October 1812 he writes to his wife that he is in great perplexity and doubt as to whether he should return to the colony or withdraw her from it. In August 1816 he sent to his wife a copy of two letters he had sent to Lord Bathurst. The first which attempted to justify his conduct was shown to Lord Bathurst's secretary, who suggested that a different type of letter might be more likely to succeed. In the second letter Macarthur asked "whether after the lapse of so many years, when all the harsh and violent feelings which formerly distracted the different members of the community in Port Jackson have been worn out" an act of oblivion might not be passed which would enable Macarthur to return to his home. Lord Bathurst consented but included in his letter a clause "that you are fully sensible of the impropriety of conduct which led to your departure from the colony". Macarthur would not, however, accept permission to return on such terms, but Lord Bathurst in his letters of 14 August and 14 October 1816 stood firm and would not withdraw the passage. However, on 18 February 1817 Macarthur wrote to his wife to say that "all the obstacles which have so long obstructed my return to you . . . have this day been removed". He was still pursuing his campaign against Bligh, for in the same letter he tells her that he had told the under-secretary of state that Bligh was a "brutal ruffian governed by no principle of honour or rectitude, and restrained by no tie but the wretched and despicable one of fear". Macarthur arrived in Sydney in September 1817 having been absent eight and a half years.

Macarthur, now possibly the richest man in New South Wales, settled down to the management of his estates, and his life henceforth was comparatively tranquil. His great interest was the development of the fine wool industry. In September 1818 he mentions that he is trying to break in his sons, James and William "to oversee and manage his affairs", but fears characteristically enough that they "have not sufficient hardness of character to manage the people placed under their control" and that "they set too little value upon money, for the profession of agriculture which as you know requires that not a penny should be expended without good reason". In 1820, writing to his son John in England, he emphasizes the necessity of the colony providing exports to pay for its imports by developing the wool industry, and in 1821 he was suggesting to Commissioner J. T. Bigge (q.v.) the advisability of really respectable settlers, men with capital, being encouraged to come out to New South Wales. In January 1822 the governor, Sir Thomas Brisbane (q.v.), invited Macarthur to become a magistrate, but the two judges, John Wylde and Barron Field (q.v.), wrote to Brisbane questioning the advisability of this in view of the part taken by Macarthur in the rebellion. Macarthur was unable to obtain a copy of the letter for some time but when he did the old fires revived, and he wrote an abusive and insulting letter to Field who quite properly took no notice of it. In 1828 disagreeing with a decision of the chief justice, Francis Forbes (q.v.), Macarthur threatened to impeach him, but apparently thought better of it. He had been appointed a member of the legislative council in 1825 and he was again appointed in February 1829 when the number of members was increased. The death of his son John in 1831 was a great sorrow to him, and towards the end of 1832 his mind began to fail. He died on 10 April 1834 at the cottage, Camden Park, and was survived by his wife, three sons, of whom Edward is noticed separately, and three daughters.

Macarthur had the slightly tilted nose and determined chin of a born fighter. His son James in some notes on his character described him as "a man of quick and generous impulses, loth to enter into a quarrel but bold and uncompromising when assailed and at all times ready to take arms against opression or injustice". The trouble was that Macarthur who always had a keen eye for his own interests, firmly believed that he was always in the right, and was ever ready to vehemently point out how much in the wrong his opponents were. By some process they immediately became dishonest scoundrels. The 20 years after his sailing for Australia in 1789 is full of his quarrels. He broke three governors, and the verdict of history is that they were honest men doing their duty and that Macarthur was in the wrong. His conduct to them and his share in the liquor traffic are blots on his character that cannot be forgotten. He even quarrelled with Phillip. (Rum Rebellion, p. 64). He was not unforgiving especially if he had obtained his object, and it says something for his personal charm that he became afterwards reconciled with both Hunter and King. In his family life he was affectionate and beloved, and in his development of the wool industry he did a great work for his country. His knowledge, ability and foresight, joined with a tremendous force of character, made him the greatest personality of his time in Australia.

Macarthur's fourth son, James Macarthur, was born at Parramatta in 1798. He was educated in England and afterwards assisted his father in managing his property. In 1837 he published New South Wales Its Present State and Future Prospects, an interesting work with valuable statistics. In 1839 James Macarthur was nominated to the legislative council and in 1859 was elected to the legislative assembly. He died on 21 April 1867. He married in 1838 Emily, daughter of Henry Stone, whose daughter, Elizabeth, married Captain Arthur Alexander Walton Onslow, R.N.

Sir William Macarthur (1800-1882), the fifth son of John Macarthur, was born at Parramatta in December 1800. He was educated in England, returned to Australia with his father in 1817, and assisted in the management of his estates. In 1844 he published a small volume, Letters on the Culture of the Vine, Fermentation, and the Management of the Cellar. In 1849 he was made a member of the legislative council, and represented New South Wales at the Paris exhibition of 1855. Shortly afterwards he was knighted. After his return to Australia in 1857 he was again a member of the legislative council for some time, but never took a prominent part in politics. He died unmarried on 29 October 1882.

