Phillip

“ Phillip's letters home had acquainted the Government with King's value, and a commission was already waiting for him as Lieutenant-Governor of the settlement at Norfolk Island. While at home he married, embarking with his wife on the Gorgon, and, reaching New South Wales in September 1791, he returned in a few weeks to his island command, where certain of his acts gave great offence to Grose, Phillip's successor. King in these disputes always shows to advantage, and his superiors in England approved of most of what Grose censured. ”

“ If Phillip, in his small way, so governed that his subjects did loyally surrender themselves, and found their welfare in so doing, then he may take rank with the 'most important of Great Men.' But as yet he had other things to consider than methods of governing—chief among them the site of the settlement—for Botany Bay, he found, would not do. The very appearance of the country must have been disheartening, for Botany Bay is about as unlovely a spot as can be imagined ”

“ He was a widower of nearly sixty summers, and had no child but Phillip.
This youth had been well educated, and was allowed an ample income to live on.
But he looked upon commerce as something degrading, and felt ashamed to own among the gay gallants of the town that he was anything less than a person of noble blood.
His propensities for gambling had well nigh ruined his father more than once.
But the fond old parent had overlooked his son’s misdemeanours very frequently. ”

“ Phillip's contemporaries have left little enough material from which biographers can to-day create a personal interest in the man, and the writers feel that in their attempt to describe the first Governor of New South Wales and the manner of his governing, Phillip never stands out distinctly from the picture of his work. ”

“ They can run with such swiftness that a greyhound can with difficulty keep pace with them. The flesh tastes somewhat like beef.' [1]
Before the first Governor left, the traffic in rum was already growing into an evil, and Phillip, foreseeing the consequences, wrote home more than once on the subject. Grose, Phillip's successor, as soon as he took charge, relaxed the wise restrictions put upon the sale of spirits by Phillip. ”

“ Fathers are always the same; he never did coincide with any ideas of mine, the old brute! Well, never mind, he can’t last long, that’s certain; and I don’t think it would take much trouble to put him out of the way, if all comes to all! Lord! what a fine time I should have then, eh? I don’t care about old Sir Andrew’s daughter, not a particle; she’s rich and that’s the main point now-a-days.”
With these thoughts Phillip visited his grey-haired father, whom he found sitting before his office fire, gazing at the glowing embers, and buried in deep thought.
“How the wind blows to-night, Phillip! ”

“ During the memorable year 1782, Phillip promoted its enterprises, and shared in its glories. And in January, 1783, he sailed with a reinforcement to the East Indies, where superior bravery contended against superior force, till the policy of our negotiators put an end to unequal hostilities by a necessary peace. ”

“ And the worthy people who do not consider the exigencies of empire-building and the laws of nature, will be shocked to learn that Phillip, a man of the most stringent morality, mentioned the fact that at the Friendly Islands 'women could be procured.' In the same letter he asked that the Secretary of State should empower him, in case the Sirius should return to England, to take command of any other ships that might remain on the coast, by hoisting a distinguishing pendant on such ships, so that he might retain the command at sea and be able to explore the coast. ”

“ The other is Phillips, the hunter.”
“Phillips! Phillips, did you say? Why, as much as he has been at our house, he has never dropt a word from which one could infer that you were not a perfect stranger to him.”
“I did not suppose he had. Phillips is a peaceable, close-mouthed fellow; pretends not to know any thing about anybody, when he thinks the parties concerned would rather have him ignorant; keeps a secret by never letting anybody know he has one; and never means to cross another man’s path. ”

“ A rising government could not easily be committed to better hands. Governor Phillip appears to have every requisite to ensure the success of the undertaking intrusted to him, as far as the qualities of one man can ensure it. Intelligent, active, persevering with firmness to make his authority respected, and mildness to render it pleasing, he was determined, if possible, to bring even the native inhabitants of New South Wales into a voluntary subjection ”

“ The labourers on the settlement were in charge of Phillip's man-servant, who came from England with his master. Collins describes the man as one who 'joined to much agricultural knowledge a perfect idea of the labour to be required from, and that might be performed by, the convicts ”

“ Indeed, I may say that nothing short of absolute necessity could induce men to use it. What makes this the more severely felt by many of us is our not having known what we were to be supplied with till it was much too late to make any other provision for ourselves.'
Fortunately for the future prosperity of the colony, the other officers did not whine about their hardships, though Ross no doubt gave them every encouragement to do so. Phillip sometimes came near to losing his temper with the Major, who seemed to miss no chance of harassing the Governor in every possible way. ”

“ Phillips, just come down stairs, please; I want to speak to you.—Come into the library, only Mr. D'Aubrey is here.'
(Humph! Only Mr. D'Aubrey!—'Oh, for to-morrow!')
Enter Mrs. Phillips, one of those fat, pylygastric nurses, who divide the twenty-four hours into four days, so as to have three meals to each of their diurnal revolutions; whose digestive organs, if they could speak, would strike for wages; whose eyes move but never look; their atmosphere [Pg 5] —what Germans might call expression—being that of massive rest. ”

“ Captain Phillips pointed towards the clump of trees where he had tied it up.
"Will you fetch it?" said Shere Ali, and as Phillips walked off, he turned towards the nobles and the old mullah who stood amongst them. Phillips heard his voice, as he began to speak, and was surprised by a masterful quiet ring in it. "The doubtful quantity seems to have grown into a man," he thought, and the thought gained strength when he rode his horse back from the clump of trees towards the group. ”

“ The flour brought by the Sirius was not much, and still no storeships came. Phillip accordingly determined to reduce the rations, and on 1st November 1789 a reduction of one-third was made. This reduction applied to everyone, women excepted, in the settlement. Says Collins:—
'The Governor, whose humanity was at all times conspicuous, directed that no alteration should be made in the ration to be issued to the women. They were already upon two-thirds of the men's allowance ”

