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About Google Book Search Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at |http: //books .google .com/I t«:!>KIIB ll !i.* ilii' ■r fili:13iii2 CSUuiS^ .._nw *•»">■■■»» A SHORT SKETCH OF THE LIVES OF Francis and William Light / , ' \ . ■' ! X • "i '■ ' .. ^ > . , \ f » - - » • , ' » ' . — '- • • • •.i i - . I '•i A SHORT SKETCH OF THE LIVES OF Francis and William Light THE FOUNDERS OF PENANG AND ADELAIDE WITH EXTRACTS FROM THEIR JOURNALS BY A. FRANCIS STEUART ADVOCAT^ •• ..'•".:•; ; : .- -'• i : i : yC [-: -"- :.^' -. LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY LIMITED Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E.C. 1901 \ LONDON: PRINTED BY WILUAM CI.OWBS AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. 2-^! H.I 85 • • • • ■ •..: : : . : V: • • *' -V •• PREFACE -•^♦* The two sketch lives of the founders of Penang and Adelaide have been written to meet a want. There existed no accessible outline of the life of Captain Francis Light; and the accounts of Colonel William Light in the "Dictionary of National Biography" and the Australian bio- graphics are unavoidably curtailed. It is with that reason these lives have been the subject of my study. The materials for them were diffi- cult of access, and (when all is told) meagre and imperfect. Still, it has given me much pleasure to put them together, in the hope that the result may justify its existence, as an account of two Empire Builders. I have now especially to acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. A. M. Skinner, C.M.G., VI PREFACE for his notes and his " Memoir of Captain Francis Light;" to Mr. Edwin Hodder, the historian of South Australia; Mr. V. B. Red- stone, Sir John Cockbum, K.C.M.G., Mr. J. L. O'Halloran, C.M.G., Miss Julia Finniss, Mr. James C. Hawker, and Mr. Roland Strachan of Adelaide, and to Admiral Blomfield of Alex- andria, for their kind assistance. I have in addition to offer my thanks to my relatives, Mrs. Hugo Light, Miss M. Sutherland, Mrs. W. L. Mason, and Mrs. George Bering, for their great kindness in putting documents at my disposal, as well as to my kinsman, Mr. Francis Light of Perak, for his valuable notes. A. FRANCIS STEUART. 79, Great Kino Street, Edinburgh, June I, 1901. CONTENTS ■ 01 PAGS THE FOUNDER OF PENANG. CHAPTER I. Origin of Francis Light — Early life — His settle- ment in the East at Salang — Proposals for the establishment oi a British settlement in Malaya — N^otiations with the Raja of Keddah — Settlement of Penang .... i CHAPTER II. Account of the court of Keddah — ^The negotiations — ^Captain Light's Journal — Commencement of the settlement of Penang — Christening of the island — Rapid increase of the inhabitants — ^Romantic story of Captain light's marriage 13 CHAPTER III. Captain Light wishes to renounce trade — War with Keddah — The British attack Prye— Malay force destroyed — ^Treaty with Keddah — Progress of the settlement — Death of Colonel Light-*-His last will — Conclusion . 28 Vlli CONTENTS THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE. CHAPTER IV. PAGB Birth and early life of William light — He enters the navy and then the army — Gallant deeds in the Peninsula — Battle of Vic Bigorre — ^Army career — ^Travels and first book — With the Spanish Constitutionalist forces in 1823 . . 39 CHAPTER V. Miss Mary Bennet — Marriage — A beautiful wife — Travels in Italy and the east of Europe — Views of Pompeii — Genoa, Sardinia, and Egypt — Service in the Egyptian navy under Mebemet Ali — Captain Hindmarsh ... 60 CHAPTER VI. Foundation of South Australia — Light made first Surveyor-General — Voyage to South Australia — Kangaroo Island — Preliminary explora- tions— The Aborigines 72 CHAPTER VII. Examination of Port Lincoln and Spencer's Gulf— Both found unsatisfactory — Resolution to fix on Adelaide as the chief town — Arrival of Governor Hindmarsh — Inauguration ceremony •—The Governor's disapproval of the site . . 90 CONTENTS IX CHAPTER VIII. PAGB The surveys — Report home — Dinner to Colonel Light — His survey difficulties — Explorations — End of 1837 — Resignation of Colonel Light — His refusal to resume Government survey work 107 CHAPTER IX. Governor Hindmarsh's departure — Non-payment of survey — Captain Sturt — Governor Gawler — Light, Finniss, and Company — Illness of Colonel Light — Burning of his Journal — Death and funeral of Colonel Light — Monuments and memorials — Conclusion 123 Index 143 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS »0i PAGE The Foundation of Prince op Wales Island. Captain Francis Light read- ing THE Proclamation, August ii, 1786 Frontispiece Sarah Light, Eldest Daughter of Captain Francis Light, Wife of General James Welsh To face 34 Colonel Wiluam Light, the Founder of Adelaide, South Australia . To face 42 THE FOUNDER OF PENANG • • • -• • • • • • • • • • • • • •. • THE FOUNDER OF PENANG ■•o*- CHAPTER I. Origin of Francis Light — Early life — His settlement in the East at Salang — Proposals for the establishment of a British settlement in Malajra — Negotiations with the Raja of Keddah — Settlement of Penang. Francis Light is a name which is unfamiliar to most English ears, and it is wanting from most of our biographical dictionaries. The French " Biographic G^n^rale," indeed, devotes a short colmnn to this " navigateur anglais,'' yet the real record of his life ought not to be allowed to be forgotten altogether by his own compa- triots, as it is chiefly owing to him and to his successor. Sir Stamford Raffles, that British supremacy is paramount in the Malay Penin- sula to-day. B a 4 THE FOUNDER OF PENASC . :• ' • •• Francis Light wa§ a*SugQU^*man. He was baptized Decepitifet 15, *'if4o, at Dallinghoo, yvhfx% his m?)ttvef,'Mary Light, was a resident. •JAlttltj^ngh'the sources of his early history are • 'extremely obscure, enough remains to show that he was adopted and educated by bis rela- tion, William Negus, of Melton (who died aged sixty, June 2, 1773), a somewhat eccentric gentleman of ancient family.^ The father of William Negus, Colonel Francis Negus,^ of the Foot Guards, was Avener and Master of the Buckhounds to King George I., as well as Commissioner for the Office of Master of the Horse, and member of Parliament for Ipswich, who had acquired the large estates of Dallinghoo and Melton by his marriage with Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of William Churchill, Esq., of Woodbridge, M.P., patent printer to the king. Yoimg Light, after his adoption into the Negus family, was educated along with the sons of many Suffolk squires at the old Grammar School of 1 Vide the Davy MSS., British Museum. ■ The inventor of the somewhat obsolete "Negus." He died at Dallinghoo, September 9, 1732, and was the son of Francis Negus, secretary to the Earl Marshal, Henry, Duke of Norfolk, who died February 4, 171 1. . uM EARLY DAYS S Woodbridge, under the Rev. Thomas Ray. He was entered there in 1747, his fellow-pupils of the same year being Edmund Jenney, Joseph Fielding, Stephen Brightwell, George and Francis Brooke, sons of George Brooke of Athelington, and James and Thomas Lambert, sons of the rector of Melton. From Woodbridge School he was transferred, pretty early in life, to the navy, and we find him a midshipman on board H.M.S. Arrogant^ in 1761. He did not remain long in the navy, for he appears next in 1765 a passenger on board the East Indian ship OUve (John Allen, com- mander), on his way to the East j and it does not seem to have been his first voyage east- wards, as he is able, "for avoiding controver- sies after my decease," to bequeath by will to William Negus considerable property, probably bought with prize-money, which is detailed therein as "wages sum and sums of money, lands, tenements, goods, chattels, and estate whatsoever;" as well as legacies to Henry Nadauld,^ of Tunbridge Wells, late Surgeon ^ His sister, Margaret Nadauld (or Stoker), married William Negus, of Dallinghoo, at St. George's Chapel, Mayfair, May 5, 1749. She died August 23, 1776, aged 6 THE FOUNDER OF PENANG R.N., to John Walter, bookseller, of Charing Cross, and to the Rev. Moses Porter, curate of Walton-on-the-Hill, Surrey. When once out in the East, Francis Light became the captain of an East Indian " country ship," and, rapidly acquiring full command of the Malay language, Oriental customs, and the knowledge of ruling men, traded with Siam and Malaya with great success. He obtained "a title of nobility " from the former coimtry,^ bore an " excellent character," and was held in " the highest esteem with the Malay, Siamese, and Pegu chiefs." His headquarters appear to have been the island of Salang, or Junkceylon, a place of much commerce off the coast of Siam. It had been an imsuccessful colony of the French in 1677, imder M. Cherboneau, but was now an emporium where the Bugis prahus of Celebes came in numbers to barter their varied cargoes for the native tin. Their chief commodities were "Bugges Cambays," Java cloth, Java gongs and lotahs, tobacco and porcelain, and the governor was " like all Malay princes," chief sixty-four. They were of Hugnenot origin. Henry Nadauld died October 17, 1785, aged seventy-five, and was buried at Wandsworth (Ducarel, p. 566). ^ Crawford, << Embassy to