Page:Admiral Phillip.djvu/274

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248
BUILDERS OF GREATER BRITAIN

'Previous to Governor Phillip's departure, he gave each settler two ewes belonging to the Crown; to some officers he had been equally liberal. As these sheep were given with an expectation and an injunction not to be parted with, it was hoped that each settler might raise a good stock; but on his departure, every ewe, except those belonging to one settler, was purchased from those unthinking people at five gallons of spirits a head. This accounts for so great a proportion of sheep being in the hands of officers, and those which do not now belong to officers have been sold by them to the present possessors.'

Even Margarot, most contumacious of men, one of the 'Scotch martyrs' transported just after Phillip reached England, seems to have found something to admire in the first Governor. In a letter written by the 'Martyr' expressing his views upon the way in which the colony should be governed, he says: 'When you recalled one gentleman you ought to have given us another. The first error of the Ministry was the suffering Major Grose to succeed to that worthy man, Governor Phillip.'

After leaving the colony, Phillip saw very little further sea service, the only recorded appointment of his that we can find being the command of the Alexander from March to October 1796. He was promoted, in 1801, Rear-Admiral of the Blue; in April 1804, Rear-Admiral of the White; in November 1805, Rear-Admiral of the Red; in October 1809, Vice-