Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/199

"D'Arcy Wentworth, who I am informed behaves well, had a promise of being permitted to return to this settlement, and if he has not forfeited the good character which has been given of him, you will permit him to return." Yet D'Arcy Wentworth had immigrated to the colony as a cabin passenger, and had never been under any control except that which any visitor to the convict colony encountered. He was indeed engaged as Assistant-Surgeon a few weeks after his arrival. King, in Dec. 1791, reported that in that capacity he "had always behaved with the greatest propriety and attention," and being "persuaded that he would acquit himself of the charge with fidelity" he appointed him a superintendent of convicts in the Island, in consideration of his "diligence and good behaviour." Plurality of offices, however, was discouraged by Phillip, and the active Wentworth was remunerated only as superintendent of convicts, attending, without payment, to the health of persons in his district; for, small as was the island, it was divided into several districts, in each of which there was a superintendent of convicts. Eventually, with Governor Hunter's sanction, Wentworth returned to Sydney (1795), where he was to take an active part in public affairs, and to see his son William become the most notable of public men.

Communication from Norfolk Island to Sydney was infrequent. Vessels called at the Island on their way from Sydney to China or the East, but many months elapsed without direct return from the Island to Australia. Phillip therefore encouraged his subaltern to make known his wants to the Secretary of State, and deplored more than once his inability to send supplies of which he was aware that King "must have stood in great need."

There was scarcity of food. The "birds of Providence" made their annual appearance (21st March, 1792), and "to give every one an equal chance of availing himself of this providential resource, King "changed the hours of labour," to enable every man to sally forth at four o'clock to rush upon the birds arriving at sunset."

The resolute buoyancy of Henry Dundas was at this period by the side of Pitt. The French atrocities, compared with which even those of savages grew dim; the efforts of "Friends of the People" in London, many of whom thirsted