Siam." LIFE AT SALANG 7 merdiant. At Salang Light resided until 1785, living mainly amongst the Malays, speaking their language, adapting himself to their ways, and being learned in Siamese also, and in 177a he allied himself with Martina Rozells, whose history and pretensions will be given later. The year before this, that is in 177 1, Cap- tain light entered the list of empire builders by having some communications with Warren Hastings regarding a proposal for a British settlement in the neighbourhood of the Malay Peninsula, the need of which had not escaped the keen eye of the Governor-General of India. Light first suggested for the purpose the island of Penang as a " convenient magazine for the Eastern trade," and, although disregarded at the time, this proposal bore fruit, and was, as we shall see, ultimately accepted. In 1779 Captain Light is mentioned several times, as a friend and sympathetic companion, by the Danish botanist, M. Koenig, both at Salang and Malacca, where he was engaged in trading, but in 1780 he returned to Bengal to see Mr. Hastings, and this time proposed to him the alternative of a British settlement by private enterprise on the island of Salang, on 8 THE FOUNDER OF PENANG the ground that it was a flourishing emporium with 50,000 inhabitants, and much trade. He furnished Lord Comwallis with a full account ^ of the island as late as 1787, but the negotia- tions for this new settlement, which were sup- ported by another trader, Mr. James Scott,^ and well received by Warren Hastings, were interrupted, before the troops and ships were made ready, by the French and Dutch wars. There is no doubt, however, that they might have been carried through, and both islands formed into a joint settlement as was at first proposed, for on the death in 1785 of Pia ' British Museum MS S. Salang, according to Captain Light's account, belonged to the Siamese dependency of Ligor (Captain Low says it had been originally under Javanese domination) before the rise of the Burmese power ; but after the conquest of Siam, it was acquired by the Malays of Keddah. They " maintained an abso- lute authority " under the Laxamana until the islanders revolted suddenly one night, with results similar to the " Sicilian Vespers." It was afterwards resumed by Siam, and in 1787 the Governor (Choo Pia Salang) is described as '* one of the greatest villains who has raised himself by ingratitude, deceit, murder, and rapine from a low and indigent state." Captain Light says that all it needed was a good government. ' James Scott described himself honestly as ''a pots- man struggling to pay off some incumbrances incurred in the war, formerly a trading master, and otherwise little known." PENANG FOUNDED 9 Pimons, the Governor of the island of Salang, Captain Light was besought, unsuccessfully, by his widow, sons, and nephews, to assume the government. In 1784 the Bengal authorities sent Mr. Kin- loch to Achin, in Sumatra, to found, after many previous unsuccessful attempts, a convenient port for the British there; but after fifteen months* delay the King's hostility made this im- practicable. On the failure of this scheme Captain Light again reported, on the 15th of February, 1786, to the Bengal Govenmient, that through his own personal influence and interest the young Malay Raja of Keddah was willing to cede the island of Penang to the East India Company for $6000 a year — an offer which was now accepted; and in June, 1786, Captain Light left Calcutta with Sir John Macpherson's authority to treat with the Raja and take per- sonal possession of the island, and to become its first Governor. The original Commission in his favour ran : " March 2, 1786. Resolved in consideration of the Board's favourable opinion of Captain Francis Light his knowledge of the Malay language, and the high esteem in which he stands with the King of Cudda and many 10 THE FOUNDER OF PENANG Other chiefs, that he be vested with the charge and superintendence of the Island of Penang on the part of the Company, untill their pleasure be known or untill further orders, and that he be furnished with a proper Commission as Com- mander of the Island and Harbour of Pinang." The proposal to colonize Salang also. Sir John Macpherson unfortunately negatived, on the ground that a larger force would be required to keep it, and that the port of Penang was the more favourable of the two. The kingdoms of Siam and Burma had certain shadowy claims over the kingdom of Keddah and the other northern Malay States, but of the most vague description. Originally the Sultan of Malacca had been the overlord of the Malays, and it was only on his being sup- planted by the Portuguese that the pretensions of the northern rulers had crept into being. It must here be emphasized that Captain Light negotiated with the Raja of Keddah^ as an independent prince. He has been much blamed for this policy, but it must be owned ^ The first Raja of Keddah was Marrong Maha- wangsa, **probablement du Kalinga," who was leader of a Hinda colony abont 1284. His namesake in 1501 SUMESE CLAIMS II only in later times, after 1819, when the Malay State of Keddah had become really subdued embraced Islam, nnder the title of Sultan Mazulfal I. Camoens mendons the kingdom — '^Olha Tavai dtade, onde come9a De Siao largo o imperio tad comprido Tenassari, Queda que le s6 cabeca Dasque pimenta alitem produzido." ("Lusiad," X. cxxiii.) The Portuguese of Malacca were frequently at hostilities with it. In 161 1 the town was attacked and plundered by Mendez Furtado, and in 16 14 it was not only plun- dered, but burned by Diego de Mendon9a. A few years later, however, Iscander Muda, the great Malay Sultan of Achin, overran the country. The " Gold and Silver Flower" was not sent to Siam by the Raja of Keddah until about 1737, after the decline of the Achinese power* and in 1772 the King of Siam, Phyd Tak, conquered the neighbouring kingdom of Ligor. In 1802 the Raja Sultan Taj Udin-Ma-Alum, Shah of Keddah, ceded a tract of his territory (Province Wellesley) to the British Government in addition to Penang, which, as we have seen, his brother had surrendered ; and in 1813-14 his nephew, the Sultan Ahmad Taj-Udin Alum, began to feel the growing pressure of Siam, which culminated in the conquest of the country in 1819, when the Raja fled to Prince of Wales Island. In 1838-39 the king's son, Tuankn Abdulla, made an unsuccessful attempt to regain the sovereignty, but failed {M^ Sherard Osborne's *' Qnedah **). His father was restored in 1842, and died in 1845. About 1875 the position of the Keddah bonds- men was improved, and in 1883 Miss Bird writes, ** The State of Kedah is beginning to awake to its advantages," The ruler was in 1880 Raja Petra Zein el Rashid. ,■'■#•. 12 THE FOUNDER OF PENANG by Siam, for in 1785 the Dutch of Malacca were much more formidable opponents than the Siamese. His own description of the political situation puts the Siamese claim to suzerainty as shortly as can be. " It does not appear," he says, "either by writings or traditions, that Queda was ever governed by Siamese laws or customs. . . . The people of Queda are Ma- homedans, their letters Arabic and their lan- guage Jawee ; their kings originally came from Menangkabo in Sumatra; but as Queda was very near Ligore in the kingdom of Siam, they sent every third year a gold or silver tree as a token of homage to Ligore. This was done to preserve a good correspondence, for at this period the Siamese were very rich and nume- rous, but not warriors, and a considerable trade was carried on between Ligore and Queda. After the destruction of Siam, the King of Ava demanded the token of homage from Queda, and obtained the gold and silver tree. When Pia Tach drove away the Burmans and built a new city on Siam, the King of Queda sent the trees to Siam, and kept peace with both, paying homage sometimes to one, sometimes to the other, and often to both." ( 13 ) CHAPTER II. Account of the court of Keddah — ^The negotiations — Captain Light's Journal — Commencement of the settlement of Penang — Christening of the island — Rapid increase of the inhabitants — Romantic story of Captain Light's marriage. In his " Report " ^ to the Bengal Government Captain Light gives an admirable description of the King and court of Keddah. His style is clear, and his pen portraits of the royal family distinct. The Raja Abdalla I. was young, and his accession in 1778, as he was the son of a slave, had only come about through the favour of his father, Mahomed Jiwa Zein-el-ed-din Muazim Shah 11.