is island command the little
colony proved a great worry. The military guard mutinied, and King armed
the convict settlers to suppress the mutiny! This act of his gave great
offence in some quarters. Phillip had resigned the command at Sydney,
and the Lieutenant-Governor of the colony, who was in charge, was the
commanding officer of the New South Wales Regiment--more celebrated in
the records for its mutinies than its services--and the degradation
of the Norfolk Island detachment by King was never forgiven by the
soldiers, but the Home Government quite approved his conduct.

But King made one very serious mistake. He had sent a vessel to New
Zealand, and from thence had imported certain Maori chiefs to instruct
the settlers on Norfolk Island in flax cultivation.

King had pledged his word to these noble savages to return them to their
native country, and in order to do so, and make sure of their getting
there, he himself embarked in a vessel, leaving his command for a few
days to the charge of his subordinate, while he sailed the thirteen
hundred miles to New Zealand and back. For this he was censured, but
was notwithstanding afterwards appointed the third Governor of New South
Wales, succeeding Hunter.

King's son, who was born at Norfolk Island in 1791, entered the Navy
in 1807, and saw any amount of fighting in the French war; then went to
Australia in 1817, and surveyed its eastern coast in such a manner that,
when he returned to England in 1823 there was little but detail
work left for those who followed him. Then he was appointed to the
_Adventure_, which, in conjunction with the _Beagle_, surveyed the South
American coast. In 1830 he retired and settled in Australia, dying there
in 1856. His son in turn entered the service, but early followed his
father's example, and turned farmer in Australia. He still lives, and
is a member of the Legislative Council or Upper House of the New South
Wales Parliament.

Here is a family record! Three generations, all naval officers, and all
men who have taken an active share in the founding and growth of Greater
Britain; and yet not one man in a thousand in Australia, much less in
England, has probably the remotest idea of the services rendered to the
Empire by this family.

The fourth and last naval Governor, Bligh, is more often remembered in
connection with the _Bounty_ mutiny than for his governorship of New
South Wales. He was deposed by the military in 1808, for his a