1801

Jan 1 King Is., Bass Strait, named by Capt. John Black of the brig Harbinger. 5 T. F. Palmer, his sentence expired, leaves Sydney in El Plumier. (Detained as prisoner of war in Guam, where he dies in June 1802.)
18 Simeon Lord appointed public auctioneer.
21 US ship Follensbe arrives at Port Jackson with a huge cargo of liquor, which Gov. King refuses to allow to be landed.
Feb 10 Ticket-of-leave system introduced by King, enabling convicts to work for wages and choose their own master.
21 Transport Ann arrives at Port Jackson with 251 convicts, including 137 Irish political prisoners.
Mar 21 Lt James Grant in the Lady Nelson surveys Westernport Bay (to 29 Apr.).
May 1 King orders Aborigines to be driven out of Parramatta, Prospect, and Georges River districts.
2 US ship Missouri arrives at Port Jackson; King refuses to allow the landing of a cargo of spirits.
30 French mariner Nicolas Baudin, with the ships Le Geographe and Le Naturaliste (Emmanuel Hamelin), arrives at Geographe Bay, WA, on a voyage of scientific discovery. (Ships there part company.)
Jun 10 King sends Lt-Gov. Paterson in the Lady Nelson (Grant) to examine the Hunter River.
12 Earl Cornwallis arrives at Port Jackson with 253 convicts.
16 Paterson founds a settlement on the Hunter. (Abandoned in 1802.)
Jul 4 Survey party finds seams of coal at the Hunter.
14 Hamelin at Rottnest Is. (to 28th); explores Swan River.
18 Flinders leaves England in Investigator to explore Australian coastline.
20 Baudin explores De Witt's Land and names Monte Bello Is. (to 10 Aug.).
27 King disbands the Loyal Associations.
Aug 8 Female Orphan School opened in Sydney by Samuel Marsden under Gov. King's patronage.
26 Balmain leaves Sydney in the Albion to return to England; surgeon John Harris replaces him as Naval Officer.
28 Venus (Charles Bishop) arrives at Port Jackson, carrying part-owner George Bass.
Sep 14 Paterson and Macarthur fight a duel; Paterson wounded; Macarthur arrested.
Oct 4 Consignment of coal exported to Bengal in the Earl Cornwallis.
Nov 12 Lt John Murray, who replaced Grant as commander of Lady Nelson, leaves Port Jackson to explore in southern waters.
15 Macarthur leaves Sydney for court martial in England. (Arrives London 21 Dec. 1802.)
21 Bass sails in the Venus on a commercial voyage in the Pacific.
Dec 6 Flinders in the Investigator arrives off the coast of WA, names Cape Leeuwin (7th), and enters King George Sound (8th).
7 Murray surveys Westernport (to 2 Jan. 1802).
14 Transports Minorca, Canada, and Nile arrive at Port Jackson with 296 convicts, including James Hardy Vaux, Dr William Redfern, artist John

Matthew Flinders

Australia is circumnavigated and methodically charted in a brilliant scientific adventure. Lieutenant Matthew Flinders was aged 26 when he returned to England in 1800. Soon after his arrival he took himself off to his native Lincolnshire where he married Ann Tyler, a parson's daughter from Brothertoft, not far from his own village of Donington. They were destined to spend little time together. At this time there was considerable interest in England in South Seas exploration. The British Admiralty had known for more than a year of French plans to send two ships, Le Geographe and Le Naturaliste to Terra Australis. The French insisted that the expedition was purely scientific, but the English regarded everything the French did with the utmost suspicion. Flinders chose this time of anxiety about French intentions to ask to be placed in command of a voyage of exploration. He found a powerful ally in the botanist, Sir Joseph Banks, who had accompanied Cook thirty years earlier. Flinders had an excellent reputation at the Admiralty. He had seen action under Admiral Lord Richard Howe in 1794 in the 'glorious first of June' battle off Brest, his exploratory work was widely known, and his considerate manner would be ideally suited to command on such a long and perilous voyage. His diplomacy might have been truly tested in 1791 when he accompanied Captain Bligh to the Pacific (this was the breadfruit expedition which followed the one during which the famous mutiny on the Bounty occurred). The authorities embraced Flinders' plan enthusiastically; the Admiralty gave him a fine ship of 334 tons, well renovated, which he named Investigator, the sailors chosen to make the voyage were, like their master, young and in their prime. Indeed, when Flinders advertised his last eleven vacancies, 250 men quickly volunteered. And so, with eighty-eight eager men aboard the Investigator sailed from Spithead on 18 July 1801 for Australia by way of Madeira and the Cape of Good Hope. On 6 December 1801 they sighted Cape Leeuwin, the south-western tip of the continent and the great exercise in charting and naming began. They explored King George Sound, then crept along the Great Australian Bight. Port Lincoln was named, naturally, after Flinders' home county, Spencer Gulf after the First Lord of the Admiralty and Encounter Bay because it was there that they came upon Le Geographe under the command of the French expedition leader Captain Nicolas Baudin. The Frenchman was disposed to be friendly, but Flinders was annoyed that some of his exploratory thunder might have been stolen. They parted company and Flinders continued eastwards. On 27 April 1802 they sailed into Port Phillip Bay, and Flinders was much impressed with its potential for settlement. They proceeded on their methodical course and dropped anchor in Sydney . His healthy, enthusiastic young crew was permitted to enjoy the delights of dry land until 22 July when the Investigator set sail northwards.
He hugged the coast of Cape York peninsula and, rounding the tip, mapped it down the western side. After an unexpected meeting with Malay fishermen they came to Timor on 31 March 1803. By this time, the rigours of the voyage began to take their toll of the stout ship; some of the crew were falling ill, despite the extraordinary precautions against disease demanded by the young captain. He continued his circumnavigation, however, rounded Cape Leeuwin, and returned to Sydney on 9 July 1803. And Australia, it might be said, had been placed firmly on the map. The Investigator was in a hopeless state, so the young hero set out for England as a passenger on the Porpoise on 10 August 1803, but that was wrecked a week later and Flinders returned to Port Jackson with other survivors in a six-oared cutter, a voyage of 1250 kilometres. On 21 September he sailed again on the Cumberland. Flinders soon discovered that the vessel was in a poor state of repair and decided to call at the French-owned island of Mauritius, unaware that war had resumed between France and England. The French commander detained him and he was not released until the British seized the island in 1810. When Flinders returned to England at the age of 36 he was a very sick man. He died on 19 July 1814, the very day his Voyage To Terra Australis was published.