^ There had been trouble in 1770^ ' MSS., India Office. ' There had been apparently a British agent in Keddah in this Raja's time, Mr. Monkton. * " Some Account of Quedah," by Michael Topping, Esq., chiefly from the information of Francis Light, Esq., chief of Prince of Wales Island, or Po. Pinang, 14 THE FOUNDER OF PENANG from rival claimants to the succession, who burned Allestar, the royal residence, with assistance from certain Bugis chiefs of Selangor and Perak, and who had been forced afterwards by the old King to flee to Selangor, where, with the exception of Tuankee Jea, " so nearly re- lated to the king as to be an object of jealousy ... a man of some honour and integrity and very grateful," they had predeceased him in penury. Captain Light describes the Raja as " a weak man, too fond of money, very lax in the execution of the laws; not so much as a principle of clemency as timidity. His income consists in monopolizing likewise a good deal in presents and fines. Every person who has any demand to make or suit to prefer first presents a sum of money which he thinks adequate to the demand. If the King approves of the sum he signs the paper, unless another person comes with a greater sum. He receives a small duty upon every plough, and upon the sale of cattle and slaves. The Rayats are obliged to cultivate his lands, and to defend his country at their own charge." printed in A. Dalrymple's " Oriental Repertory." Lon- don, i8o8. MISSION TO KEDDAH 1$ The King's merchant, " a deep cunning villainous Chuliah;" Tuanko China, the husband of the King's sister, " an old fox ; " the Bindahara (" First Officer ") who was ** of weak understand- ing and very indefinite in his actions," and the Laxamana (" Admiral "), the King's brother-in- law, more powerfiil than the Bindhara, were all somewhat opposed to the settlement of the English, as they had been gained over by the Dutch by an embassy from Malacca in April, 1786; but Captain Light's personal influence, as we shall see, was in the end paramount. Captain Light describes in his JoumaP the negotiations leading to his settlement at Penang, which must be quoted in fiill. ^^June 29//^, 1786. — Anchored in Quedah roads; found the Prince Henry and Speedwell and a small Portuguese group. A ship of Challabys had just sailed for Siam. Sent an officer ashore to acquaint him of my arrival. "3o/lf5. — In the morning went ashore, found the King's merchant and Shabundar waiting to receive me, and was saluted by the guns in the fort, and by three volleys from the marines ; sent * "Notices of Pinang," Journal of the Indian Archipdago, l6 THE FOUNDER OF PENANG advice to the King of my arrival and of my having brought a letter and presents." We now meet Oriental plot and counter- plot, for the Siamese were menacing the king- dom of Keddah on the north. And the Journal continues — " The Bindhara, Laxamana, and other officers with 10,000 Rayats were encamped at the passes between Salang and Quedah. The General of the Siamese (Joorasse), brother to the King of Siam, sent for the King of Quedah to Sangora. Afraid to trust himself with the Siamese, he sent his brother-in-law with presents, which were returned with an order to come himself. He next sent his son with larger presents; these were received, and the young man admitted to an audience. The General asked him if he was come with fuU powers from his father, if he would make war upon the Burmers, and if he would] provide prows to attack Mergue and Tavoy, to all of which he answered in the affirmative. He was then sent back with titles and presents, and an order to his father to provide and send 100 cazans of rice to Salang, and to send to the general four brass cannons — i2-pounders — ^with a quantity of cloth, all of NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE KING 1 7 which is complied with, and the Malays recalled from the frontiers; but the people of Quedah are not without their fears, and with great justice, as they have during the long war between the Burmers and Siamese sometimes sided with one and sometimes with the other, as interest prevailed; nor were they much to blame, as they were too weak to resist the Burmers, and the Siamese not in a condition to give them protection, " Mr. Gray informed me that the king had frequently sent for the marines to his place of residence, twenty-five miles from the Qualla (river's mouth), and a supply of cannon and arms. These Mr. Gray and Captain Glass assented to, and the king, no doubt, was willing to avail himself of the credit his force would give him, as a means to intimidate the Siamese." Captain Light, now styled " Dewa Raja," on the I St of July, proceeded to bring ashore the Governor-General's letter and presents, salutes being fired by the ships, the fort, and the marines. The letter, his Journal says, was " received by a guard of Malays with colours, tambours, and trumpets at the gate, and con- ducted to the Laxamana's house, where a canopy c 1 8 THE FOUNDER OF PENANG was erected, and the Kong's representative, a Syed, having received the letter, the guns were again fired, and an apology made for the great men being absent" The present consisted of, among other things, " blimderbushes, brass- barreird, gold and silver brocades and Kincobs;" but when the King's merchant ("Datoo Sri Raja, formerly named JammauU, and a common Coolie ") thought it insufficient, the envoy writes, " I added a hundred muskets, which in their situa- tion was of more consequence than all the rest." The King at first was troubled at the letter, and received Captain Light with his escort of " the sergeant of artillery, twelve marines, drum and fife," without any state. It was arranged that separate translations should be made out to see if the Bengal Government held out any threats in terrorem over Keddah, and after that the envoy went away again. On the 7th of July, Light writes, " Impatient — ^no message from the King;" but on the next day he had an interview with the King, who found the translation was satisfactory, and widi the Laxamana commenced treating about the price for which Penang should be handed over, over which some demur took place. Eventually THE PRICE OF THE ISLAND 1 9 Captain Light writes, "I returned, and the conversation was renewed. The King said he did not mean that he would be satisfied with no less a sum than 30,000 Spanish dollars — he might perhaps accept of 20 or even 10,000; but that must be in his own option. He asked me, if the prows came with any tin, whether I would purchase it I told him I not only should perhaps purchase it myself, but that every person was at liberty to buy and sell as he pleased ; that it was the custom of all English Governments to encourage commerce and not to restrain it However, to satisfy the King of our good intentions, I would allow him half the profits upon the purchase and sale of tin, opium, and rattans, which were his prerogative, but this was not to extend to any prows and vessels that might be sent to or arrive from foreign ports. This was agreed to, and a paper was drawn up for that purpose, which is to remain in force imtil the letter arrives. I then took my leave) and told him I should proceed to Finang. . . . " jith, 1 2th, and 13th embarking the people and provisions. " 14th at 5 p.m. Sailed in company with the Prince Henry and the SpeedweU snow. . . . 20 THE FOUNDER OF PEHAMG ^i7th . . . disembaiked lieotenant Gray with the marines upon Pcnnt Penagger ^ — a low sandy point covered with wood — and employed them in clearing the ground." The new British colony was practically a " Desert Island" It had once had a cMisider- able population, who had supported thonselves by successful piracy, but an expedition from Keddah had banished them about the year 1750, and in 1786, with the exception of a very few clearings — one of which, containing a burial- ground, was at Datoh Kramet — ^the island was one vast jungle of nearly 107 square miles, with a population of only fifty-eight souls. Captain Light had with him three vessels — ^the Eliza f the Prince Henry ^ and the Speedwell sno"^ ; a hundred Bengal new-made marines, thirty native Lascars, and fifteen European artillery- men, with five officers, to give him their support ; and on the 17th of July, 1786, having provisioned his force previously during the negotiations at Keddah, he, as we have seen, landed with his force at Pcnang. It was no simple matter for him to commence. The first salutary rules issued were, that no ^ Now the EipUmadoi THE ISLAND CHRISTENED 21 Malay armed with a kris was allowed ashore, and that the Achinese pirates, by whom so many European forts had been "cut oflF" in former times, were kept from landing. The impene- trable forests had to be cleared — no easy task — and Captain Light enters in his diary on July 29th, " In cutting the trees our axes, hatches, and handbolts suffer much ; the wood is so ex- ceeding hard that the tools double like a piece of lead." A curious story is told that Captain Light encouraged the wood-cutters to clear the jungle, by loading a gun with a bag of silver dollars and firing it into the virgin forest. A town, afterwards called "George Town," was speedily built, and roads made towards the centre of the island. By the loth of August certain advances had been made, and two of the East India Compan/s ships, the Vansittart and the Valentine^ appearing off the coast. Captain Light thought it a suitable occasion to invite their captains and crews to assist to christen the new colony. This was done on the nth of August. "At noon," he writes, "we all assembled imder the flagstaff, every gentleman assisting to hoist the British flag, and took possession of the island in the name of 22 THE FOUNDER OF PENANG His Majesty George III. and for die use of the Honourable East India Company ; the artillery and ships firing a royal salute, and the marines three volleys. I named our new acquisition after the Prince of Wales, it being the eve of his birthday" (the 12th of