you out. Suppose I was to agree to this opinion of yours, and a competent salary was to be allotted to you, pray tell me what you would propose to do for your employers in return. . . . Let me know your opinion on this head, and I shall be better able to judge what my conduct to you in future ought to be." Other passages in this letter show that Banks was exercising considerable forbearance toward him. There was probably no further immediate communication between them. But, in the ensuing November, Sir Joseph wrote to tell Caley an unexpected opportunity had arisen for him. Governor King was going back in the Porpoise, and offered to take him if he chose to go. Banks was willing to allow fifteen shillings a week, and would not exact further terms but to be supplied with specimens of new and curious plants. He enclosed a five-pound note to come up to London with, and promised to advance something toward an outfit. After long delay, Caley reached New South Wales. He proved a capable botanist, and an indefatigable collector. He soon sent home substantial proofs of his industry. As time went on he became a prosperous settler, with a farm and garden on the Paramatta; and took some share in public affairs. He warmly supported Governor Bligh, and tried to sway local opinion in his favour. According to Caley, Bligh was well-meaning, but tactless; unable to control the evil passions certain to exist in a young colony. His ability was great in everything except to combat open rebellion.

Caley's long letters are full of material for the early history of the settlement. Many of them are printed by the Sydney Government in their Historical Records. The botanical portions are the work of a thorough enthusiast in the science. Some of his consignments are prodigious, as in August, 1804: sixty skins of birds, two of kangaroo, forty papers of seeds, and two hundred and twelve pages of description; in April, 1805, forty-one species of seeds,

and three hundred and eighteen pages of description. As early as 1805 he was thinking of returning to England. Three years later there is a growing discontent with existence; partly because Bligh was not interested in Discovery, and he had no other neighbour to confer with concerning plants and Natural History; and partly through local politics. He lives like a hermit. His neighbours are contemptuous over his occupation. Yet there is a silver lining: he is grateful that it is "a country which gives him an opportunity for distinguishing himself." Beside this, it is evident that reflection and reading were making a man of him. His pages become enlivened with curious anecdotes and shrewd observations. And an occasional adventure in the forest or the desert reveals the dangers and the difficulties of his pursuit.

After a long interval, a letter came from Sir Joseph. It was no response to Caley's sad-coloured tales, and his hundreds of pages. The decline in Banks's health, and the number of leading-strings he continued to hold, made it increasingly difficult to do justice to all the interests in his charge. This letter is from a man beginning to recognize that the burden of life was telling upon him, and he would gladly relinquish some of his self-imposed responsibilities.

Sir Joseph Banks to George Caley.

"SOHO SQUARE, August 25, 1808. "I have been a long time prevented from writing to you by increasing age and infirmities, principally by having the gout upon me with severity at the times when opportunity of letters offered.

"You have in general been an active, a diligent, and a useful assistant to me in your present situation; and I have found you on many occasions to possess a strong understanding. I cannot, however, agree with you in the propriety of your having refused to deliver up the plants

entrusted to your care by Mr. Brown, when Governor King came home . . . his return was a good opportunity, for many of the plants he brought home came safe and in good condition. . . .

"I have grown of late years very infirm; my eyes fail me very much; and I have not, of course, the pleasure I used to have in the pursuits of Natural History. I have not, therefore, any longer occasion for your services in the extensive manner in which you have employed yourself of collecting great quantities of articles. You deserve, however, some reward from me for your diligence and activity.

'You have, I understand, the lease of a farm from Governor King. If you wish to employ yourself in the cultivation of it, or if you wish to return home, I am willing to settle £50 a year upon you for your life, and to release you from all services to me beyond what you voluntarily wish to perform. You would probably choose, if anything new should fall in your way, to send it to me. But as I mean your annuity as a recompense for past services, I shall not bind you to any future ones till I hear from you on this subject; and, till the whole can be arranged and settled, everything to go on as it has hitherto done.

"Mr. Brown and Mr. Bauer are well. They are busily employed in arranging and making drawings of the immense collections they have brought home. . . . Your specimens and descriptions are carefully preserved for you."

Caley came back to England in 1811. Three years later he went out as superintendent of the garden at St. Vincent's. He was not a social success, and did not get on with his neighbours. Finding that seeds, etc., were stolen from the garden by Sunday visitors, he withdrew permission for the public to enter on that day.

This was justifiable under the circumstances, but inexpedient; and an occurrence of this kind naturally added to the local prejudice against him. Caley was a good Collector. Numerous plants and seeds were sent to Kew. He stayed at St. Vincent's till 1819, when he came home; and spent much of his retirement in Kew Gardens.

Another botanist who went out to New South Wales at Sir Joseph Banks's instance was George Suttor. He appears to have gone purely as a settler in the country; taking with him a variety of fruit trees, and promising to send home to Banks what new plants he could find. He sailed in the Porpoise, in November, 1798. He turned out a very able colonist, cultivated the vine, and was doubtless the originator of the wine produce of Australia. He visited England in 1842, became a F.L.S., and published a paper on the Culture of the Vine and the Orange in Australia. He died on his estate at Bathurst, in 1859. Suttor wrote a short life of Sir Joseph Banks,1 marked by the warmest sentiments of regard and esteem.

1 London, 1855.

CHAPTER XIV

CAPTAIN FLINDERS AND ROBERT BROWN

A

MONG the sailor-adventurers of this period, few men deserve more honour than Matthew Flinders. Born about 1760, he served some time in the mercantile marine before entering His Majesty's Navy. In 1795 he was on board a ship carrying out a Governor to Botany Bay. George Bass, the surgeon, found a congenial mind in Flinders. Each wanted to explore something; and after their arrival in New Holland, they made important surveys and discoveries in company. They were presently sent out on a trip southwards, in order to settle the question whether Van Diemen's Land was an island or no. They found open water, which was forthwith called Bass's Straits. They were afterward engaged on the still more important task of defining and perfecting Cook's researches on the east coast of New Holland. Then Flinders came home, and was deservedly promoted. Bass presently went to sea again, in another direction.1

In 1800, the Investigator, 334 tons, was ordered out for a scientific voyage to New Holland, under the command of Flinders. An astronomer, a botanist, two draughtsmen, a gardener, and a miner were chosen to go with this Expedition. William Westall, afterward a famous landscape painter, was the draughtsman. Ferdinand Bauer, the botanic draughtsman; Peter Good, the

1 According to Jörgensen, Bass was entrapped ashore in Chili, and ended as a captive in the silver mines.