1802

Jan 4 Lt John Murray discovers the entrance to Port Phillip.
5 Matthew Flinders in the Investigator leaves King George Sound, sights Stirling Range.
10 Murray examines King Is. (to 27th).
13 Nicolas Baudin's expedition in D'Entrecasteaux Channel (to 7 Mar.); explores Derwent.
29 Flinders surveys Nuyts Archipelago, the Investigator Group, and the coast as far as Cape Catastrophe (to 21 Feb.).
31 J. Bowen, mate of Lady Nelson, examines Port Phillip (to 4 Feb; Lady Nelson enters on 14th).
Feb 21 Boat crew of eight from Investigator drown at Cape Catastrophe.
25 Flinders surveys Port Lincoln and Spencer Gulf (to 20 Mar.).
Mar 8 Murray takes formal possession of Port Phillip area.
Baudin's two ships are separated in a gale off Van Diemen's Land.
21 Flinders discovers Kangaroo Is., observes a high hill on the mainland (23rd) which he later names Mount Lofty, and explores Gulf St Vincent (to 1 Apr.).
Apr 8 Flinders and Baudin meet at Encounter Bay.
9 Emmanuel Hamelin in Le Naturaliste examines Westernport (to 17th).
24 Le Naturaliste arrives at Port Jackson.
26 Flinders examines Port Phillip (to 3 May; returns to Sydney on 9th).
May - Rations reduced in Sydney owing to food shortage.
Jun 2 Aboriginal leader Pemulwy shot and killed following the killing of four white men by Aborigines at Parramatta and Toongabbie.
13 Coromandel arrives at Port Jackson with 137 convicts and 10 free settlers; surgeon Charles Throsby settles.
14 Duty of 5% imposed on all goods imported from east of Cape Town. 20 Le Geographe (Baudin) arrives at Port Jackson.
26 Arrival of US ship General Boyd with cargo of salted meat eases food shortage. Hercules arrives with 121 convicts, 14 having been killed during a mutiny and 30 others having died of sickness.
Jul 7 Atlas (1) arrives with 111 convicts (65 having died), including Sir Henry Browne Hayes.
22 Flinders leaves Sydney in the Investigator, with Murray in the Lady Nelson, to explore and chart the northern coastline of Australia.
23 Colony divided into two parishes—St Phillip's (Sydney) and St John's (Parramatta).
Aug 5 Flinders discovers Port Curtis and (21st) Port Bowen.
Sep 17 First properly assembled masonic lodge in Australia (held by officers of Le Naturaliste) admits Capt. Anthony Fenn Kemp of the NSW Corps into masonry.
Oct 16 Maj. George Johnston returns to Sydney in HMS Buffalo, his trial in England having been quashed; also aboard are John Oxley, G. W. Evans, and Garnham Blaxcell.
18 Flinders, at Cumberland Is., orders Lady Nelson back to Sydney.
30 Atlas (2) arrives at Port Jackson with 188 Irish rebel prisoners.
Nov 3 Flinders enters the Gulf of Carpentaria, having passed through Torres Strait, and begins a running survey of the gulf.
5 Francis Barrallier makes an attempt to cross the Blue Mountains (to 23 Dec.), reaching about 25 km south of Jenolan Caves.
18 Le Geographe, Le Naturaliste, and a purchased vessel, Casuarina (Louis de Freycinet), leave Port Jackson for Bass Strait.
23 Gov. King sends Lt Charles Robbins in Cumberland to examine Bass Strait (Surveyor-Gen. Charles Grimes also aboard) and to thwart any colonizing attempts by the French.
24 Flinders careens Investigator and finds it unfit to return to Sydney the way he came.
Dec 6 Baudin's expedition at King Is. (Le Naturaliste sails for Mauritius on 9th.) 7 Flinders names Mornington Is.
13 Robbins hoists the British flag near Baudin's tents on King Is. and fires a volley over them.

1803

26 Flinders sails from Wreck Reef for Sydney in a ship's cutter.
Sep 11 Lt John Bowen in the Albion (preceded by Lady Nelson) arrives at the Derwent with a party of 48 to found the first settlement in Van Diemen's Land. (Settles at Risdon Cove.)
26 Convicted murderer Joseph Samuels reprieved after three attempts to hang him fail.
Oct 7 Flinders returns to Wreck Reef in the Cumberland with Francis and Rolla
to pick up maroons. (Cumberland sails for England 10 Oct.)
9 Collins in the Calcutta (preceded by Ocean, 7 Oct.), arrives at Port Phillip and (10th) founds a settlement on the site of present-day Sorrento.
23 Rev. R. Knopwood conducts the first Christian church service at Port Phillip.
Nov 5 Collins seeks King's permission to move the settlement from Port Phillip. 25 First white child (Robert Hobart Thorne) born at Port Phillip.
Dec 8 King calls for volunteers for the Loyal Associations, re-formed because of the resumption of war between Britain and France.
12 Collins receives King's authorization to move from Port Phillip to the Derwent.
15 Cumberland, leaking, stops at Mauritius, and Flinders is interned by the French (17th).
27 Convict William Buckley escapes from Port Phillip and lives for the next 32 years with a tribe of Aborigines.

Hobart

A graceful State capital of the future is founded as the headquarters village of an island of torment, retribution, and violence. Early in 1803 the British became convinced that Nicolas Baudin's scientific expedition concealed a cunning French plot to establish a settlement in Van Diemen's Land. Governor Philip Gidley King in Sydney decided to forestall the French by colonising the island as soon as possible. He ordered young navy lieutenant John Bowen to take 15 soldiers, 45 convicts and a handful of free settlers and found a colony on the shores of the Derwent River on the south-east coast. Bowen and his contingent arrived in the river on 12 September 1803 and chose Risdon Cove as the place for their village, because it had a fine, freshwater creek. Meanwhile, another group of British colonists was sailing along the south coast of the continent on their way to establish the first settlement in Port Phillip Bay, across stormy Bass Strait from Van Diemen's Land. There were 466 of them, Royal Marines, convicts, free settlers, and some wives and children of both prisoners and free men, aboard the vessels Calcutta and Ocean. Their leader was Lieutenant-Colonel David Collins, a 49-year-old First Fleeter, who had been appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the new colony in Port Phillip.
They came into Port Phillip in October 1803 and decided to settle in the south-east corner of the bay where the holiday resort of Sorrento now stands. Almost within days Collins was dissatisfied with the landscape and the general state of affairs in his fledgling colony. Soldiers were acting in a slovenly manner, and convicts were running away (one of them, the giant William Buckley, went to live with the Aborigines and was still alive when John Batman and his party landed in 1835). Soon Collins was petitioning Governor King to allow him to abandon Port Phillip. King replied that he could move to the Derwent. Collins and his charges sailed into Risdon Cove on 15 February 1804 and immediately took a dislike to the place selected by Lieutenant Bowen. Collins preferred another site at the foot of majestic Mount Wellington, and it was here that the township was founded. It was named after Lord Hobart, Secretary of State for the Colonial and War Department. Collins became Lieutenant-Governor and Bowen returned to Sydney in August 1804. As Judge Advocate when Captain Phillip took the penal station at Sydney through its birthpains, Collins should have known how to manage a colony. But he was a poor leader whose administration was dissolute and wavering. He died in Hobart in March 1810.