August). The Act of Possession was as follows ; — "These are to .certify that agreeable to my orders and instructions from the Honourable Governor-General and Council of Bengal, I have this day taken possession of this island, called Poolo Penang, now named Prince of Wales Island, and hoisted the British Colours, in the name of His Majesty George the Third, and for the use of the Honourable English East India Company — the eleventh day of August, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-six, being the eve of the Prince of Wales's birth- day. (Signed) " Francis Light, S.P.I. " James Gray, Lt. Commandant Marine Corps. " In presence of the underwritten — " Geo. Howell, Captain Artillery. " EusHA Trapaud, CaptainEngineers. INCREASE OF THE INHABITANTS 23 "RiCHD. LfiwiN, Jim., Commander of the Honourable Company's Ship Van- sittart. " John Beatson. " George Smith, Merchant. " Thos. Wall, Commander of the Hwiour- able Company's Ship Valentine, " Davd. Prya, Captain 84th Regiment. "Js. Magennis, Surgeon of the Honour- able Company's Ship Vakntine, "Jas. Glass, Commander of the Prince Henry Storeship. " Wm. Lindsay, Commander of the Snow Speedwell. " Jas. Holcombe, First Lieutenant of the Honourable Company's Snow Elizar Captain Light writes to Mr. John Fergusson three months later, '* Our inhabitants increase very fast — Chooliars, Chinese,^ and Christians ; they are already disputing about the ground, every one building as fast as they can. The French Padr^ from Quedda* has erected his ^ The Chinese were mostly from the provinces of Quangtung and Fo-Kien (Crawfurd). ' In 1786 Captain Light mentions that a French 24 THE FOUNDER OF PENANG cross here, and in two months more it will never be believed that this place was never before inhabited." But it was no light matter to govern the new-comers, and "beyond an informal court-martial" the whole exercise of the judicial power fell upon Captain Light as "Superintendent," assisted only by the "cap- tains" or leaders of the different nationalities of the island. That it was wisely used is shown by the fact that in 1789 there were already "about 10,000" inhabitants, and in 1795 about 20,000, including 3000 Chinese, whose com- patriots would have flocked to the new shelter in even greater numbers had not the jealousy of the Dutch restrained them from leaving Malacca, by means which, the superintendent writes, in February, 1787, in a letter to his friend Mr. Andrew Ross of Madras, "would dishonour any but a Dutchman." Captain Light dreaded, in the midst of all the inter- national jealousies to which the new settlement was exposed, lest an attack from pirates, or by Padr6, Antonio Gamault (bishop and vicar-general), came from Cochin China to Penang. He adds that he was "extremely bigoted, and keeps his flock in such subjection they dare not stray out of his sight.'' THE " PRINCESS OF QUEDAH " 2$ the Malays or Siamese, should frighten settlers away; and as soon as possible built a fort of Neebon palms, with which he might be able to protect the new capital. The little support given to Captain Light in his desire to establish proper tribunals and courts of justice in Penang, was caused by the jealous eye with which a certain party of the Bengal officials regarded his colony. They pro- tected a rival settlement in the Andamans, which, founded in 1791, emulated and tried to supplant Penang for a few years, but was abandoned in 1796, while the older colony overcame its difficulties and flourished. Having narrated the real history of the British settlement, it seems necessary to mention here the romantic story, which has become an im- dying legend, that Captain Light received Penang as a marriage portion with the daughter of the King of Quedah ; a legend which we are assured was "fondly cherished" by his de- scendants.^ ^ Although there is no doubt that Penang was ceded to the British by the Raja of Keddah, we know that such grants were not unknown. We have seen how Captain Light was offered the island of Salang. Singapore was offered to Captain Alexander Hamilton in 1703, and 26 THE FOUNDER OF PENANG John Crawfiird, in 1820, denies the story utterly, and asserts that " the wife of the enter- prising adventurer was neither a princess nor a Malay," but was, instead, a Portuguese of Siam. We must, however, put this direct denial against the opposing statements of two contemporaries. One of them, William Marsden, the learned historian of Sumatra, states that she was a daughter of the King of Quedah. The other, Captain Elisha Trapaud, himself one of the Penang pioneer settlers, whose sketch of the ceremony of christening Prince of Wales Island has been in part reproduced to illustrate this memoir, writes in 1788,^ "He (Captain Light) had assisted the above Prince (of Keddah) in quelling some troubles in his dominions, who in return bestowed upon him a princess of the blood in marriage, together with this island as her dower. Captain Light, who is extremely well beloved amongst the Malays, chose to Raja Brooke's acquisition of Sarawak in later times is another case in point. * ** A Short Account of the Prince of Wales Island, or Pttlo Pinang, in the East Indies, given to Captain Light by the King of Quedah, '^ by Elisha Trapaud, Esq., Captain in the Engineer Corps on the Madras Establish- ment. London, 1788. MARTINA ROZELLS 2^ marry the princess according to the fashions of her own country." And he proceeds to give a long, interesting, and curious description of the Malay wedding ceremonies. The lady in question is shown by Captain Light's will, at any rate, to have borne the Portuguese name of Martina Rozells. She bore him two sons and three daughters, and at his death he left her much real and personal estate,^ and the Penang administrations show that she survived him at least imtil 1822. ' Her son-in-law, General James Welsh, visited Prince of Wales Island in 18 18. He mentions being received in " the garden fA Nonyah Yeen, a daughter of the Kling of Quedah," and by Colonel Bannerman at Suffolk, *'once the private property of Mr. Light, and his favourite residence" ("Military Reminiscences," vol. ii. pp. 116, 117). It is a curious and little known fact that the Princes of Keddah stayed at Penang as Captain Light's guests. 28 THE FOUNDER OF PENANG CHAPTER III. Captain Light wishes to renounce trade — War with Keddah — The British attack Prye — Malay force destroyed — Treaty with Keddah — Progress of the settlement — Death of Colonel Light — His last will — Conclusion. Captain Light gave a high instance of his disinterested character in 1790, by showing the authorities at Calcutta that his duties as *^ Super- intendent " of the settlement and his position as a merchant were opposed to each other, while his salary of Rs. 1000 per month was too small to allow him to abandon his trading partnership with his friend James Scott, another of the early settlers, Mr. Skinner writes in his monograph, " So strongly did he feel this, that we find him proposing to the authorities in Calcutta that he should be precluded from engaging in trade, receiving * such increase of salary as will support the office with decency, and enable me to make a small provision for approaching old age.* Few ADMINISTRATION 29 of his acts reveal an honourable and upright character more clearly than this. His com- bined position of Superintendent and principal merchant in Penang, gave him abundant opportunity of enriching himself; and in these lax days, with examples like Vansittart and Macpherson before him, such scruples must have seemed almost quixotic." He also had, in 1788, opposed the taxation of the infant colony, urging in a despatch to Lord Com- wallis (June 20) that "some reasonable time should be allowed the first settlers to enable them to bear the expenses of building, etc" He desired that the island should remain free of taxation for at least three years, but submitted a scheme of taxation to Bengal, in which twelve modes of raising revenue were enumerated by taxation on retailers, a spirit farm, ground rents on houses, and import duties on alien goods. But it was allowed to stand over until 1801, when Penang had the misfortune to become a "customs port" He defended his colony's reputation during a visit to Calcutta in 1789, and informed the Government that the imports already amounted to upwards of $600,000 per anniun; and in 1790 he, by the medium of a 30 THE FOUNDER OF PENANG Chinese, Che Kay, introduced the pepper culture from Achin into the island. In 1 791, what Captain Light had dreaded since the commencement of the settlement actually occurred, inasmuch as the jealousy of the Raja of Keddah became actual hostility. The Raja had found his revenues seriously diminished by the growing prosperity of Penang, whither all the trading prahus now resorted to, in place of Keddah as formerly ; and he incon- tinently demanded an additional income of $4000, to compensate him for his loss. Captain Light had no power to grant this demand, and was alarmed by finding that the Raja was making instantaneous preparations to seize the island. The Malay princeassembled a large force of about eight thousand men, and a fleet of twenty Lanoon (pirate) boats, and built a fort at the town of Pry e, opposite Penang, just two miles from George Town, the capital. This menace sufficed, and Captain Light, who had obtained reinforcements from Bengal, at once attacked the fort with four hundred well-armed men, having "very prudently determined not to wait for the attack, but to drive them away from the post they occupied." The successful capture of the fort WAR WITH KEDDAH 3 1 took place after a few hours' fighting on the 12th of Apnl; and he made another attack on the prahus assembled in the Prye river, on the i6thy destroying the majority of them and rendering the Raja's warlike preparations utterly abortive. The Raja now sued for peace, and desired to enter into a treaty, which was afterwards con- firmed by the Supreme Government. The treaty included the mutual extradition of slaves, debtors, and murderers, the exclusion of all other European nations from trading and settling in Keddah, provided for the importation of food stuffs to Penang, and last, but not least, provided that the Raja of Keddah should even- tually receive a grant annually of $10,000.