HISTORICAL REVIEW OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



69 



GOVERNOR I'HII.II' GIDLEY KING. 





and forty-six thousand acres used for grazing ; the number of sheep in the hands of the 



settlers had increased to nearly seventeen thousand ; they owned also over three thousand 



head of cattle, about five hundred horses, fourteen thousand pigs, and three thousand 



goats these figures include Norfolk Island 



and Van Diemen's Land. Among other 



evidences of progress, it may be mentioned 



that in 1803 a public brewery was established 



at Parramatta, which King hoped would prove 



useful in "preventing the thirst for spirits." 



Factories for the manufacture of wool and 



flax were also set at work, and salt was 



made in pans at Sydney and Newcastle. The 



development of industrial enterprise was at 



all times warmly encouraged by King. 



GOVERNOR BLIGH. 



William Bligh, a Post-Captain in the Navy, 

 succeeded Governor King, in August, 1806. 

 His name is associated with the romantic 

 event known as the " Mutiny of the Bounty" 



and the official records of the settlement of Australia connect it also with one 

 of the most exciting incidents in colonial history. His character and reputation have 

 been severely criticised, but he had attained the rank of Post-Captain in the Navy by 

 active and honourable service, long before he was appointed to succeed King, and 



seventeen years after the startling and historical 

 episode with which the annals of South Pacific 

 discovery are indissolubly linked. He sailed for 

 Tahiti in 1787, in command of His Majesty's 

 ship Bounty, for the express purpose of trans- 

 planting the bread-fruit tree to the West Indies. 

 But he stayed so long in this lovely isle 

 that, as some say, his crew fell in love with 

 the dark-eyed beauties whom they found under 

 the bread-fruit trees and were seized with a 

 desire to spend their lives among them. Others 

 assert that the men were driven into rebellion 

 by their Commander's extreme harshness and 

 severity of discipline. Be that as it may, when 

 they put to sea again, the acting-lieutenant of 

 the Bounty, Fletcher Christian, instigated the 



men to mutiny, and succeeded in getting possession of the vessel. Bligh was put 

 into the ship's launch, with eighteen of his crew who remained faithful to him, and 

 set adrift on the wide ocean. They had a compass and a quadrant, but neither chart 

 nor almanac ; and as there was very little chance of sighting a ship in that part of 



GOVERNOR WILLIAM BLIGH. 



