THE

NAVAL PIONEERS

OF

AUSTRALIA

BY LOUIS BECKE

AND WALTER JEFFERY

AUTHORS OF "A FIRST FLEET FAMILY"; "THE MUTINEER," ETC.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET

1899

PREFACE

This book does not pretend to be a history of Australia; it merely gathersinto one volume that which has hitherto been dispersed through many. Ourstory ends where Australian history, as it is generally written, begins;but the work of the forgotten naval pioneers of the country made thatbeginning possible. Four sea-captains in succession had charge of thepenal settlement of New South Wales, and these four men, in laying thefoundation of Australia, surmounted greater difficulties than have everbeen encountered elsewhere in the history of British colonization. Underthem, and by their personal exertions, it was made possible to live uponthe land; it was made easy to sail upon the Austral seas. After them camemilitary and civil governors and constitutional government, finding allthings ready to build a Greater Britain. Histories there are in plenty, ofso many hundred pages, devoted to describing the "blessings ofconstitutional government," of the stoppage of transportation, of thediscovery 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—achapter or two is the most historians afford the naval pioneers.

The printing by the New South Wales Government of the Historical Recordsof New South Wales has given bookmakers access to much valuable material(dispatches chiefly) hitherto unavailable; and to the volumes of theseRecords, to the contemporary historians of "The First Fleet" of CaptainPhillip, to the many South Sea "voyages," and other works acknowledged inthe text, these writers are indebted. Their endeavour has been to collecttogether the scattered material that was worth collecting relating to whatmight be called the naval period of Australia. This involved some years'study and the reading of scores of books, and we mention the fact inextenuation of such faults of commission and omission as may be discernedin 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 findingof illustrations, but also for many valuable suggestions in connectionwith the volume.

LOUIS BECKE.

WALTER JEFFERY.

London, 1899.

CONTENTS