^ Captain Light was duly pleased with the fortu- nate issue of his war, and he commemorated his victory over so large a force by naming his second son Francis Lanoon Light,^ who ' *• Short Account, etc., of Prince of Wales Island," by Sir George Loth, Bart. London, 1805. ' Francis Lanoon Light died at Penang, October 5, 1823 ; he married a Javanese lady, Charlotte Arboni, and hcd (with a daughter, Sara Martmah, married at Penang, June 39, 1835, to George Matthew Koeniti, of Ceylon, with issue) two sons : (i) William Light, and (2) Robert Rollo Li^^t^-a godson of Sir Robert RoHo Gillespie, one of the conquerors of Java. The latter was 32 THE FOUNDER OF PENANG afterwards became resident of Minto (Muntok) in Banka when the British held that island with Java and Sumatra. On the 24th of August, 1792, Captain Light announces in his despatch the discovery of tin on Bukit Timah in Penang, and also of a wild nutmeg, which he thought could be cultivated for the spice trade. And two years later, on the 25th of January, 1794, he pleaded that in the event of his death a civil assistant trained to the work might be his successor, and that " a regular form of administering justice is necessary both for the peace and welfare of the society and for the honour of the nation who have granted them protection ; it is likewise improper the Superintendent should have it in his power to exercise an arbitrary judgment upon persons and things ; whether this judgment is iniquitous or not, the mode is still arbitrary and disagree- able to society." In response to this appeal the Governor-General, Lord Teignmouth, trans- mitted certain regulations for the preservation of peace in the settlement, but no regular courts of justice were established imtil long father of Francis Light, now of Ayer Kuning, Perak, and of several daughters. DEATH OF FRANCIS LIGHT 33 after Captain Light's death, which was to occur very soon. At the commencement of the settlement the colonists were surprised by the absence of fever, but in 1787 the superintendent was struck down with a malarial attack. In 1794 he was seized by another malarial fever. He was able to dictate a will on the 20th of October, but succumbed on the following day, to the great grief of his friends and of the islanders. His will is interesting, as showing the care he took to arrange his affairs. To his relict, Martina Rozells, he left in life-rent " the Paddy field situated in Niboon Plain, and containing one hundred orlongs of land or thereabouts, together with the houses, plantations, imple- ments of husbandry, and forty buffaloes . . . the pepper gardens with my garden house, plantations, and all the land by me cleared in that part of the island called Suffolk, as also the pepper garden and plantation forming by Chee Hong in Orange Valley. ... I give and bequeath imto the said Martina Rozells my Bungalow in George Town. . . ," with remainder to their children ; and certain furniture without any limitation. His Malay bonds he wills to D 34 THE FOUNDER OF PENANG be delivered to his executors '' to be by them recovered, and the money given to Martina, but I request the debtors may not be distressed for pajmaent if their circumstances be low." He gave his Batta slaves the choice of freedom on pajmaent of fifty dollars; gave liberty to several, but " not Esan — ^she remains with Mar- tina ; " and remembered his English friends and executors, William Fairlie of Calcutta,* James Scott, and Thomas Pegou, with a " gold gurglet and bason," a " silver gurglet and bason," and a "watch" respectively. His eldest son, William Light, afterwards Colonel Light, the first Surveyor-General of South Australia and foimder of the city of Adelaide — of whom a memoir follows — ^he had already sent home to England, and had placed under the care of his old friend, George Doughty, Esq., High Sheriff of Suffolk, and he bequeathed to him all monies remitted to England, and in the event of his death, " I give and bequeath the money if it does not exceed two thousand pound sterling unto the said George Doughty and his heirs." The remainder of his estate * William Fairlie, the "prince of Indian merchants," who acted as guardian to his children at Calcutta. npainUdm India in Augusl, 1795.) To /ace page 34- HIS children's provisions 35 was to be divided equally among his children^ Sarah,^ William, Mary,^ Lanoon, and Lukey light.^ It is sad to find, two years later, that his estates are mentioned as ''running fast into jungle to the certain loss of his Heirs and the Company ; " and that his son-in-law. General Welsh, writes in 1818 that his children "have lived to see every inch of ground and even his houses alienated from them." Francis Light died without knowing how great a success the colony he founded was to become. In 1802 the total population was ^o,$io; in 1805 it was estimated at 14,000. ' Sarah Light was bom October, 1779. She married at Calcutta, December 28, 1794, General James Welsh of the Madras army, a distinguished officer, who died January 24, 186 1, having published his "Military Reminiscences " (2 vols.) in 183a She died at Waltair July 24, 1839, being described as " still lovely to the end." They had one son (who died unmarried) and six daughters. ' Mary Light (died at Boulogne in 1844) married at Calcutta, March g, 1805, George Boyd, Esq., of Katulee, and Pubna, Bengal, at one time a very wealthy indigo- planter, who died May 15, 1855, leaving issue (with two sons who died unmarried) seven daughters. W' ' Anne (Lukey) Light married, October, 1809, Charles Hunter, Esq., M.D., H.E.LC.S., who died, a member of the Calcutta Medical Board, May 6, 183 1. He was a son of David Hunter, of Bumside, N.B. 36 THE FOUNDER OF PENANG By the census of 1822 Penang (including Pro- vince Wellesley) contained 33,759 inhabitants, and in 1824 the numbers were increased — chiefly by the emigration from Keddah consequent on the Siamese invasion — to as many as 55,000, and it has steadily grown to the number (1891) of 235,618. Light himself had estimated that well watered and fertile as the island was with a good anchorage, and every opportunity of being a mercantile emporium, it would support as many as 50,000 souls. The name, " Prince of Wales Island," which Light bestowed upon the settlement, now exists only in official writings, having been again sup- planted by the old name, Penang, or Betelnut Island ; but the nomenclature of the different localities reminds one of his time ; George Town was named after the Prince of Wales ; Fort Comwallis after the^ Governor-General at the time of the establishment; and Suffolk, ''the most beautiful spot of this kmd in India," from the first superintendent's own native county. Francis Light was a worthy precursor of Sir Stamford Raffles, who foimded Singapore in 1819, on much the same lines as Penang. Colonel Low describes him as " a man of soimd HIS ADMIRABLE RULE 37 sense, probity, and judgment — active, practical, and moderate ; " and Mr. Skinner writes sym- pathetically, ** the whole tone of Captain Light's letters bears testimony to the singleness of purpose and administrative interest that cha- racterized this remarkable man, and it is a matter for deep regret that he was not spared longer to bring his labours to full fruition." We have seen the adroitness with which he negoti- ated, and how he withstood the designs of the Malay chiefs, and how careful he was of the welfare of his infant colony. He did not forget old friends, for we find him in November, 1786, sending'^to the people of Salang, where he had so long resided, and where he was known and loved, five hundred bags of rice, when they were dis- tressed by famine after expelling the Burmese. He guarded the interests of his colony carefully against the Dutch ; he kept Siam in good hmnour by presents of Maharatta horses to its king ; ^ and his one war against the Raja of Keddah was successful. We are told that he, " in many respects," assimilated himself to the '* dress, manners, and mode of living" of the Malay people, and was not unnaturally "extremely * J. Crawfiird's ** Embassy to Siam," 1822. 