Black people found on some islands, "whose
complexion still remains a few shades deeper than that of certain
families in the same islands" were to be accounted for by certain
families making it "a point of honour not to contaminate their blood."
The theory is at all events striking. We have a "White Australia
policy" on the mainland to-day; this speculation assumes a kind of
"Black Australasia policy" on the part of certain families of islanders
from time immemorial.
The Friendly Islands were reached in December, but the commander
had few and unimportant relations with them. On the 13th January, 1788,
the ships made for Norfolk Island, and came to anchor opposite the
place where Cook was believed to have landed. The sea was running high
at the time, breaking violently on the rocky shores of the north east.
The naturalists desired to land to collect specimens, but the heavy
breakers prevented them. The commander permitted them to coast along
the shore in boats for about half a league but then recalled them.
"Had it been possible to land, there was no way of getting into the
interior part of the island but by ascending for thirty or forty yards
the rapid stream of some torrents, which had formed gullies. Beyond
these natural barriers the island was covered with pines and carpeted
with the most beautiful verdure. It is probable that we should then
have met with some culinary vegetables, and this hope increased our
desire of visiting a land where Captain Cook had landed with the
greatest facility. He, it is true, was here in fine weather, that had
continued for several days; whilst we had been sailing in such heavy
seas that for eight day, our ports had been shut and our dead-lights
in. From the ship I watched the motions of the boats with my glass; and
seeing, as night approached, that they had found no convenient place
for landing, I made the signal to recall them, and soon after gave
orders for getting under way. Perhaps I should have lost much time had
I waited for a more favourable opportunity: and the exploring of
this island was not worth such a sacrifice."
At eight in the evening the ships got under way, and at day-break on
the following morning sail was crowded for Botany Bay.
Chapter VII.
AT BOTANY BAY.
When, in 1787, the British Government entrusted Captain Arthur Phillip
with a commission to establish a colony at Botany Bay, New South Wales,
they gave him explicit directions as to where he should locate the
settlement. "According to the best information which we have obtained,"
his instructions read, "Botany Bay appears to be the most eligible
situation upon the said coast for the first establishment, possessing a
commodious harbour and other advantages which no part of the said coast
hitherto discovered affords." But Phillip was a trustworthy man who, in
so serious a matter as the choice of a site for a town, did not follow
blindly the commands of respectable elderly gentlemen thousands of
miles away. It was his business to found a settlement successfully. To
do that he must select the best site.
After examining Botany Bay, he decided to take a trip up the coast and
see if a better situation could not be found. On the 21st January,
1788, he entered Port Jackson with three boats, and found there "the
finest harbour in the world, in which a thousand sail of the line may
ride in the most perfect security." He fixed upon a cove "which I
honoured with the name of Sydney." and decided that that was
there he would "plant." Every writer of mediaeval history who has had
occasion to refer to the choice by Constantine the Great of Byzantium,
afterwards Constantinople, as his capital, has extolled his judgment
and prescience. Constantine was an Emperor, and could do as he would.
Arthur Phillip was an official acting under orders. We can never
sufficiently admire the wisdom he displayed when, exercising his own
discretion, he decided upon Port Jackson. True, he had a great
opportunity, but his signal merit is that he grasped it when it was
presented, that he gave more regard to the success of his task than to
the letter of his instructions.
While he was making the search, the eleven vessels composing the First
Fleet lay in Botany Bay. He returned on the evening of the 23rd, and
immediately gave orders that the whole company should as soon as
possible sail for Port Jackson, declaring it to be, in King's quaint
words, "a very proper place to form an establisht. in."
To the great astonishment of the Fleet, on the 24th, two strange ships
made their appearance to the south of Solander Point, a projection from
the peninsula on which now stands the obelisk in memory of Cook's
landing. What could they be? Some guessed that they were English
vessels with additional stores. Some supposed that they were Dutch,
"coming after us to oppose our landing." Nobody expected to see any
ships in these untraversed waters, and we can easily picture the
amazement of officers, crews, and convicts when the white sails
appeared. The more timid speculated on the possibility of attack, and
there were "temporary apprehensions, accompanied by a multiplicity of
conjectures, many of them sufficiently ridiculous."
Phillip, however, remembered hearing that the French had an expedition
of discovery either in progress or contemplation. He was the first to
form a right opinion about them, but, wishing to be certain, sent the
SUPPLY out of the bay to get a nearer view and hoist the British
colours. Lieutenant Ball, in command of that brig, after reconnoitring,
reported that the ships were certainly not English.