1804

Jan 9 William Collins, sent from Port Phillip to examine Port Dalrymple and the Tamar River, discovers the site of Launceston.
Feb 15 David Collins and party in the Ocean arrive at the Derwent from Port Phillip. (Collins becomes Lt-Governor of Van Diemen's Land, 16th.)
19 Collins decides on Sullivan Cove (not Bowen's site at Risdon Cove) as settlement site, takes possession, and (20th) lands a party there.
26 First church service in Tas. conducted by Robert Knopwood on the site of Hobart Town Hall.
Mar 4 Irish convicts at Castle Hill launch a full-scale rebellion.
5 Gov. King declares martial law in Parramatta, Castle Hill, and adjacent districts; Maj. George Johnston and a force from the NSW Corps march to Parramatta, and the rising is quickly put down at Vinegar Hill (Kellyville); 12 rebels are killed and 26 captured; leader Philip Cunningham hanged without trial.
8 Principal Castle Hill rebels tried and condemned; three hanged forthwith at Parramatta (another three at Castle Hill, 9th; two at Sydney, 10th). 10 Martial law revoked.
30 Lt Charles Menzies arrives at the Hunter River to re-establish a settlement, which is named Newcastle.
Apr 22 Soldiers refuse guard duties at Risdon Cove; fears are held of a convict uprising.
May 3 Aborigines approach Risdon Cove settlement and are fired upon; 50 killed—the first casualties in Tasmania's "Black War".
7 Coromandel arrives at Port Jackson with 200 convicts and a consignment of smallpox vaccine.
8 Bowen relinquishes command at the Derwent to Collins.
20 Last of the Sorrento settlement leave Port Phillip for the Derwent.
Jun 15 Hobart Town adopted by Collins as the name of the Sullivan Cove settlement.
24 Experiment arrives at Port Jackson with 132 convicts (130 females, including Molly Morgan for the second time) and Alexander Riley as a free settler.
Aug 9 Settlement at Risdon Cove abandoned; most of the establishment, including Bowen, return to Sydney in the Ocean.
Sep 9 Capt. John Piper replaces Joseph Foveaux as Lt-Governor of Norfolk Is., most of the convicts and half the military detachment having been withdrawn; Foveaux sails for UK in the Albion on leave.
16 Government brewery at Parramatta begins producing beer.
- G. W. Evans discovers the Warragamba River, NSW.
Oct 15 Col. William Paterson in HMS Buffalo leaves Port Jackson to establish a settlement at Port Dalrymple; Johnston takes over as commander of the NSW Corps.
Nov 4 Buffalo arrives at Port Dalrymple, and (11th) Paterson officially takes possession at Outer Cove on the eastern side of the Tamar (now George Town).
George Caley makes an attempt to cross the Blue Mountains. (Reaches Mount Banks; returns 23rd.)
9 Crew of the Union, under charter to Simeon Lord, massacred by Koro Is. natives.
26 Guards at Port Dalrymple fire on a band of unfriendly Aborigines, killing one and wounding another.
Dec 27 Paterson moves the Port Dalrymple settlement to the West Arm of the Tamar, which he names York Town.

1805

Jan 21 Robert Campbell's ship Lady Barlow leaves Port Jackson with the first all-colonial cargo (sealskins, seal oil, and timber) to be shipped directly to UK, defying the East India Co. monopoly.
- Simeon Lord enters into partnership with Henry Kable and James Underwood.
Feb 23 G. W. Evans discharged as Surveyor-General for fraud.
Mar 21 Colonial schooner Francis wrecked on Oyster Bank, Newcastle.
30 In an attempt to stop convicts escaping in ships, Gov. King decrees that all ships' captains will be required to put up bonds before communicating with the settlement.
Apr 27 King orders troops to be sent to the Hawkesbury following the killing of several settlers by Aborigines.
30 Kable and Underwood launch their 185-ton deep-sea whaler King George, the largest vessel thus far built in Sydney.
May 24 Capt. William Bligh commissioned in London as Governor of NSW.
Jun 7 John Macarthur, having resigned from the army and received permission to return as a private citizen to NSW, arrives at Port Jackson in his own ship, the Argo, accompanied by his nephew Hannibal, with eight merino sheep from King George III's flock, and a letter ordering King to grant him 5,000 acres of land.
24 Lt-Gov. Collins notifies King of an extreme shortage of food in Hobart.
Jul 5 Judge-Advocate Atkins states that since Aborigines have neither religion nor morals they cannot give evidence.
13 Lady Barlow arrested on arrival in England for infringing East India Co. charter (but allowed to leave on condition the cargo would be sold outside Britain).
Oct 13 Macarthur is given conditional occupancy of land in the Cowpastures area subject to Colonial Office confirmation. (Receives grant on 15 Jan 1806.)
Nov 28 Food and settlers from Norfolk Is. arrive at the Derwent.
Dec 12 Four convicts escape from Newcastle; recaptured near Castle Hill, they and their pursuers become the first white overlanders from Newcastle to Sydney.
18 First land grants made in Van Diemen's Land, including 10 acres to Rev. Robert Knopwood.

1806

Mar 15 Hawkesbury River rises to an unprecedented level, causing great loss of crops, stock, and houses and reducing the colony almost to starvation; seven drown in floods (to 20th).
- William Paterson begins transferring his settlement on the Tamar from York Town to "Patersonia" (Launceston).
Apr 11 William Pitt arrives at Port Jackson with 117 convicts and news of the Battle of Trafalgar; passengers include Gregory Blaxland and family, as free settlers, and Charles Grimes returning from leave.
22 Colonial schooner Governor King wrecked on Oyster Bank, Newcastle.
Jun 16 Convicts at Port Dalrymple seize the brig Venus and sail to NZ.
- Sydney's first girls' school opened by a Mrs Williams.
Aug 6 Lady Madelaine Sinclair, carrying William Bligh as Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief, and William Gore as Provost-Marshal, arrives at Port Jackson, escorted by HMS Porpoise.
13 Bligh assumes office as Governor, replacing Philip Gidley King.
15 King embarks on the Buffalo but collapses, and his departure is delayed for six months.
20 Alexander arrives at Port Jackson with 56 convicts, including Solomon Wiseman.
21 With provisions at Hobart almost exhausted, prisoners are permitted to hunt kangaroos.
Sep 22 Sydney free inhabitants present an address of welcome to Bligh, repudiating an earlier address signed by Macarthur on their behalf.
Oct 4 Bligh issues new and stricter port regulations.
21 Food shortage at Hobart relieved by the arrival of the Royal George with provisions.
Dec 4 Bligh announces that people could be called up for harvesting and stipulates wages and conditions for various tasks.
* Maori chief Te Pehi and four of his sons visit Sydney and are entertained by King and Rev. Samuel Marsden.
* William Collins sets up Australia's first bay whaling station at Ralphs Bay, on the Derwent estuary.
* Formal Roman Catholic education begins in Australia with the opening of a Catholic school in Sydney, apparently run by a Jeremy Cavanagh (mentioned in a dispatch by King on 12 Aug.).