38 THE FOUNDER OF PENANG well liked" among them, so that it was no wonder that his fellow-settler, Robert Scott, could truthftilly place over his grave at St. George's Church (where he lies along with Captain James Scott, who did so much to assist in the establishment of the settlement, and his friend. Captain Glass) the following inscription below his name : — "in his capacity as governor, th£ settlers and natives were greatly attached to him, and by his death, had to deplore the loss of one who watched over their interests and ^ cares as a FATHER." THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE CHAPTER IV. Birth and early life of William Light — He enters the navy and then the army — Gallant deeds in the Peninsula — Battle of Vic Bigorre — Army career — Travels and first book — ^With the Spanish Constitu- tionalist forces in 1823. As it was the fortune of Francis Light to be the founder of Prince of Wales Island, so it was the fortune of William Light, his elder son, to be the founder of Adelaide, and one of the pioneers of the New Settlement of South Australia. William Light was bom in Malaya — ^possibly at Salang — about 1785,^ and was, as we have seen, the older of the two sons of Captain ^ The year of his birth is uncertain. It has been variously stated as 1785 and 1788. 42 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE Francis Light, the Governor of that Colony, and of Martina Rozells, the "Princess of Quedah " of the earlier writers, whose Portu- guese or Eastern descent has been, and still remains, so difficult a genealogical knot to un- ravel. As we already know, his father in fiis lifetime sent him home, and at a very early age entrusted him to the care of his old friend and neighbour, Mr, George Doughty, of Theberton Hall, Sheriff of Suffolk.* Ample funds were provided for his education, and before his father's estate was ruined by its unfortunate administration, he was possessed of a very con- siderable fortune. The Doughty family loyally carried out their trust. They educated young Light, and brought him up among them in the familiar Suffolk county, which had been his father's birthplace. He remained attached to them throughout his life, and in his last Antipodean abode in South Australia he called the house which he had himself built, " Theberton," to remind him of * Died August 21, 1798. His widow, Anne Goodwin, heiress of Martlesham Hall, survived until May 12, 1829. Their son was the Rev. George Clarke Doughty, lof Theberton Hall. COLONEL WILLIAM LlGl (Hflir thtfertr^t by Gto^e Jenti, in llu Ni ■aii Gali£ry, London.') To foci page 41. EARLY EDUCATION 43 their English home where he had been treated with so much kindness. He was carefully edu- cated among the Doughtjrs and their relatives the Montagus, and was early noticeable for his ability in languages, so that he became able to speak French and Spanish with like facility to English. He attained, also, rare skill in water- colour painting, and to great proficiency in drawing, and all these accomplishments were ultimately of the greatest use to hun in the varied vicissitudes of his career. We learn from another source that he had the additional attainments oi being an accomplished musician and mechanist, which shows us that his guar- dian's attention was by no means ill bestowed upon him. After he grew up to manhood, William Light is described by one who knew him well as ** of medium height, sallow com- plexion, alert and handsome, with face clean shaven excepting closely cut side whiskers, black curly hair, brown eyes, straight nose, small mouth, and shapely chin," and he became at an early age a person of some note in London as a rich East Indian, who wsis, it was believed, ''bom to the rights and inheritance of an Eastern prince/' It is easy to understand that 44 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE he was none the less notable socially when we see that one of his comrades ^ writes of the Court of Directors as having, "with that un- varying cupidity and oppression which has ever marked the East India Company's career, robbed his father of the Island " (of Penang) " by forcing him to cede it for money, and then defrauding him of the compensation," and we find also that he was taken notice of by the Prince Regent (subsequently King George IV.), after whom the island of Penang has been re-named by his father, and that he was occasionally his guest in the gay circle of Carlton House. It is very difficult indeed, owing to the de- struction of his memoirs, to trace Light's wander- ings in his early life ; he himself describes it as "a wandering life that precluded all advantages;" but we know that, like his father before him, he entered the navy, where he served with great distinction.' He returned at least once to the 1 Sir WUliam Napier. Vide <"4HvUy wvHUtded ; his horse appeared to canter \\^tt> f^KM^g the front of the enemy's light ^Vv^ ^^^l Ihoy tliinking him mortally hurt, ccoi^n^ V^^' flw And took no further notice. BATTLE OF VIC BIGORRE 49 He thus passed unobserved through the wood to the other side of the hill, where there were no skirmishers, and ascending to the open summit above, put spurs to his horse, galloping along the French main' line, and counting their raiments as he passed. His sudden appear- ance, his blue undress, his daring confidence and his speed, made the French doubt if he was an enemy, and a few shots only were dis- charged, while he, dashing down the opposite declivity, broke from the rear through the very skirmishers whose fire he had at first essayed in front, and reaching the spot where Wellington stood, told him there were but five battalions on the hill." Soult, after this, felt a retreat necessary, and the battle of Tarbes, which ensued, ended in his flight, the allied army losing only one hundred and twenty men. After the Peace, Light returned to England, and on the 2Sth of November, 1814,* obtained a ' I am indebted for this military information to the kindness of Captain H. R. Knight. Light was ap- pointed Brigade-Major to the Household Brigade by Lord Edward Somerset (vide Appendix), but it is said that at Dover he heard the news' of the battle of Waterloo. The 3rd Bnffs served in Canada in 1814-15. B 50 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE company in the 3rd Buffs (East Kent Regiment). He appears as captain half-pay in the Army List of 1815, and major half-pay on the 21st of June, 1817 ; but on the 20th of August, 1819,* he became a captain in the 13th (ist Somerset) Foot, and retired in 1821 from that regiment as captain and brevet major, when Sir George T. Napier writes, " It is a great pity he quitted the army, as he had highly distinguished himself, and was a great favourite with Lord Wellington, who had promoted him for his conduct He is a very clever fellow, and from his knowledge of languages and drawing, eta, etc., he soon brought himself into notice." He was now at leisure, and was for the first time able to engage in expensive travel and in his favourite artistic pursuits. In 1822 he was in Paris, then full of notabilities, and the poet Tom Moore writes of him as mixing in the literary and musical coterie of the ViUamils, and at their house meeting Princesse de Talleyrand (Mme. Grand), who was, like himself, bom in ' There is extant a statement which I have not been able to verify. Captain Light, it is said, was on board the Bellerophon when Napoleon was received as a prisoner, and it was by him that the demand for the surrender of the efiiperor's sword was made on behalf of Lord Keith. VIEWS OF SICILY SI the East Indies, and called by her husband "line Indienne bien belle,'* He travelled ex- tensively in Italy also, which was then the paradise of exiles — of Byron, Sielley, Leigh Hunt, Trelawney, and many less-known English- men, — ^and in Sicily as well, which was, notwith- standing Brydone's "Letters," an island very little known to the west of Europe. The next year Light published his " Sicilian Scenery," in which his water-colour sketches of Sicilian views were reproduced by P. de Wint The illustrations in the book are very well executed, and to each is appended a sufficient description in French and English, particularly mentioning the military posts of the British during their occupation of the island. He notices incidentally several of the Sicilian nobles, and praises in particular the Prince of Villa Dorata as being specially firiendly to the English nation. light did not, however, remain long away from military life. He joined in sympathy with the Spanish Liberals, and we find him in 1823 returning to Spain, this time embarking as colonel in the Spanish Constitutional Forces, under the leadership of General Sir Robert Wilson. 52 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE Sir Robert Wilson, a distinguished Peninsular officer, and M.P. for Southwark, had been one of those who had taken part in the escape of La Valette from the Bastille in 1816. In 1821 he incurred the hostility of the British Govern- ment by his friendly support of the unfortunate Queen Caroline, and his spirited conduct at her ill-fated funeral gave so much offence that he had without any appeal been dismissed from the army.