CHAPTER VII 



THE FIEST GREAT PASTORALIST : JOHN MCARTHUR 



The heroic figure by pre-eminence in the pastoral 

 history of New South Wales is that of John Mc Arthur.* 

 Superficially viewed, he might appear to be the stormy 

 petrel of early Australian history. Scrutinized more 

 closely, he shines through that murky dawn like a hero 

 of Corneille. Mc Arthur's career as a colonist was almost 

 coeval with the existence of the Colony. His con- 

 nection with Australia may be said to have begun 

 in 1789, when he was appointed lieutenant in the New 

 South Wales Corps, or Botany Bay Rangers — a regiment 

 specially enrolled for service in New South Wales. On 

 January 17, 1790, he sailed with his detachment on 

 board the Neptune — a transport that conveyed also 

 D'Arcy Wentworth, who became the father of the 



* The name of John McArthur is now always spelled, Mac- 

 arthur. It was not so spelled by himself. In an early document 

 published by Mr. Britten, History of New South Wales from 

 the Records, ii. 95, the signature of McArthur is written, John 

 McArthur. In a volume ascribed to his son, James, produced 

 in London while he was there presenting petitions against the 

 Emancipist party — New South Wales : its present state and 

 future prospects — and published in 1837, the name is written 

 Mac Arthur, as the great Scots novelist writes his name, Georga 

 Mac Donald. In the Index it figures as Macarthur — John 

 McAi'thur, commandant at Port Essington, signs his name in 

 1843 as just printed. Hannibal Hawkins McArthur is written 

 of with the same orthography. On the other hand, in the same 

 year, Sii* George Gipps writes the name of James Macarthur in 

 full. This probably furnishes the key to the change. Others 

 wrote it so, and the family adopted the changed spelling. (See 

 Mitchell MSS., vol. 42. passim.) 



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