Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/65

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NORFOLK ISLAND OCCUPIED.
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entrance[1] of the cove." A third, sentenced to receive fifty lashes, was pardoned by the Governor. Before the end of the month a plot for robbing the provision store was detected, although at the time the quantity of provisions supplied was the same for soldier, officer, and convict. With but scant stores of food, and far from any port of supply, the Governor was bound at all risks, and for the sake of the convicts themselves, to guard with care the little he had. One man at once suffered death, and others were sentenced to banishment from the settlement.[2] On the following day the Governor, having made an example, pardoned some offenders, one of them on condition of his becoming the public executioner.

To conform to his special instructions, Phillip, within a few weeks of his arrival, deputed Philip Gidley King, second lieutenant of the Sirius, to establish a settlement at Norfolk Island. Phillip sent to Lord Sydney a copy of the instructions given to King, adding "and I beg leave to recommend him as an officer of merit, and whose perseverance in that or any other service may be depended on."[3] King was instructed by Phillip to take measures

"for securing yourself and people, and for the preservation of stores and provisions, and immediately to proceed to the cultivation of the flax plant, growing spontaneously on the island, as also of cotton, corn, and other plants, with the seeds of which you are furnished, and which you are to regard as public stock, and of the increase of which you are to send me an account, that I may know what quantity may be drawn from the island for public use, or what supplies it may be necessary to send hereafter."

  1. ↑ Collins. The island was christened "Pinchgut" at once by the prisoners, and retained the name long after its origin had been forgotten.
  2. ↑ "Six men were condemned to death; one, who was the head of the gang, was executed the same day, the others I reprieved. They are to be exiled from the settlement, and when the season permits intend they shall be landed near the South Cape. . . . The one who suffered and two others were condemned for robbing the stores of provisions the very day they received a week's provision. . . ."—Despatch from Phillip, 15th May, 1788.
  3. ↑ Phillip and King were old comrades. The latter served in various ships of war in the East Indies from 1770 to 1774, in North America from 1775 to 1779; obtained his lieutenancy in the Renown in 1778; served in the Channel and at Gibraltar from 1780 to 1783, and under Phillip in the Europe from 1783 to 1785. Phillip wrote, privately, to Lord Sydney (July, 1788): "Lieutenant King, who is at Norfolk Island, is a very steady good officer. He, too, is cut off from all society, and is in a situation that will require patience and perseverance, both which he possesses, with
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