May 28, I860.] OBITUARY.— GENERAL BRISBANE. 121 



while the expense of the convict establishment had been most 

 materially reduced. On his quitting the government addresses of 

 the most flattering nature were presented to him from all classes, 

 and they were well deserved. 



Sir Thomas now returned for the last time to his native land, 

 and lived for more than thirty years as useful and as honoured as 

 the man of science, and a public benefactor, as he had before been 

 in his military and administrative capacity. He from his youth 

 had cherished an ardent love for science, and a narrow escape from 

 shipwreck had led him to become a practical astronomer. This 

 was on his first voyage to the West Indies, when the ignorant 

 master of the transport wandered out of his course on to the coast 

 of Africa, and when he found his ship among the breakers, lost all 

 heart and cried out, " Lord have mercy upon us, for we are all gone !" 

 Yoimg Brisbane, who was but two-and-twenty, replied, " That's all 

 very well, but let us do everything we can to save the ship ;" and, 

 taking the command, he worked with his own hands until the 

 vessel was placed in safety. This incident made a deep impression 

 on him. " Keflecting," he says, "that I might often in the course 

 of my life and services be exposed to similar errors, I determined 

 to make myself acquainted with navigation and nautical astronomy ; 

 and for this purpose I got the best books and instruments, and in 

 time became so well acquainted with these sciences, that when I 

 was returning home I was enabled to work the ship's way ; and 

 having since crossed the tropics eleven times and circumnavigated 

 the globe, I have found the greatest possible advantage from my 

 knowledge of lunar observations and calculations of the longitude." 

 This was shown in his voyage home from New South Wales, when 

 he predicted the time of making Cape Frio, in Brazil, to within 

 a few minutes, to the confusion of the captain, who, until day- 

 break enabled him to see the land, believed himself at least 500 

 miles distant. 



In order to pursue his astronomical studies. Colonel Brisbane, 

 while he was on half-pay in 1808, had erected an observatory on a 

 knoll, near the mansion house of Brisbane ; and this in after years 

 became his place of daily resort, beside often spending the night 

 there. Whilst governor of New South Wales, he established an 

 Observatory at Paramatta, which has rendered such services to 

 science that it has been aptly styled " the Greenwich of the 

 Southern Hemisphere ;" and soon after his return to Scotland he 

 formed another observatory at Makerstoun, to which he eventually 