BLIGH, WILLIAM (1754-1817),

admiral, and governor of New South Wales, son of Francis and Jane Bligh, was born at Plymouth on 9 September 1754. In 1770 he joined H.M.S. Hunter as an able seaman, the term being used only because there was no vacancy for a midshipman. He became a midshipman early in the following year. In September 1771 he was transferred to the Crescent and remained on her three years. On 17 March 1776 he was appointed master of the Resolution, under the command of Captain James Cook (q.v.), which sailed from Plymouth in July 1776. It was a remarkable compliment that Bligh should have been selected for this position while still only 21 years of age, but it is evident from Cook's journals that he did his work most efficiently. He reached England again at the end of 1780 and contributed to the account of Cook's third voyage. On 4 February 1781 he was married to Elizabeth Betham, and a few days later was appointed master of the Belle Poule. In August he fought under Admiral Parker at the Dogger Bank and was a lieutenant on other vessels during the next 18 months. Between 1783 and 1787 he was a captain in the merchant service. In 1787 he was offered the command of the Bounty, on an expedition to procure bread-fruit trees for transmission to the West Indies. The expedition was planned on too small a scale, Bligh had no lieutenant as second-in-command, and no marines for protection in case of mutiny. He carefully looked after the health of his men and did not treat them with undue severity. In April he sailed from Tahiti and on the 28th of that month Fletcher Christian, who was acting lieutenant, with some companions, seized Bligh while asleep in his cabin and placed him in a boat 23 feet long with 18 other members of the crew. With only four cutlasses for arms, and food and water sufficient for a few days, the boat was cast off loaded to within a few inches of the gunwale. The voyage of about six weeks to Timor was in the circumstances one of the most remarkable ever known. It was possible only because Bligh was a fine seaman and a brave, resourceful and determined man, who by his own force of character was able to bring his crew to safety except for one man killed by natives. Some of the men died shortly afterwards, but Bligh had done all that was possible.

Bligh arrived in London in March 1790. In October he was honourably acquitted at the court-martial to inquire into the loss of the Bounty, and shortly afterwards published A Narrative of the Mutiny on board His Majesty's Ship Bounty. It was decided that Bligh should be sent out a second time to carry out his earlier instructions and also to explore Torres Strait. This time there were two vessels, the Providence and the Assistant, which had the equipment lacking on the first voyage. They sailed in August 1791 and returned almost exactly two years later. Bligh had successfully carried out his mission and brought his crews back in good health. He was heartily cheered on quitting his ship. Bligh was on half pay until April 1795 when he was placed in command of the Calcutta. He fought in several actions during the next 10 years and showed himself to be a capable officer. On 21 May 1801 Bligh was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and in March 1805 Sir Joseph Banks (q.v.), much in the confidence of the government, offered Bligh the position of governor of New South Wales at a salary of £2000 a year, which was double the amount King (q.v.) was receiving. Bligh hesitated to accept the offer, for one thing his wife had such a horror of the sea she would not go with him. He decided to accept, making one condition that his son-in-law Lieutenant Putland should be attached to him. He left England in February 1806. One of his instructions was that no spirits were to be landed in the colony without his consent, and it was his endeavour to carry out this that led to his conflict with the military and to his deposition. He arrived in Sydney in August 1806 and was soon at work. He received addresses from the Sydney and Hawkesbury free settlers, who most reasonably asked that all debts should be made payable in currency and that they should have the right to buy and sell in open market. Bligh himself soon realized that there was much to be done in the way of building, education and the control of the liquor traffic. In a dispatch to Windham, a little more than a year after his arrival, he was able to report many improvements, e.g. "the barter of spirituous liquors is prohibited--and the floating paper money of an undefined value--is now obliged to be drawn payable in sterling". The whole dispatch suggests that the various difficulties were being vigorously grappled with, and writing to Banks at about the same period he mentions that "this sink of iniquity Sydney is improving in its manners and in its concerns". On 1 January 1808, 833 settlers signed an address thanking Bligh for having so greatly improved their lot, and assuring him that they would always regard themselves as bound "at the risque of our lives and properties" to support his government. (H.R. of N.S. W., vol. VI, p. 411). But the officers and other monopolists were by no means satisfied. A series of actions was brought, the effect of which was to discredit Bligh and led to the trial of Macarthur for sedition. Unfortunately the judge-advocate, Atkins, was both weak and incompetent as Bligh well knew, and it hampered the governor very much. While Macarthur was in custody Lieutenant-Colonel Johnston ordered his release, and on 26 January 1808 the New South Wales Corps marched to government house and placed Bligh under arrest. This continued for over a year. He at last agreed to proceed to England in the Porpoise, and undertook not to return to any part of the territory or interfere with the government. It is clear that Bligh never intended to keep this promise. He said afterwards that he signed the paper because he thought it was his duty to regain his ship. He was dealing with mutineers and he considered that he should outwit them if possible. Once on board he assumed command and instead of sailing to England he proceeded to Hobart, where he was received with respect by the Lieutenant-Governor Colonel David Collins (q.v.). But Collins became luke-warm and Bligh stationed the Porpoise at the entrance of Storm Bay Passage. In this position he remained until January 1810. In the meantime it had been decided to recall Bligh and appoint Lachlan Macquarie (q.v.) as governor. Macquarie was instructed to reinstate Bligh for one day, but this could not be done because Bligh was in Tasmania. All the officials whom Johnston had deposed were reinstated. Bligh returned to Sydney on 17 January 1810 and collected evidence in connexion with the forthcoming trial of Johnston. He sailed for England on 12 May and arrived on 25 October. At the court-martial of Johnston the charges against Bligh were disproved after full investigation, and Johnston was cashiered. On 31 July 1811 Bligh was gazetted rear-admiral of the Blue and in 1812 rear-admiral of the White. In the same year his wife died, and in 1813 he was granted a pension and retired to the Manor House, Farmingham, Kent. In June 1814 he was made vice-admiral of the Blue. He died while on a visit to London on 7 December 1817, and was survived by six daughters.

