IV 



then sailed with the expedition under Sir Ralph Abercromby to the 

 West Indies, where he remained for five years, and was at the 

 reduction of St. Lucia and St. Vincent, the capture of Trinidad, and 

 the attack on Porto Rico. He also served throughout the whole 

 Caribbean war, and then went to Jamaica as Lieutenant-Colonel of 

 the 69th, where he remained till his regiment was called home. 



Having in 1812 received the appointment of Brigadier-General 

 under the Duke of Wellington, Sir Thomas immediately proceeded 

 to the Peninsula. In the course of his services there he commanded 

 a brigade in five general actions, besides a great many minor affairs ; 

 and he received the thanks of Parliament for the part he took in the 

 battle of Orthes, where he had 700 men of his brigade killed and 

 wounded. At the termination of the war he accompanied a portion 

 of the Duke of Wellington's army to North America and served 

 in the campaign of 1814, but returned to Europe the year following 

 with twelve regiments to join the army of occupation in France, 

 where he remained during the three years of its stay in that 

 country. A year or two afterwards Sir Thomas was appointed 

 Governor of New South Wales, and entered on the duties of his 

 office in 1821. During the four years of his government he made 

 important ameliorations in the management of the convicts, turning 

 their previously profitless labour to account in the clearance of the 

 land and the service of the colonists, as well as to their own ad- 

 vantage ; he introduced the cultivation of the vine, the sugar-cane, 

 cotton, tea, and tobacco, and improved the breed of horses, by 

 importations at his own expense from Mocha and Calcutta. On 

 his departure for Europe, he received the grateful acknowledgements 

 of the colony, and a prosperous district of that interesting region now 

 bears his name. 



For these eminent services, military and civil, Sir Thomas received 

 the usual honours. He was created a Baronet and a Knight Grand 

 Cross of the Bath, and finally rose to the rank of General. But his 

 military career, distinguished as it was, and his wise and beneficent 

 colonial administration, are matters of less immediate interest here than 

 the services he has rendered to science, and especially to astronomy. 



From his schoolboy days Sir Thomas was devoted to mathematical 

 studies. To his favourite pursuit of astronomy, he was turned, as 

 he himself states, by exposure to imminent danger in one of his early 



