Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/356

sent the great need of officers for detachments. King (July 1805) wrote to Lord Camden:—

"As there are now seven captains, seven lieutenants, and four ensigns absent from their duties, it would be gratifying to the officers here and beneficial to His Majesty's service, if the officers who are appointed, or who are on leave of absence in England, were ordered to join the Corps, as not more than Major Johnston, a captain, and three subalterns are at head-quarters (one of the latter being unfit for duty); Lt.-Colonel Paterson, a captain, and three subalterns at Port Dalrymple; a captain and one subaltern at Parramatta; and two subalterns at Norfolk Island."

An assistant-surgeon had been captain of the Loyal Association at Parramatta. He was convicted before a court-martial, and King (June 1805) suspended the sentence, but in the meantime the office of captain of the Association was vacant. John Macarthur, ever ready for action, though then a settler, was, with the consent of the Association, appointed to its captaincy by King.

Johnston suggested and King supported a plan for recruiting the New South Wales Corps. Both of them had good reasons to desire to strengthen it. There were not three hundred in Sydney; and the scattered men, fifteen at Newcastle, eleven at Hawkesbury, about thirty at Norfolk Island, and seventy at Port Dalrymple, besides a few at Cabramatta, South Head, and George's Head, afforded but scanty forces to resist a rising, which was chiefly rendered improbable by the determined characters of King and Johnston.

The manner of Macarthur's return requires special mention. It became the turning-point in the material progress of the colony. His sagacity in observing climatic and other influences upon the quality of wool, his foresight in commissioning his friends, Kent and Waterhouse, to buy for him "any wool-bearing sheep at the Cape," their success, Macarthur's exceptional care of the treasure he acquired in the progeny of the Merino flocks of the Escurial, have been mentioned. When his fiery temper brought about a duel with his commanding officer, and he was sent under arrest to England, his sagacity displayed itself. The speculation in his eyes was far-reaching, but the object was substantial. The fibres which he saw growing small by degrees and beautifully less in his specimens of wool, he conveyed with care on his circuitous voyage by Norfolk Island and Amboyna