Bligh was below average height, somewhat heavily built, with black hair, blue eyes, and a pale complexion. He was a thoroughly efficient officer, a great navigator and cartographer, honoured and esteemed by his friends, Nelson, Sir Joseph Banks, Sir Frederick Pollock and other well-known men. By present standards his land transactions with his predecessor King may be questioned, but in those days men felt that if they faced the perils of distant lands they were entitled to some reward. The grants made by King and Bligh were comparatively small when compared with those of William Paterson (q.v.). The worst that can be said of Bligh is that he had a choleric temper accompanied on occasions by a flow of violent language. He was unfortunate in being the victim of two mutinies, but in each case the circumstances were against him. On the Bounty he had no marines to enable him to enforce his authority, and he came into conflict with the forceful but unbalanced personality of Fletcher Christian. In New South Wales, the military officers, the very men who should have supported him, were the chief cause of the evils he was trying to combat. No doubt he might have shown more tact on occasions, but he was not a tyrant and his recent biographers agree in painting him as a brave, just, and great man.

1807

Jan 24 Ship Perseverance launched at Robert Campbell's yard. (Sails for China via Norfolk Is., 9 Feb.)
Feb 3 Lt Thomas Laycock and four others walk from Port Dalrymple to Hobart (arr. 11th) to try to obtain provisions for the settlement.
8 Laycock discovers the Clyde River, Tas.
10 P. G. King sails for England in command of HMS Buffalo; also aboard are Samuel Marsden, going to England to recruit clergy for the colony and taking with him the first consignment of Australian wool large enough to weave into a length of cloth, and J. H.Vaux as King's unofficial secretary.
14 Gov. Bligh prohibits the use of spirits to barter for food and clothing.
Mar 9 Dart, part-owned by John Macarthur, arrives at Port Jackson carrying two stills, one for Macarthur and the other for Capt. Edward Abbott. (Confiscated and held in government stores awaiting re-exportation; Naval Officer John Harris allows Macarthur to remove the two boilers belonging to the stills.)
Apr 4 John Blaxland arrives at Port Jackson in his ship, Brothers. May 2 Robert Campbell appointed Naval Officer in place of Harris.
Jun 16 Russian corvette Neva (Capt. Leontii Hagemeister), the first Russian vessel to call at Port Jackson, arrives on a voyage of exploration (to 1 July).
18 Sydney Cove arrives at Port Jackson with 114 convicts; passengers include
Joseph Underwood and his brother James (returning from England).
27 Public notice in Sydney announces that a convict transported for life had escaped from the colony in the Parramatta, a schooner owned by Macarthur and Garnham Blaxcell, bound for Tahiti.
Jul 25 Bligh suspends D'Arcy Wentworth for alleged misconduct in administering Parramatta Hospital.
Aug 2 William Blue advertises in the Sydney Gazette as a licensed ferryman on Sydney Harbour.
11 Simeon Lord, Henry Kable, and James Underwood are fined and gaoled for a month by Bligh for "writing a letter in improper terms" seeking permission to tranship goods without unloading them.
Oct 22 Bligh orders the confiscation of the boilers imported on the Dart. 24 Macarthur institutes proceedings for unlawful seizure of the boilers.
Nov 15 Parramatta returns to Port Jackson from Tahiti and is placed under arrest and its bond of £800 forfeited.
Dec 7 Macarthur notifies the captain of the Parramatta that he has abandoned the ship and will not be responsible for pay or rations.
14 Captain and crew of the Parramatta go ashore and are charged with violating regulations. Judge-Advocate Richard Atkins summons Macarthur to come to Sydney to "show cause" for his conduct over the Parramatta affair. (Macarthur refuses.)
15 Atkins issues a warrant for Macarthur's arrest; Macarthur gives the arresting officer a defiant written refusal to comply.
16 Macarthur arrested on a second warrant; granted bail.
17 Macarthur committed for trial before the criminal court.
21 Macarthur demands payment of a 15-year-old debt from Atkins.

MARSDEN, SAMUEL (1764-1838),

early clergyman and missionary to New Zealand, was born at Farsley, Yorkshire, England, on 28 July 1764. (Jnl and Proc. R.A.H.S., vol. IX, p. 79). His father, Thomas Marsden, was a blacksmith and small farmer. Marsden had only an elementary education and when he grew up assisted his father at his work. When he was 21 his thoughts turned to the ministry, and between 1787 and 1793 he received help from the Elland Clerical Society. which had a fund for the education of young men of good character without the means to fit themselves for entering the church. Marsden had a course of preliminary study under the Rev. E. Storrs and the Rev. Miles Atkinson. both of Leeds, and then proceeded to Hull grammar school. In 1790 he became a sizar of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and there he remained for two and a half years, leaving without a degree to accept the position of assistant chaplain in New South Wales. His commission was dated 1 January 1793; on the following 24 May he was ordained deacon, and two days later priest. He had married on 21 April, Elizabeth, only daughter of Thomas Fristan, and on 1 July they sailed on the William which arrived at Sydney on 10 March 1794. Marsden made his home at Parramatta, but early in 1795 Lieutenant-governor Paterson (q.v.) sent him to Norfolk Island, then being administered by Captain King (q.v.). The visit had far-reaching consequences because King had been much impressed by the intelligence of two young Maoris who had been kidnapped and brought to the island, in the hope that they might be able to give instruction in preparing flax which grew there luxuriantly. His account of the young men interested Marsden very much, but many years were to pass before he was able to visit New Zealand. In September 1795 he returned to New South Wales, and in the same month Captain Hunter (q.v.) began his duties as governor.

