THE CLERGY AS PASTORALISTS 41 



fanning and trading with military duties by the officers, 

 and strongly disapproved of their doing so "at the 

 public cost " — that is, with the aid of convicts who 

 were provisioned out of the pubHc stores. The 

 condemnation doubtless concurred with the military 

 imbrogho to precipitate McArthur's decision to leave 

 the Army and adopt the profession of a grazier, as it 

 is now called. Other circumstances co-operated. One 

 of his fellow-officers, Col. Foveaux, who had been 

 appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Norfolk Island, 

 offered to sell his sheep to the Government, and while 

 the offer was still under consideration, the impetuous 

 McArthur struck in and purchased the whole large 

 flock. Lord Hobart, now Secretary of State, disap- 

 proved of the questionable transaction while the 

 Government was in treaty with Foveaux, but McArthur 

 recked little of that ; a bit of " sharp practice " was 

 apparently quite consistent with a high standard of 

 " honour." We resume his pastoral history, although 

 the course of it, as of more romantic things, does not 

 long run smoothly. 



McArthur had evidently long ago withdrawn, in his 

 own mind, the proffer of his stock he had made to the 

 Government. He bought Colonel Foveaux's 1,200 

 sheep, and, before he departed for England, he pur- 

 chased many more. He informed the Governor that 

 further negotiations with him must be conducted in 

 England, but Governor King, who now estimated the 

 value of the accumulated stock at almost five times 

 the original amount (or £19,000) no longer advised 

 the purchase. The sentiments of both the Governor 

 and the Secretary of State were strongly opposed to 

 the engaging of the State in private industry. Posi- 

 tively and negatively, on the other hand, by purchases 

 and refusals, McArthur was, personally and officially, 

 dedicated to pastoral pursuits. Energy and enmity 

 and accident combined to determine the vocation of 

 the first AustraHan squatter. 



If McArthur rebelled against King at first, described 



