These breaches of the regulations, petty as they appear, were really serious, for the colony was sadly in want of food. On another occasion Phillip ordered Dawes to accompany an expedition against the blacks. Dawes, on the grounds that he had religious objections to punishing blacks, refused to go, and persisted in this refusal—remarkable conduct, to say the least of it, in a soldier!
We have gone at some length into these disputes between the marines and the Governor because, trivial as they may appear, they contained all the elements necessary to create such a disturbance in the settlement as might very easily have led to serious consequences. A very few years later the military actually revolted and deposed Governor Bligh. With what is known of Bligh's character and the circumstances of his deposition, and what is shown in these letters of Phillip, it is not too much to assume that disaster to the young colony from these disputes between the military and civilians was only averted by the even temper and forbearance of the first Governor.
In this chapter we have endeavoured to show what Phillip's contemporaries had to say against him, so that the worst of the man as he appeared to them may be known, set against his services, and balanced by the reader.
His remaining detractor—young Southwell—is amusing, and his cause of quarrel obvious enough. Lieutenant Dawes seems to have been a particular
