Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/189

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twelve days of her arrival the Britannia went whaling, and in fifteen days returned to Sydney with oil* Other vessels followed her example. Thus, under the ministry of Pitt, and the guidance of the first Governor of the colony^ was the foundation laid for the fortunes of the English in the Great South Land. The I^eedwas sown in dishonour in one senHe, hut the plant has Igrow^n to honour. Crime was not confined to the convicts teent to New South Wales. The contaminating source was, Wter allj in the mother country ; and if the finger of scorn he not raised except by those wlio are pure, it never can be ijraised at all. Phillip, the right band, selected for the work as ^■Wolfe had been selected to wrest Canada from the French, fl^-eturned to England and received a pension **iu considera- tion of hin meritoriouB services." His name will vainly be sought ill many biographies piibliahed in England ; but must ever live in Australia, as that of an upright English sailor, born to govern : gentle and yet just, cautious and 3'et decided ; shrinking from no responsibility in the hour of need, and spending himself cheerfully in the service of his country. By cessation of toil, or change of air, his life seems to have been prolonged, but he was ever weak.^^ He lived until 1814, dying then in his 77th year. At Phillip's departure (Dec. 1792) the government devolved upon ilajor Francis Grose, commandant of the New South Wales Corps, who had arrived in the beginning of 1792, hearing a commission as Lt* -Governor* The latter appoint- ment being incidental to the former, it is not surprising I that the peculiai* qualities which lit a man for the office ^■pf Governor were wanting in Grose/'^'^ IP On the 11th Dec, 1792, Phillip had sailed in the ship Atlantic, and the following month Grose found that he -♦ In Supt. 180S, his old fdeiid King, U luinsDlf, visiteLl PhiUip at Siih, and wrot* to hia son : — '* I foLind Admiral PliiUip niiicli better than [ ocidd possibly expect from the reports I liatl heard, although he is quite k cripple, Imving lost the entire uee of his right aide; but his intellectB re very good, and bis apirita are what they idways were/' Kiag bimself iieda few days after writing thua nbont his old eomnvde and patron, ^ In answer to a complaint nmde by (Frose in Oct. 1792 that the rations sued to his corps were '* reduced uuil uiiwliolesome," Phillip wrote : — ** I ot acquieace with you" in ibiiiking the ration imwholesouiie. '*I see ' day at my own table."