Page:Admiral Phillip.djvu/69

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CHAPTER V


PHILLIP'S CHOICE OF A SITE—LA PÉROUSE—SELECTION OF PORT JACKSON—OUTBREAK OF SCURVY THE CHARACTER OF THE CONVICTS—THE FIRST EXECUTIONÈTHE OFFICIAL PROCLAMATION OF THE COLONY—PHILLIP'S ADDRESS TO THE CONVICTS—EXPEDITION TO NORFOLK ISLAND—THE CONDITION OF THE SETTLEMENT.


For Phillip the sea-captain, the anxieties of a long voyage under unusual and trying circumstances were ended, and his weather-beaten ships safely anchored; for Phillip the Governor (not in its present quasi-ornamental interpretation, but what is signified by the word's real meaning), the work was now to begin. 'The commander over men; he to whose will our wills are to be subordinate and loyally surrender themselves, and find their welfare in doing so, may be reckoned the most important of Great Men.'

If Phillip, in his small way, so governed that his subjects did loyally surrender themselves, and found their welfare in so doing, then he may take rank with the 'most important of Great Men.' But as yet he

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