d in Sydney. At this very time, it is sad to reflect, his last
resting-place was unknown. Phillip, like Cook, did his work well and
truly, and his true memorial is the country of which he was practically
the founder.

CHAPTER V.

GOVERNOR HUNTER.

Admiral Phillip's work was, as we have said, the founding of Australia;
that of Hunter is mainly important for the service he did under Phillip.
From the time he assumed the government of the colony until his return to
England, his career showed that, though he had "the heart of a true
British sailor," as the old song says, he somewhat lacked the head of a
governor.

John Hunter was born at Leith in 1737, his father being a well-known
shipmaster sailing out of that port, while his mother was of a good
Edinburgh family, one of her brothers having served as provost of that
city. Young Hunter made two or three voyages with his father at an age so
young that when shipwrecked on the Norwegian coast a peasant woman took
him home in her arms, and seeing what a child he was, put him to bed
between two of her daughters.

He had an elder brother, William, who gives a most interesting account of
himself in vol. xii. of the _Naval Chronicle_ (1805). William saw some
very remarkable service in his forty-five years at sea in the royal and
merchant navies. Both brothers knew and were friendly with Falconer, the
sea-poet, and John was shipmate in the _Royal George_ with Falconer, who
was a townsman of theirs. The brothers supplied many of the particulars of
the poet's life, written by Clarke, and the name Falconer in connection
with both Hunters often occurs in the _Naval Chronicle_.

After Hunter, senior, was shipwrecked, John was sent to his uncle, a
merchant of Lynn, who sent the boy to school, where he became acquainted
with Charles Burney, the musician. Dr. Burney wanted to make a musician of
him, and Hunter was nothing loth, but the uncle intended the boy for the
Church, and sent him to the Aberdeen University. There his thoughts once
more turned to the sea, and he was duly entered in the _Grampus_ as
captain's servant in 1754, which of course means that he was so rated on
the books in the fashion of the time. After obtaining his rating as A.B.,
and then as midshipman, he passed his examination as lieutenant in
February, 1760; but it was not until twenty [Sidenote: 1760]
years later, when he was forty-three, that he received his lieutenant's
commission, hav