PREFACE ANOTHER Boswell would fail if he attempted to tell, in the words of Arthur Phillip himself, the story of Governor' Phillip's life. Only some half-a-dozen years of his career are fully known to us, and in that time Phillip worked harder and talked and wrote less about himself than most men would have done under such trying circumstances. From 1786, when he was chosen to found the settlement of New South Wales, till his return to England in 1792, his despatches and a few contemporary chronicles-now become rare books -are the only sources from which a knowledge of the man can be gathered. The chroniclers were all officers of the settlement, and their books, like the despatches, are but the dry bones of history. The Government of New South Wales has been for some time searching for information relating to the first Governor of the colony; but with such small result that even his burial place remained unknown till the end of 1897, when the tomb was unexpectedly discovered in the ancient parish church of St Nicholas at Bathampton, near the City of Bath, by the vicar, the Reverend L. J. Fish. And the authors believe that it may be taken for granted that, beyond what personal detail is given in this volume and its appendices, there is little else to be found. The discovery of the hitherto unpublished record of Phillip's service under the Portuguese Government was made through the persistent efforts of the Editor; the writers having, after several attempts, failed to obtain more than the bald fact that Phillip had served in the Portuguese Navy. Even his descendants could throw no light whatever upon the point. This book, therefore, is rather a narrative of the founding of New South Wales than a biography of the colony's first Governor. It ought not to lack interest on this account; for it tells the story of the beginning of Greater Britain in the South. Of the personality of Phillip, as we have said, little is really known. He was an obscure naval captain selected by the Government of the time to establish a penal settlement at the other side of the world. He landed on the shores of a country which, to all his companions, appeared a most forbidding and unpromising land-one that would never be worth anything to anyone.' Phillip, a few months after his arrival, wrote to England to assure his superiors that it would prove the most valuable acquisition Great Britain ever made.' For these prophetic words alone, the man who uttered them, so far as we can come to a knowledge of him, is worth knowing. Such an understanding of his character as can be gathered by industry of research, this book endeavours to furnish. The writers are, of course, greatly indebted to the old chroniclers, to the Historical Records of New South Wales, and the Official History by Mr G. B. Barton; and (for the use of papers and clues') to Mr. |