Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/407

 GOVERNOR KING'S CAREER. 379 matta be respectively named Saint Phillip and Saint John." Eighteen years afterwards, Mr. Sorell, then Lt.- Governor of Van Diemen's Land, followed this example, and directed that " the new church of Hobart Town shall be called * Saint David's' Church out of respect for the memory of the late Colonel David Collins, of the Eoyal Marines, under whose direction the settlement was founded in 1804." Amongst glimpses of the condition of the people may be noticed an order in June 1804, stating that the " Eoyal Standard having been hoisted for the first time in this territory on this the anniversary of His Majesty's birth" (amidst salutes and volleys at 9 a.m., and with further firings and salutes at noon, the Governor being ready to receive the compliments of the ofl&cers — civil, military, and naval — at half -past one o'clock), free pardons were granted to an ofi&eer under sentence of court-martial, to twenty soldiers of the New South Wales Corps, who had previously received conditional emancipations, and to twelve other conditionally emancipated persons, while to sixty-seven prisoners conditional emancipation was given. The different gaol-gangs were liberated, and **the usual allowance of half-a-pint of spirits" was given to each non-commissioned officer and private. Tradition, neglectful of more important events during King's rule, preserved a few characteristics of his de- meanour. We are told that when a man who had been a marine applied for something which the Governor did not think fit to grant, he said, **Can you go through your exercise still?" and being answered in the affirmative, gave the man marching orders while he himself re-entered his house. One occasion a man applied to him for work, and he called the man into another room and showed him a mirror. you something to do." These and other anecdotes of like import have, in the absence of a true record of occurrences between the departure of Phillip and the appointment of Bligh, been allowed to stand as almost the only redeeming features in the character of the man whose doings are here chronicled, and w^hose despatches have been largely quoted
 * Look there, and you will see the man that ought to give