Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/490

as the commander, and in 1817 sailed in the Mermaid, of eighty-four tons burden. His instructions were to continue the work of Flinders (whose book and maps had been published in 1814) from Arnhem Bay on the west of the Gulf of Carpentaria, by the north-west Cape, and on the west coast. After taking in wood and water at King George's Sound, he commenced his actual survey at the North-West Cape. Exmouth Bay, Nichol Bay, Port Essington, Van Diemen's Gulf, were surveyed, and the Alligator river was ascended in a boat for nearly forty miles. King saw many Malay proas. He was kind and cautious in dealing with the natives, but could not always prevent the use of firearms by his men. In 1818 he surveyed Macquarie Harbour in Van Diemen's Land, and Port Macquarie (on the east coast of New South Wales), which Oxley had discovered. In 1819 he sailed through Torres Straits; and, though reduced to one anchor, continued his coast survey. At longitude 125° 41′ he bore up for Timor, having in his two voyages added more than a thousand miles to the coast-line surveyed by his countrymen. In 1820, Macquarie being still Governor, King sailed again in the Mermaid; but after reaching his previous point, was compelled by the leakiness of the Mermaid to return. Macquarie fitted out the Bathurst for him, and again King sought the north-west coast,^[1] resorting to the Mauritius for provisions, and returning by King George's Sound and Swan River to continue his survey. His labours were concluded in 1822, when Macquarie no longer reigned in Sydney.

The legal functionary whom Governor King had so often and so earnestly asked for, was, by force of events, extorted from the government after the deposition of Bligh. Macquarie took with him a new Advocate-General, Mr. Ellis Bent (who was in 1811 made Judge and Commissary of the Vice-Admiralty Court of the territory). It soon appeared necessary to erect a Court which no Governor could hope to