Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/66

To enable King to administer the law, he was sworn in as a justice of the peace, but capital crimes were reserved for the sentence of the Criminal Court of Judicature at Sydney. The instructions given to King afford a clue to the conduct of Phillip at head-quarters. The nature of the soil, its fitness for various productions, the prevailing winds, the tides, the changes of season, were to be carefully noted. No decked boat but the one intrusted to King was to be allowed at the island, and

"if by any accident any vessel or boat that exceeds twenty feet keel should be driven on the island, you are immediately to cause such boat or vessel to be scuttled, or otherwise rendered unserviceable, letting her remain in that situation until you receive further directions from me. You will be furnished with six months' provisions, within which time you will receive an additional supply, but as you will be able to procure fish and vegetables, you are to endeavour to make the provisions you receive serve as long as possible. The convicts being the servants of the Crown, till the time for which they are sentenced is expired, their labour is to be for the public, and you are to take particular notice of their general good or bad behaviour, that they may hereafter be employed or rewarded according to their different merits. You are to cause the prayers of the Church of England to be read with all solemnity every Sunday, and you are to enforce a due observance of religion and good order, transmitting to me, as often as opportunity offers, a full account of your particular situation and transactions. You are not to permit any intercourse or trade with any ships or vessels that may stop at the island, whether English or of any other nation, unless such vessels should be in distress, in which case you are to afford them such assistance as may be in your power."^[1]
(12th February, 1788.)

Such was the spirit which guided Arthur Phillip in governing the new state committed to his care, and in instructing his subordinates; and though his care and valour may appear to the frivolous "a little out of fashion," it cannot be doubted that his manly sense of duty impressed itself strongly upon the frame of the colonial government, and continued amidst many changes and deflections to act