GOVERNOR PHILLIP

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 9, 12 January 1938, Page 4

GOVERNOR PHILLIP

FOUNDER OF SYDNEY

AN ADVENTUROUS CAREER

SERVICE IN THE NAVY

Rivers of ink have run down to the sea in print in which the beginnings of our Commonwealth are recorded, says a writer in the Sydney "Sun.;1 _ Everyone is more or less familiar with that early history, the romance of discovery, the tragedy of colonial settlement through a cruel and unspeakably inhumane penal system, and the triumphant progress achieved in spite of that unhappy beginning. Harrowing accounts of miserable convicts transported in chains are offset, however, by the brighter stories found in the lives of men who worked well under a hampering system, turning their backs on little England to go out and build an Empire at the end of the earth. Of such was Arthur Phillip, whose life story is ably told .by Dr. George Mackaness in his book. More fortunate than Captain Cook, Phillip will never be made a butt for the wits by the removal of a cottage birthplace from England.to Australian soil. Save only for the old Church of St. Mildred, the old Bread' Street, London, where he was bom in 1738, has long vanished. „..•,,. "Phillip's father was Jacob Phillip, native of Frankfurst, in Germany. His earjy occupation. seems to have been that of a steward. After settling in England, however, he established himself as a teacher of languages in London. Phillip's mother ... had first married Captain Herbert, R.N. Possibly, therefore, young Arthur Phillip's choice of a career at sea was in some measure influenced by his mother's former marriage."

APPRENTICE AT TWELVE.

Whatever his Navy connections may have been, in 1753 we find the boy of 12 bound as apprentice in "the good ship Fortune" (Captain Bedhead) as. "a poor child . . . provided for and educated" in the Royal Hospital for Seamen, Greenwich. So began the career of the obscure sailor, who was destined to'become the admiral of Australia's first fleet. Dr. Mackaness has given years to the study and collation of material from naval records, diaries, letters, and every sort of available historical reference concerning Phillip's early career and his later efforts as Australia's founder. His early sea experience seems to have been full of ups and downs. Apprentice to midshipman, officers' servant, ordinary seaman, yeoman corporal, midshipman again, and then Lieutenant Phillip, in the Stirling Castle, on active service and bombarding Port Royal in 1762. Retired from the service on half-pay in 1763, he settled down ashore as a country gentleman*, having married "a widow lady with a fortune of £16,000," according to a contemporary gossip writer.

It is interesting that gossip writers, even in those days, took strange liberties. Here is the paragraph, printed in 1793, after Phillip's return from Sydney:— /■■"'-• !i 'Governor Phillip is of German extraction; at a very early age he evinced a strong partiality for a sailor's life and served successfully in the Spanish arid- Portuguese: service; he next eritered-the Army. While on half-pay he 'married a widow lady; young and handsome, with a portion of 16,000 L. He became possessed of the whole of her fortune, of which he ... expended 2000 L. Some circumstances occurred which induced Mr. Phillip to wish for a separation; he left his wife, restoring to her, however, such part of her fortune as still remained in his hands, and again entered the Portuguese service; from Brazil,"he some years after returned with an income competent at least to his necessities, when he reimbursed Mrs. Phillips the sum which her fortune had been decreased, while in his hands, notwithstanding the most earnest solicitations on the part of the lady, to enjoy half, of that fortune which he had so honourably renounced.' " The domestic unhappiness hinted at may have played its part also in the foundation of Australia's great future under the British flag; but,, as Dr. Mackaness points out, the gossip erred in detail. Phillip did serve once with the Portuguese, but never with the Spaniards; and he did not serve in the Army. That Phillip was a restless soul ana a fighter is shown by colourful incidents of 1775. That was the year when, on leave, he went to the Portuguese Court—then at Salvaterra—and received a Hoy^l Warrant appointing "Arthur Phillipe" a "Captain in the Royal Fleet on double pay." His first command was a converted merchantman, ttie frigate Nossa Senhora do Pilar, 26 guns, and a crew of 208. In this ship he had his first experience of penal transportation. With 400 criminals aboard, he sailed to the Brazils. An epidemic left him with not sufficient hands to navigate the ship. Phillip enlisted a number of his transportees, trained them successfully, and on his return to Lisbon, secured both emancipation and grants of land for them.

A CAPTURED SHU'.

In April, 1777, Phillip an his small frigate cut' out the Spanish Agostinho, a 70-gun ship, at Montevideo, attacked her at close quarters, and ran her into the middle of the Portuguese Fleet. She surrendered, and we next find her conqueror sailing as her commander. He is mentioned at length in dispatches from the Marquez do Lavradio: "This officer is most honourable and meritorious. When at the Colony (Sacramento) with only his own frigate, the Nossa. Senhora do Pilar, made the Spaniards respect thatj fortress as they ought to ... His health is very delicate, but he never complains, excepting 'when he has nothing to do for the Royal Service." This mention of Phillip's delicate] health is the first inkling we get that the daring sea-fighter was not the tough and salty character that might have been expected. Nor was he always the strong man in other directions, for there is evidence that on a I voyage to Madras, in the Europe, a] woman—"Conqubine of one Thomas Brooks"—was able to cause dissension on the ship. June 4, 1788, birthday of George 111, is a memorable day in Phillip's later career. On that day: "The Governor, caused the Sinup and the Supply to fire three Royal salutes; the transports in the harbour and the battalion of marines fired volleys; the Lieutenant-Govornor and nil tho ofllcers, civil and military, waited on the Governor, who cntevtnined them at dinner, with tho band plnytng, and most enthusiastic toasting nnd cheering . . • the Governor announced that he had called the district extending from the southernmost parts of Botany Bay to the northernmost purls of Broken Bay, and from the sea to the Carmarthen and Lausdowne Hills. Cumberland County, and had given it such an extent of boundary as to make it the largest county in the world." At the same time the name "Sydney" was chosen for the city-to-be; but. as insufficient clearing had been done, the naming ceremony had to be deferred.

That dayi)f-feastingavas,Jipli.so l ..j^egi-

ant, for the Governor himself,

"He had another severe attack •of his old complaint, and suffered extreme pain. 'Though his countenance "too plainly indicated the torture he endured,1 says Surgeon White, Tie took every method in his power to conceal it . . .'"

So the County of Cumberland came into being on a "day of forgiveness"; for Phillip chose the occasion to pardon certain convicts with the result that he was able to write:

"For the twenty-four hours I believe there was not one heavy heart in this part of his Majesty's Dominions."

This "day of forgiveness" was inspired by Phillip's broad humanity— a quality not usually looked for in naval officers of those times; but experience of convicts, other than the Portuguese samples whom he turned into good sailors and settlers, had not taught him that the quality of mercy can be mistaken for weakness.

So the foundation day of our County of Cumberland was marked by a wjliji orgy of drunkenness, robbery, and assault.

We read that, as a result, "several were hanged," others were ifioggdcf, or sent out to cool their hot heads on. Pinch-gut. Phillip was compelled to resort to the utmost severity; and th» pity of it was that the transported themselves probably had not the inteV ligence to realise theic mistake.

Had they not abused Phillip's gene* ous confidence on. that one day, Xwst rigors of- the penal colony might havk been lessened for them under the Admiral's rule; and in that case the history of penal settlement on Port Jack' son might have been spared many a sombre page. . :. ,