Neither Johnson (q.v.), the first clergyman, nor Marsden had received any support from Lieut.-governors Grose (q.v.) and Paterson (q.v.). Hunter did his best to combat the evil influences at work in the settlement, and Marsden's influence on the life of the colony was increasingly felt. Writing to a friend in December 1796 he said "I have much to occupy my time, and a great variety of duties to perform. I am a gardener, a farmer, a magistrate, a minister, so that when one duty does not call, another does. In this infant colony there is plenty of manual labour for everybody. I conceive it a duty to all to take an active part. He who will not labour must not eat. Now is our harvest time. Yesterday I was in the field assisting getting my wheat. To-day I was sitting in the civil court hearing the complaints of the people. To-morrow, if well, must ascend the pulpit and preach to my people. In this manner I chiefly spend my time". (Jnl and Proc. R.A.H.S., vol. XII, p. 263). Marsden had been given a grant of 100 acres soon after his arrival, with the use of convict labour, and showed himself to be an excellent farmer. Later on he was given further grants of land and took an interest in sheep-breeding, and though his efforts may not be compared with those of Macarthur (q.v.), his experiments were of great use in the early development of the wool industry. In 1806 he owned some 1400 sheep out of the 21,400 in the colony, and had nearly 3000 acres of land. After the Rev. Richard Johnson left the colony in 1800 Marsden carried on the chaplain's work single-handed for several years, and when later on he came in conflict with Governor Macquarie (q.v.) indignantly denied that his farming operations had in any way interfered with the carrying out of his clerical duties. This is borne out in the report made to the British house of commons by J. T. Bigge (q.v.) in 1823. Marsden's duties as a magistrate, however, were less in keeping with his office. He ordered floggings for what would in the present day be considered minor offences, and though not mentioned by name, he was evidently "the clerical magistrate of another creed" who awarded the "scourge to Irish catholics for refusing to enter the protestant churches . . . the plea to be sure, was obstinacy and disobedience" (W. Ullathorne (q.v.) The Catholic Mission in Australasia, p. 9). Marsden considered he was doing his duty, it was a cruel and intolerant age, and he was not in advance of his time. His own view was that he was a strict but not a severe magistrate. He said "I conceive there is a very material difference between severity and strictness . . . I ever considered that the certainty of punishment operated more powerfully upon the mind of the delinquent than the severity of punishment; and upon this principle I acted. . . . A magistrate has a duty which he owes to the public as well as to the delinquents, and he is not justified in remitting punishments where the safety and well-being of the community call for their infliction" (An Answer to Certain Calumnies, p. 38). As a magistrate Marsden was trusted by the successive governors, and on more than one occasion important commissions were entrusted to him, such as the investigation into the conditions and grievances of settlers in 1798.

In 1807 Marsden and his wife visited England. There he was able to bring before the authorities the need for more clergy in Australia, and when news of the deposition of Bligh (q.v.) reached England, Marsden's knowledge of the local conditions must have been very useful. He returned to Australia in the Anne on 27 February 1810, having as fellow passenger the Rev. Robert Cartwright. He had also enlisted the services of the Rev. William Cowper (q.v.), who arrived about the same time. Soon after Marsden's arrival he unfortunately quarrelled with Governor Macquarie who had recently arrived at Sydney. The governor was anxious to raise the status of convicts who had served their time, and one course he took was the appointing of some of them to the magistracy. Marsden was appointed one of the commissioners of public roads as were also certain of the new magistrates. Marsden considered that to sit with these men would be a "degradation of his office as senior chaplain", and asked that he might be allowed to decline the office. Both men were determined and a breach occurred between them that was never healed. However, a very important development in Marsden's work was shortly to begin that made these differences for the time being less important. Some of the South Sea missionaries who had been driven off the islands came to Sydney and were befriended by Marsden before his voyage to England.

1808

Jan 12 City of Edinburgh, carrying 100,000 litres of whisky, arrives at Port Jackson with part-owner Alexander Berry aboard.
25 John Macarthur comes before court on a charge of sedition; he challenges the right of Judge-Advocate Richard Atkins to try him; the court adjourns in confusion.
26 Macarthur arrested and gaoled; military officers forming the court ask Gov. Bligh to restore bail and replace Atkins; Bligh summons them to appear before him next day; Maj. George Johnson signs an order for the release of Macarthur, proclaims martial law, and arrests Bligh.
27 Johnston suspends Atkins and several other officials; martial law repealed. 30 Charles Grimes becomes acting Judge-Advocate.
Feb 2 Johnston reports the arrest of Bligh to Lt-Gov. William Paterson (his senior officer) in Port Dalrymple; Paterson subsequently orders HMS Porpoise to be sent to convey him to Sydney.
Macarthur faces a new trial and (6th) is acquitted.
6 Capt. Mayhew Folger of the US whaler Topaz discovers, on Pitcairn Is., the last survivor of the Bounty mutineers, John Adams (Alexander Smith), with a small community of the mutineers' descendants.
12 Macarthur appointed magistrate and "Secretary to the Colony"—its virtual administrator.
17 D'Arcy Wentworth exonerated by court martial.
Mar 21 Former Provost-Marshall William Gore charged with perjury and held in gaol. (Sentenced to seven years at Newcastle on 30 May.)
Apr 3 Grimes resigns as acting Judge-Advocate and (20th) is sent to England with dispatches.
May 15 Brig Harrington seized by 50 convicts, led by Robert Stewart, in Farm Cove and sailed for the Philippines. (Captured three months later and Stewart hanged in Sydney in August.)
24 Floods on the Hawkesbury and Georges rivers (to 27th).
28 Anthony Fenn Kemp appointed acting Judge-Advocate.
Jul 28 Lt-Col. Joseph Foveaux arrives from England on his way to resume administration of Norfolk Is. and, being senior to Johnston, takes over next day as administrator of NSW.
29 Further flooding on the Hawkesbury and Georges rivers.
30 Foveaux refuses Bligh's request to be reinstated.
Aug 16 Foveaux asks Paterson to come to Sydney immediately or send a plan for the government of the colony.
Sep 1 William Redfern is examined by tribunal of surgeons and given a certificate
of competence—the first medical diploma issued in Australia.
Oct 18 Bligh refuses to leave Government House to make way for Paterson.
Nov 1 Porpoise leaves Port Jackson to bring Paterson from Port Dalrymple.
16 Speke arrives in Port Jackson with 97 convicts; passengers include Lt John Oxley.
Dec 13 Kemp resigns as acting Judge-Advocate; Foveaux reinstates Atkins.

