Industrial Pioneers 261 



1788, a date that is now annually celebrated in 

 Australia as Anniversary Day. He was only a 

 few days ahead of a French expedition, com- 

 manded by M. de la Perouse. Had Phillip been 

 a week later he would probably have found Aus- 

 tralia in the hands of the French, and it would 

 be necessary to write the history of the continent 

 after quite another fashion. For many years 

 after the landing of Governor Phillip, Australia 

 remained a convict settlement. It was ruled 

 with an iron hand by prison governors, who 

 looked with disfavour upon any free settlers who 

 might come there, and deliberately stifled any 

 attempt to enlarge the area of settled country by 

 exploration. But during those years, one man at 

 least was working steadfastly for the prosperity 

 of his adopted country. Captain John Mac- 

 Arthur was a member of the New South Wales 

 Corps, a military body raised in England for serv- 

 ice in Australia. MacArthur belied his military 

 training by a sure instinct in matters both agri- 

 cultural and pastoral, and seems to have grasped 

 the pastoral possibilities of Australia immediately 

 upon his arrival there. He was fortunate 

 enough to obtain from Cape Colony a few of the 

 merino sheep that had long been one of the most 

 jealously guarded possessions of Spain, and with 

 these he began sheep-breeding on scientific lines. 

 The result of his experiments was a wool-produc- 

 ing sheep of a character different from that of 

 the Spanish flock, but bearing a fleece of equal 



