Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/107

 The Citizens ADELAIDE AND VICINITY 8i young man. being only 29 years old. Grey was horn in Lisbon, Portugal, on Aj^ril 14, 1812, and was the son of Colonel Grey, killed at the taking of Badajoz. After being educated at Sandhurst, he entered the British Army in 1829. In 1837 he was deputed by the British Government to explore the remote [)arts of Western Australia, while Captain Wickham, R.N., in the Beagle, examined the coastline. As an explorer, Grey was more energetic than happy. His chief faults in this sphere were an unblamable want of knowledge of bushcraft and a descriptive pen ; his chief recommendations — sturdy physique, a determined will, and an unconquerable sense of duty. He landed at Hanover Bay, in the north-west of the sister colony, and, after discovering the Glenelg River and other features, was nearly lost among the rocky hills farther north. He and his companions returned to Hanover Bay in a sorry plight. In 1839, after a respite in Mauritius and Perth, he set forth again, and quickly lost his boats by wreck in the neighborhood of Shark Bay. With scanty provisions, and having an extensive territory to traverse, he and his company started to walk to Perth, the nearest settlement. Grey's terrible ])rivations are graphically portrayed in his book of explorations. He discovered features which ha'e since become notable, and reached Perth in due course, alone, and unrecognisable because of his sufferings. His stern will, and the knowledge that other lives depended on his effort, sustained him when he would gladly have resigned himself to death. Help was sent to his companions, who struggled on in the rear, and all but one were .saved, undoubtedly through the determined conscientiousness of the leader. Grey spent a few- months as Government Resident at Albany, where he married, and then, after" visiting Adelaide, returned to E^ngland. In London he published the reports of his explorations and an interesting and talented work on the Australian aborigines. PVom his clever, but not always reliable, pen the Australian settlement in W^estern Australia received its first blow in 1840, and he thereby earned— unconsciously and without malice on his part the aversion of those who were chiefly interested in that fatal colonising scheme ; and some months later in 1840 he was appointed Governor of South Australia. Captain Grey was sworn in on May 15, and showed as much determination and decision as an administrator as when he wrestled with death in the Western Australian bush. Governor Gawler's duty upon his arrival was to allay the spirit of discontent and to infuse life into the community ; and Governor Cirey's was to prudently retrench and to pilot the Province through days of torpor. One was compelled to increase expenditure ; the other to reduce it. The dangers were as great in one case as in the other. The latter began at once to make sure of his footing. The amount of bills drawn by Governor Gawler on the Commissioners was stated to be ^29 1,861 3s. 5>^d.. and the total debt due in England on May i, 1841, and chargeable to the Province, was ^305,328 2s. 7d. Governor Grey a.sked the Secretary of State for the Colonies for specific instructions as to the course he must follow. He wished to know exactly how far the authorities would allow him to go, so as not to be dependent on, and to trust in, doubtful emergency clauses, as did Colonel Gawler. He was expected to retrench and to bring the expenditure as nearly as possible within the limit of the revenue ; but this was no easy matter. The