^ He was a warm and enthusiastic supporter of the " Liberals " both at home and abroad, and it was natural therefore that when the Spanish Cortes, attacked by the French, who upheld the Spanish king in his endeavour to regain his absolute power, decreed the formation of a foreign legion of ten thousand men, into which all persons in Spain, or foreigners desirous to " defend the cause of lil^rty," might be drafted, that they should ofifer the position of lieutenant- general to Sir Robert Wilson. He accepted the post, and was to have power to appoint his own officers, who were to have retiring allow- ances as well as pensions for wounds. In justice to Sir Robert Wilson, one must quote the words ^ He was restored to his former military rank in 1 830, and died May 9, 1849. THE SPANISH CONSTITUTIONALISTS 53 of the Spanish Minister, Don ]os6 Calatrava, the arranger of the terms, who said, in November, 1825, that " the fault did not rest With Sir Robert, but arose out of insuperable obstacles which afterwards occurred," which prevented the terms of the bargain being carried out as originally arranged with the Constitutional Cortes.^ The whole Constitutional movement was in every way improperly organized, and looking back on Wilson's attempt to bring a foreign legion to the assistance of the Liberals when unsupported by the English Government and sympathy, we see that it was sentimental and quixotic, and that it did not increase his reputa- tion for political sagacity. Nevertheless, the "contract" which he made with the Cortes to do so was eventually of some good, for it became the model of that drawn up in England with Sir George de Lacy Evans for the support, twelve years later, of Queen Isabella II. against the Carlists. Sir Robert Wilson took Major Light, whom he styles "a most distinguished officer and excellent gentleman," with him as aide-de-camp, appointing him to the rank of colonel; and » Walton's «• Revolutions in Spain," 1837. STTCE OF CORUNNA 55 English sympathizers, to asast ' — tDrxinna, which held a garrison constitutionalists, consisting of '*^redmen. Of those, only eight ' 'la-rs, and the rest Guipuscoan -^J^tATiteers; and their exertions '-^picuously usefuL Although ^* tilunteera arrived, as had been J'-x^g^land, they did what they ^•sugthened the heights above 10.— -vorks, to afford protection *--^c>runiia was attacked on the -' *-tx of July by the Fimch, who ^''ej-tiinaiid VII. in his abioga- *" ' tuition, and to whom Madrid •^ri the 14th of May, under -^Vf ter some sharp fighting and ' "— Trench forced the Spaniards ' ' '^ the walls of the town, both ' "' '~*- and Colonel Light being ■-•Icmel Zorva, the commander *^ilitia, killed. An eye-witness ^ rjgagement : — ' "^?'»egenlleniaii, a nadvo of Glasgow, Robert Wibon. Vigo, Augnst 54 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE among his other officers were Captain Erskine, a grandson of Lord Erskine, and Lieutenant Eliot They arrived at Vigo, in Spain, on the ist of May, with some French and German auxiliaries, and were received with great enthusiasm. The next day they attended Mass in the Church of San Francisco for the souls of those who had been massacred at Cadiz, and on the 6th were regularly admitted as Spanish soldiers. On the 8th of May they set off for Corunna, where they were received with joy. Sir Robert Wilson next made an expedition into Portugal from Galicia, to rouse the *' Friends of Liberty " there, and in the expectation of being offered the command of a force ; but upon the fall of the Constitution in Portugal, he left Oporto, intending to withdraw to Spain, but was seized and imprisoned at Braga. On their release on the 8th of June, he and his officers returned to Oporto, but there also "he was treated with considerable rigour.'' On his return to Galicia in June, he, with his usual verbosity, issued an address of regret to the Portuguese nation. Along with the Spanish General Quiroga, the English allies now hastened, with a contribution of a thousand stand of arms and fifty-three barrels THE DEFENCE OF CORUNNA 5$ of powder sent by English sympathizers, to assist in the defence of Corunna, which held a garrison favourable to the Constitutionalists, consisting of about eighteen hundred men. Of those, only eight hundred were regulars, and the rest Guipuscoan and Navarrese Volunteers ; and their exertions proved most conspicuously useful. Altiiough no more efficient volunteers arrived, as had been expected, from England, they did what they could, and they strengthened the heights above the town with field-works, to a£ford protection to the garrison. Corunna was attacked on the morning of the isth of July by the French, who were supporting Ferdinand VII. in his abroga- tion of the Constitution, and to whom Madrid had surrendered on the 24th of May, under General Bourck. After some sharp fighting and a partial repulse, the French forced the Spaniards to withdraw within the walls of the town, both Sir Robert Wilson and Colonel Light being wounded, and Colonel Zorva, the commander of the Guipuscoa Militia, killed. An eye-witness thus describes the engagement : — ^ * Letter from a young gentleman, a native of Glasgow, who accompanied Sir Robert Wilson. Vigo^ August d> lS^3 (M(tming Chronicle), 56 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE ^' Captain Mathers and I were just sat down to dinner after seeing him (Lieutenant Wilkmson) set out " (for Ireland to raise men for the foreign l^on), "when we were roused by a fire of musketry outside of the town. I caught hold of a sword which was in the house, and went out with the intention of informing Sir Robert ; but I met him galloping to the field, whence I followed him. He was the first general officer in the field of action. G^eral Quiroga and the Governor soon followed. Mathers and I placed ourselves at the head of the foreign legion, which was just marching on the field when we got there. The following are the regiments belonging to the enemy before Corunna : — Infantry. Cavalry. 7th Legion. I St Regiment Hussars. 15th Infantry. ist Legion Dragoons. 22nd „ 37th „ Artillery. 38th „ 8 Pieces of light calibre. In all, 4000-5000 men. " They in the first place attacked the outposts, drove them in, and then attempted to gain possession of the heights, which they did after COLONEL LIGHT WOUNDED 57 a severe conflict, well maintained by the Spaniards. The enemy was four times our number, so it was impossible to keep our ground. The Corunna volunteers fought well. The enemy lost seven hundred men killed and wounded. Among ours killed was a Spanish officer, a brave man. Colonel Light, who came from England with Sir Robert Wilson, was commanding the advanced troop of the Spaniards, encouraging them by his brave conduct, but at length was obliged to re- treat, and when endeavouring to get his horse through the gates, a musket-ball went through his right thigh; he fell just at my side. I carried him off the field to the consul's house, where I got a surgeon for him. I was just returning back to the field, when I met them carrying Sir Robert Wilson off also; he was wounded in the left thigh. He shut the gates against the enemy himself, The inhabitants were in a deplorable state about .him, crying, *0h! the Angel, the Angel, our saviour is killed.' He, however, was shouting, *Viva la Libertal' His wound is not half so bad as Colonel Light's. The latter has been in forty- five actions before, and never was wounded till 58 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE now. . • • Sir Robert embarked for Vigo on the 2ist He requested I would go along with him. . . • We could not take poor Light — ^he was so ill with his wound. I was very sorry to leave him behind ; he has been my friend and companion since the first moment I saw him ; he is a gentleman, a brave soldier, and a man of learning." Sir Robert Wilson writes also:^ "Colonel Lite (sic)^ after displaying that exemplary zeal and courage which has distinguished him on every occasion, was wounded with a musket- ball, which passed through the right thigh without injuring the bone, but I trust he will do well." After this defeat, the town of Corunna, i»:essed by the growing scarcity of provisions, capitulated on the 1 2th of August, and was surrendered by Don Francisco Novella to Count Bourck, in spite of the popular antipathy to the French. The defence of Vigo had become utterly abortive, and Sir Robert Wilson retired thence to Cadiz by sea — for which act he was much criticised;' and the victorious French army ^ Bulletin, July i6, 1823. British Museum Additional MSS., 30, 137. ' A very clever satirical poem, *^The Modem Quixote," RETURN TO ENGLAND 59 restored the absolute power of King Ferdinand throughout the whole of Galicia. Colonel Light lay seriously ill of his wound, shunned by the Spaniards, terrorized by the Government, but protected by the French General Tissot, until permitted by his conquerors to go for his health to the Baths of Artiexo at the end of September. Later he returned, still an invaUd, to Corunna, and through the timely assistance of his old friend and guardian, Mrs. Doughty, of Theberton Hall, he was able to obtain leave to return to England, and arrived at Plymouth in the schooner Liberty on the 20th of November, 1823. He still spoke to his somewhat indiscreet interviewers with fervour about the "cause of liberty" in Spain, but felt the failure of the expedition in which he had taken part deeply, and alluded to his life in a private letter to Miss Bemiet as "an existence that had long been accustomed to naught but adversity." giving a hnmorous account of the campaign of Wilson and his companions in Spain and Portugal, appeared in the New Times. It ends — "And 'twill recorded be in story, That brave Sir Robert sailed to Spain And valiantly sailed home again." 