“ But all they heard was the interminable babble of the Khan, as he sat at the table shivering with fear and unable to eat a morsel of his food.
"You won't give me up!... I have been a good friend to the English.... All my life I have been a good friend to the English."
"We will do what we can," said Phillips, and he rose from the table and went up on to the roof. He lay down behind the low parapet and looked over towards the town. The house was a poor place to defend. At the back beyond the orchard the hill-side rose and commanded the roof. ”

“ Poor Johnson thus wrote to Phillip, in March 1792, detailing his grievances:—
'As to my habitation I am very well satisfied; it is pretty commodious and convenient—few better provided for in this respect in the colony than myself. My principal family complaint is, that I cannot better provide for them. We are now eight in number. ... Our allowance ... is scanty, and is likely to be still less. 'Tis seldom we get a fresh meal, and then in general it is at a dear rate. Fresh pork, one shilling per pound ”

“ Shelter so much as one man and that flag will not save you. I should not be able to hold in my men."
Shere Ali turned and rode back to the gates. Captain Phillips dismounted, and calling forward a reluctant groom, gave him his horse. Then he suddenly flung back the door. But there was no resistance. The door swung in and clattered against the wall. Phillips looked into the hall, but the dusk was gathering in the garden. ”

“ The Home Office was at this time the department for the administration of the Colonies, [2] and Sydney, who was at the head of it, did not even reply to Phillip's despatches, but in April he gave instructions that a man-of-war should be got in readiness to carry provisions to the settlement. At the same time he arranged for the despatch of another batch of convicts, totally disregarding Phillip's statements that clothing, implements and provisions were urgently needed, and that more useless mouths to feed would mean disaster. ”

“ What the name of Columbus is to America, that should the name of Cook be to Australia, and although Phillip and his transports can scarcely be compared with the Pilgrim Fathers and the Mayflower, yet, as the pioneers of settlement in Australia, the officers of the First Fleet ought to be remembered as colonisers, with something of the same admiration we have for those sturdy Puritan adventurers. ”

“ The man who, one hundred and ten years ago, founded New South Wales is almost forgotten, yet the country now in such vigorous manhood was for the first half-dozen years of its existence a miserable starveling, and but for Phillip's tender nursing, its life would have ended in the year of its birth. ”

“ The first and greatest proof of Phillip's sagacity was his selection of a site for the settlement. The city of Sydney is a monument for all time to its founder. How it came about that Port Jackson was chosen in place of Botany Bay is shown in Phillip's first despatch, already quoted. ”

“ I had calculated that in his rage he would sell me to a slave-trader: and I knew the father of my child was on the watch to buy me.
About this time my uncle Phillip was expected to return from a voyage. The day before his departure I had officiated as bridesmaid to a young friend. My heart was then ill at ease, but my smiling countenance did not betray it. Only a year had passed; but what fearful changes it had wrought! My heart had grown gray in misery. Lives that flash in sunshine, and lives that are born in tears, receive their hue from circumstances. ”

“ The observation of unskilful persons is often detailed by trivial resemblances, while it passes by the marks which are really characteristic. Governor Phillip, in one of his letters, remarking the prodigious variety of vegetable productions then before his eyes, laments, that among all the people with him there happens not to be one who has any tolerable knowledge of botany. ”

“ Upon Phillip lay the task of conducting, in a fleet of transports on a six months' voyage to a country practically unknown, about a thousand passengers, of whom more than seven hundred were probably in every respect the worst that could have been selected in the gaols of England. Many of them were desperate wretches whose presence on board the ships was a more constant and greater menace to their safety than all the dangers known and unknown of the sea. ”

“ Whilst the ships were lying at Botany Bay, the Boussole and the Astrolabe, two French exploring ships commanded by the ill-fated La Pérouse, appeared and dropped anchor. Learning that La Pérouse was anxious to send letters to Europe by the returning transports, Phillip sent an officer over to him to receive the despatches. ”

“ Favoured with such a soil and climate, Port Phillip raises in abundance almost every product of central and southern Europe. The vine, the fig-tree, the peach, the plum, the apple, and the melon, all grow most luxuriantly, while the common vegetables, onions in particular, attain a great size and perfection. The potato, too, which is worth all the poetry of vines and fig-trees put together, flourishes in prosaic simplicity. Wheat and barley do remarkably well, oats not so well. Indian corn thrives. In fact there are few countries more prolific. ”

“ Whenever it shall be practicable, by any means, to explain to them the friendly disposition of Governor Phillip and his people towards them, and to make them understand, that the men from whom they receive occasional injuries, are already a disgraced class, and liable to severe punishment for such proceedings, they will then perhaps acquire sufficient confidence in their new countrymen to mix with them, to enrich themselves with some of their implements, and to learn and adopt some of the most useful and necessary of their arts. ”

“ Yet Phillip foresaw the necessity for restriction, and a few months before he left the colony he wrote:—
'Experience has also pointed out many inconveniences attending the receiving men as settlers who only look to the convenience of the present moment. With some the sole object in becoming settlers is that of being their own masters, and with others the object is to raise as much money as will pay their passage to England, and then assign their lands to those who take them with the same view. ”

“ But Phillip in a despatch, written in November 1791 to Secretary Stephens, commented upon the great number of 'spermaceti whales' that had been observed upon the coast, which gave him reason to hope that a whale fishery might be established at some port in the colony. Melville, the master of the transport Britannia, before alluded to in these pages, had seen such vast numbers of whales after doubling the south-west cape of Van Diemen's Land, that after disembarking his cargo of convicts he asked Phillip to expedite his ship's departure in order that he might cruise in search of them. ”