1809

Jan 1 William Paterson arrives at Port Jackson in HMS Porpoise and (9th) assumes governorship of NSW.
26 John Hosking and Isaac Lyons, the first trained teachers in the colony, arrive in the Aeolus (carrying 79 convicts), Hosking to take charge of the Female Orphan School.
Feb .20 Deposed Governor William Bligh boards the Porpoise, agreeing to proceed to England and not return to any part of the colony or interfere with the government. (For various reasons, sailing is delayed.)
Mar 17 Porpoise leaves Port Jackson, but instead of proceeding to UK, Bligh sails for Hobart.
29 John Macarthur (with his sons James and William) and Maj. George Johnston, bound for England to put his version of events before the British government, sail from Port Jackson in the returning transport Admiral Gambier.
31 Bligh arrives at Hobart and subsequently moves into the government cottage with his daughter, Mrs Putland.
Apr 25 Isaac Nichols, assistant to the Naval officer, is appointed Sydney's first postmaster. (Post office opened in Nichols's house on 28th.)
May 8 Lt-Col. Lachlan Macquarie officially appointed Governor of NSW.
21 Lt-Gov. David Collins makes public in Hobart a proclamation by Paterson forbidding communication with Bligh.
22 Macquarie leaves England in HMS Dromedary escorted by HMS Hindostan; with him is Ellis Bent, to become Judge-Advocate (appointed 6 May); Hindostan carries Lt-Col. Maurice O'Connell with headquarters of Macquarie's own regiment, the 73rd, which is to replace the NSW Corps.
25 Hawkesbury River in flood (to 27th), rising to a higher level than the great flood of Mar. 1806.
Jun 6 "General" Holt given conditional pardon (officially confirmed 1 Jan. 1811).
Jul 30 Floods on the Hawkesbury yet again (to Aug.; eight lives lost, as well as much grain) and on the Derwent, Tas.
Aug 14 Boyd arrives at Port Jackson with 134 Irish convicts and a detachment of the 73rd Regiment.
18 Indispensable arrives at Port Jackson with 61 female convicts; passengers include asst. chaplain William Cowper and family (including son Charles).
Oct 29 G. W. Evans appointed assistant surveyor at Port Dalrymple.
Dec 28 Dromedary and Hindostan arrive at Port Jackson. (Macquarie lands on 31st.)
- Boyd, chartered by Simeon Lord, is attacked and burnt by Maoris at Whangaroa, NZ, and about 60 persons on board are massacred; only a woman and three children survive.

1810

Jan 1 Lt-Col. Lachlan Macquarie takes over as Governor of NSW.
4 Macquarie dismisses all persons appointed to official positions since Gov. Bligh's removal, restores those previously in office, and nullifies all trials and land grants, gifts, etc., made to members of the NSW Corps.
8 Derwent Star and Van Diemen's Land Intelligencer, Australia's second newspaper and the first in Tas., begins publication.
12 Macquarie appoints emancipist Andrew Thompson a JP and chief magistrate at the Hawkesbury (the first emancipist magistrate appointed). 17 Bligh returns to Sydney from Hobart in HMS Porpoise.
Feb 24 Macquarie issues a proclamation condemning cohabitation and immorality.
27 Rev. Samuel Marsden returns to Sydney in the transport Anne (197 convicts), accompanied by Rev. Robert Cartwright and Maori chief Ruatara, who had been taken to England.
Mar 22 Charity School opened in Parramatta by Macquarie; John Eyre appointed teacher.
24 David Collins dies suddenly in Hobart.
- W. C. Wentworth, aged 19, returns to NSW after schooling in England.
Apr 10 Lt T. A. Crane replaces John Piper as commandant at Norfolk Is.
- Macquarie enunciates his policy on emancipation to Secretary of State Lord Castlereagh.
May 8 Lt-Col. Maurice O'Connell marries Bligh's widowed daughter, Mary Putland.
12 Bligh sails for England in HMS Hindostan, accompanied by HMS Dromedary and Porpoise; aboard are officers (including William Paterson) and other ranks of the NSW Corps, as well as Richard Atkins and William Gore as Bligh's witnesses at the court martial of George Johnston.
Jun 13 Matthew Flinders released from internment on Mauritius. (Arrives in England on 24 Oct.)
Jul 11 Capt. Frederick Hasselburg, on a sealing voyage in Robert Campbell's ship Perseverance, discovers Macquarie Is.
Aug - William Pascoe Crook, a missionary, organizes Australia's first Congregational Church in Sydney.
Oct 6 Macquarie divides Sydney into five police districts, seven constables being allotted to each, and names four major streets as well as Hyde Park, Macquarie Place, etc.
Nov 6 Alexander Riley and Garnham Blaxcell (and, later, D'Arcy Wentworth) sign a contract with Macquarie giving them a monopoly on the import of rum (i.e., 205,000 litres of all spirits) in return for their undertaking to build a hospital in Sydney (the "Rum Hospital").
Macquarie, his wife, and party set out from Sydney to visit all the inhabited inland districts. (Return 15 Jan. 1811.)
7 Macquarie fixes the site of Liverpool and orders James Meehan to begin a survey.
46
Dec 6 Macquarie names five township sites: Windsor, Richmond, Castlereagh, Pitt Town, and Wilberforce.
16 Indian arrives at Port Jackson with 192 convicts, including James Hardy Vaux for the second time.
29 D'Arcy Wentworth appointed Superintendent of Police in Sydney.

BLAXLAND, JOHN

(1769-1845),was born in Kent, on 4 January 1769. Educated at King's School, Canterbury, he entered the army and became a captain. He resigned his commission in 1792, settled down on an estate at Newington, and in 1805 decided to emigrate to Australia with his brother Gregory Blaxland (q.v.). He made a good bargain with the English government which agreed that if he brought £6000 to the colony he would be granted 8000 acres of land, the labour of 80 convicts who would be fed for 18 months by the government, and a free passage for himself, his wife, children and servants. He decided, however, to charter a ship and arrived at Port Jackson on 4 April 1807, with instructions to Governor Bligh (q.v.) to give him various concessions in place of the free passage. Bligh was no more helpful than he thought necessary, but Blaxland obtained cattle from the government herd, started a dairy in Sydney, and also sold meat and vegetables. He did a very useful piece of work in reducing the prices of these necessaries, but Bligh was insistent that he should go in for agriculture as well as grazing. He antagonized Blaxland, who joined in the deposition of Bligh in January 1808, but Blaxland could not get the concessions he wanted from Colonel Johnston (q.v.) and decided to go to England. Bligh, however, succeeded in getting him arrested at Cape Town and taken to London. After three years in London he obtained a letter to Macquarie directing that the original agreement should be carried out. But Macquarie was obsessed with the idea that the land grants were for the purpose of growing grain and put various obstacles in his way. However, in the eighteen-twenties, under Governor Brisbane (q.v.), Blaxland obtained good land in the Hunter valley and was successful as a stock owner. He was a member of the legislative council from 1829 to 1844 and died at Newington on 5 August 1845. Blaxland was married twice and was survived by sons and a daughter.

Blaxland was a keen man of business, anxious to drive a good bargain, and as a free settler was in a stronger position than the emancipists. But he antagonized both Bligh and Macquarie and met with much opposition. In spite of this Blaxland as a pioneer grazier became an important figure in the early development of Australia.