Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/356

 sent the gi'eat need of officers for detaclimeuts. King {July 1805) wrote to Lord Camden : — absent from their dutiea» it would he gratifying to the officers Jiere and J IjeiiefiiMal to His Majesty's Beivk' e, if the officers who are appointed, or who I rireon leave of absence in England, were ordered to join the Corps, as not more I than Major JohnsloOj a captain, and three aubftlterns are at liead-quartera 1 (one of the latter htsixig unlit fur duty); Lt. -Colonel Paterson, a captain, I and three subalterns at Port Dalryinple ; a raptam and one subaltern at Parnvniatta ; and two subilteins at Norfolk Island." An assistant-siu'geou had heen captain of the Loyal Assoeiation at Parramatta. He was convicted hefore a. court-martial s and King (June 1805) soepended the! sentence, hut in the meantime the office of captain of the Association was vacant. John Macarthur, ever ready for action, though then a settler, was, Avith the consent of th6| Association, appointed to its captaincy hy King. Johnston suggested and King supported a plan for recruiting the New South Wales Corps. Both of them had. good reasons to desire to strengthen it. There were not ' three hundred in Sydney ; and the scattered men, fifteen at Newcastle, eleven at JEawkoshury. ahout thirty at Nor- folk Island, and seventy at Port Dalrymple, besides a few at Cahramatta, South Head, and George's Head, afforded but scanty forces to resist a rising, which was chit^tly rendered improbable by the lietermined characters of King^ and Johnston. The manner of Macarthur's return recxuires special men- 1 tion. It became the turning-point in the material progress] of the colony. His sagacity in obsering climatic and other influences upon the quality of wool, his foresight in com- missioning his friends, Kent and Waterhouse, to buy for him *'any wool-bearing sheep at the Cape/' then* siiccesis, i Maeartbur's exceptional care of the treasure he acquii*ed m the progeny of the Merino flocks of the Escurial, have been mentioned. When his fiery temper brought about a duel with his commanding officer, and he was sent under arrest to England, his sagacity displayed itself. The speculation in his eyes was far-reaching, but the object was substantial. The fibres which he saw growing small by degrees and beautifully less in his specimens of wool, he conveyed with care on his circuitous voyage by Norfolk Island and Amboyna I
 * Aa there are now seven captains^ seven liee tenants, and four cnfii^na