The Naval Pioneers of Australia

This book does not pretend to be a history of Australia; it merely gathers into one volume that which has hitherto been dispersed through many. Our story ends where Australian history, as it is generally written, begins; but the work of the forgotten naval pioneers of the country made that beginning possible. Four sea-captains in succession had charge of the penal settlement of New South Wales, and these four men, in laying the foundation of Australia, surmounted greater difficulties than have ever been encountered elsewhere in the history of British colonization. Under them, and by their personal exertions, it was made possible to live upon the land; it was made easy to sail upon the Austral seas. After them came military and civil governors and constitutional government, finding all things ready to build a Greater Britain. Histories there are in plenty, of so many hundred pages, devoted to describing the "blessings of constitutional government," of the stoppage of transportation, of the discovery of gold, and all the other milestones on the road to nationhood; but there is given in them no room to describe the work of the sailors--a chapter or two is the most historians afford the naval pioneers.

The printing by the New South Wales Government of the Historical Records of New South Wales has given bookmakers access to much valuable material (dispatches chiefly) hitherto unavailable; and to the volumes of these Records, to the contemporary historians of "The First Fleet" of Captain Phillip, to the many South Sea "voyages," and other works acknowledged in the text, these writers are indebted. Their endeavour has been to collect together the scattered material that was worth collecting relating to what might be called the naval period of Australia. This involved some years' study and the reading of scores of books, and we mention the fact in extenuation of such faults of commission and omission as may be discerned in the work by the careful student of Australian history.

The authors are very sensible of their obligations to Mr. Emery Walker, not only for the time and trouble which he has bestowed upon the finding of illustrations, but also for many valuable suggestions in connection with the volume.

LOUIS BECKE.

WALTER JEFFERY.

London, 1899.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY--THE EARLIEST AUSTRALIAN VOYAGERS: THE PORTUGUESE, SPANISH, AND DUTCH

CHAPTER II. DAMPIER: THE FIRST ENGLISHMAN IN AUSTRALIA

CHAPTER III. COOK, THE DISCOVERER

CHAPTER IV. ARTHUR PHILLIP: FOUNDER AND FIRST GOVERNOR OF NEW SOUTH WALES

CHAPTER V. GOVERNOR HUNTER

CHAPTER VI. THE MARINES AND THE NEW SOUTH WALES CORPS

CHAPTER VII. GOVERNOR KING CHAPTER VIII. BASS AND FLINDERS

CHAPTER IX. THE CAPTIVITY OF FLINDERS

CHAPTER X. BLIGH AND THE MUTINY OF THE "BOUNTY"

CHAPTER XI. BLIGH AS GOVERNOR

CHAPTER XII. OTHER NAVAL PIONEERS--THE PRESENT MARITIME STATE OF AUSTRALIA--CONCLUSION

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

MARTIN FROBISHER FROBISHER'S MAP A DUTCH SHIP OF WAR SOVEREIGN OF THE SEAS A SIXTH RATE, 1684 DAMPIER COOK GOVERNOR PHILLIP VIEW OF BOTANY BAY SYDNEY COVE CAPTAIN JOHN HUNTER ATTACK ON THE WAAKSAMHEYD GOVERNOR KING LA PÉROUSE SIR JOSEPH BANKS GEORGE BASS MATTHEW FLINDERS VIEW OF WRECK REEF GOVERNMENT HOUSE, SYDNEY, IN 1802 VIEW OF SYDNEY GOVERNOR BLIGH

"Whenever I want a thing well done in a distant part of the world; when I want a man with a good head, a good heart, lots of pluck, and plenty of common sense, I always send for a Captain of the Navy."--LORD PALMERSTON.

THE NAVAL PIONEERS

OF

AUSTRALIA

CHAPTER I.