60 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE CHAPTER V. Miss Mary Bennet — Marriage — ^A beautiful wife — ^Travek in Italy and the east of Europe — Views of Pompeii — Genoa, Sardinia, and Egypt — Service in the Egyptian navy under Mehemet Ali — Captain Hind- marsh. In 1824 Colonel Light met in the studio of Miss Jones the miniature painter, fell in love with, and after a passionate courtship, which he compares to that of Lucinda and Cardenio, married late in the same year, on the i6th of October, a very beautiful girl. Miss Mary Bennet. She was the daughter of Charles, third Duke of Richmond, Lennox, and Aubigny, who had died in 1806; and although in the duke's obituary notice in the Gentlematis Magazine it was stated that " the story of a second marriage said to have been disclosed rests on no solid foundation," yet to Mrs. Bennet and her three daughters by him he had left by his will not MISS BENNET 6l only the estate of EarPs Court, but also a large fortune. Miss Bennet was in this way a considerable heiress. She was brought up mainly by her aunts, Lady Louisa Conolly^ and her sister. Lady Sarah Napier — whose beauty in early life, as Lady Sarah Lennox, had attracted King George IIL, and who in old age awoke the admiration of Colonel Light — and she was much with Lady Sarah's sons, the "Heroic Napiers," and with her daughter. Miss Emily Napier, afterwards Lady Bunbury. This friend- ship was drawn closer when, in 1823, her own sister, the beautiful Caroline Bennet, married her cousin. Captain Henry Edward Napier, R.N., the historian of Florence.'' Captain Light addressed to his bride the lines — ^ * Lady Louisa Conolly and Lady Sarah Napier were daughters of Charles, second Duke of Richmond. The former died in 182 1, and Lady Sarah in August, 1826. ' Caroline Bennet is described as "a lady whose extraordinary beauty attracted the admiration of any circle she entered at home or abroad" ("Life of Sir C. J. Napier"). She died at the Villa Capponi, Florence, September 5, 1836, leaving two sons and one daughter. ' MS. at the Villa I. Cedri. Light had previously 62 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE ** ypu say you want not fortune's toys, My angel Mary, nor do I. Content with Love and you, our joys Shall smoothly glide nor hear one sigh. With thee, dear girl, my lot's complete ; I'm favoured yet in fate's despite. Thus bless'd, each changing season meet With grateful smiles of soft delight Yes, my sweet life, in some wild place A cot we'll find ; the shady grove Shall gently waver on with grace In tasteful harmony of Love. And Mary then shall deck my bower With roses fresh and heart's-ease sweet ; Nor lowering tempest nor the falling shower Can e'er make dull our dear retreat." Mrs. Light was a noted beauty. The poet Moore mentions her in his diary as one of Lord Lansdowne's guests of the Bowood set, and again later as "one of my fair Shuttlecock friends; '' and she became in later life a friend of many of the band of literary "forestieri" at Florence, of whom, to mention but a few, were the artist Se3rmour Kirkup, the poet Walter Savage Landor, and Charles Lever the novelist The first two years of married life they spent in France, Switzerland, and Italy, principally written to Miss Bennet explaining to her the smallness of his fortune, which, owing to the decreasing value of his Penang estates, had much deteriorated. His mother had died in 1822. VIEWS OF POMPEII 63 at Rome, where they were greatly fSted, and at Naples and its neighbourhood, and during these years Colonel Light occupied himself with the completion of a series of careful drawings of Pompeii, which, under the title of "Views of Pompeii,"* was publi^ed in 1827-8, with fine folio plates drawn on stone by J, D. Hard- ing and other artists from his original sketches. After the publication of this first fruit of his travels. Colonel Light returned to England, and, aided by his wife's fortune, bought a yacht — a cutter of forty-eight tons — from a Mr. Tufnell, joined the Royal Yacht Club, and with his wife went an adventurous cruise in his new vessel in the Mediterranean. They continued a wandering life for many years, and their journeys included visits to most of the French and Italian coast towns, the islands of Sardinia and Malta, the coasts of Greece and Turkey, and the country of Egjrpt. We are now only able to follow these wanderings at all through Mrs. Light's MS. Journals, and these give a vivid picture of the times, and abound with names of interest. ^ Favourably reviewed in the Gmtlemafis Magazine of i8a8. A 64 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE In Italy, Siena, where Mrs. Henry Napier inhabited the Casa Barbieri, and Genoa, where Mrs. Bennet and Sir Henry Bunbury and his first wife then Uved, were their chief head- quarters on land. Mrs. Light writes in 1827, " I passed a very pleasant winter at Genoa.^ . . . the society there is much too divided to be agreeable. Of English there are few except merchants and their "families. The Genoese nobles will not associate with the Piedmontese, and the Swiss form a coterie among themselves which few would wish to enter. All these different nations meet at the Governor's Ball once a week, where they each have their separate comers or sides of the room." Espi- onage prevailed, and was encouraged by the Sardinian Government, and the Lights fell under suspicion for attending a "Turkish Breakfast" given by Lady Dudley Stuart, daughter of Lucien Bonaparte, which, a tri- colour ribbon having been used as a decoration, was denounced to the King of Sardinia as a Carbonaro meeting. ' Colonel Light made drawings for, and intended to publish, another series of sketches, entitled " Views of Genoa.". SOCIETY IN ITALY 6$ In Italy they saw much of the survivors of the Byron-Shelley clique. Miss Curran (who painted Shelley's likeness), the Blessingtons, a^d Captain Roberts,^ who, at Genoa, " was in his little schooner, the Flora Diana^ which had belonged to Lord Byron, and was, when in his possession, called the Bolivar^* were among their friends, and with the last Colonel Light made many voyages. Mrs. Light describes later a meeting at the Viceroy's ball at Cagliari, on the 5th of May, 1829, between them and the Prince of Carignano — afterwards "il Re Tenteima" of Sardinia. "We were presented to the prince," she writes, "who took quite a fancy to my husband, and talked to him almost the whole evening, scarcely saying a word to any one else. He spoke principally of the political state of the country, which he said was very bad, and which he seemed to imply he ^ Captain Roberts, the friend of E. J. Trelawney and so of 'Bjrron and SheUey, the fonner of whose boat he built. Mrs. Light, in her Journal, writes in April, 1828 : **Lerici. It was here that poor Percy Bysshe Shelley was residing with his wife when he was unfortunately drowned off Viareggia It is supposed that his little craft, which I afterwards saw at Leghorn, was run down in the night by another vesseL** P 66 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE would correct whenever he came to the throne. He said there were many abuses which wanted correcting. He is now seated" (as King Charles Albert) " on the Sardinian throne, but I do not hear of his having executed any of his good projects. The Island of Sardinia is to the rest of the kingdom like poor Ireland to Great Britain." In 1830 we find Colonel Light and his wife in Egypt,^ which was then at a curious traditional stage under the awakening rule of Mehemet Ali Pasha. From the Pasha, with whom they be- came acquainted, they obtained a Firman, con- taining "something more than the ordinary," and Mrs. Light, armed with it, entered deeply into the study of Egyptology, becoming a friend and keen correspondent of Sir John Gardner Wilkinson. Excavating as they went, Colonel Light and his wife travelled all through Egjrpt, remaining for some time at Thebes, and then continued their journey into the little explored country of Nubia, as far as the Second Cataract. ^ Colonel Light must not be confused (as is not uncommon) with Sir Henry Light, author of ** Travels in Egypt" (1818), and afterwards Governor of British Guiana, nor with A. W. Light, Lieut.-Colonel 25th Regiment of Foot, July i, 181 3. MEHEMET ALI 67 Mehemet Ali was at this time straining every nerve to increase his power on the sea, and to improve his navy, then manned chiefly by fugitive Frenchmen, under M. de Besson, the vice-admiral, who was " said to have projected a plan for the escape of Bonaparte from St Helena," and Cerisy Bey, the naval architect. Mrs. Light enters in her Journal, on the 3rd of December, 1830, " The dockyard (of Alexandria) has only been built within these last two years, and is very spacious. On the stocks are three three-deckers to be called Alexandria^ Mahomed Ali^ and Ibrahim, There is also a seventy-four, and a small corvette, and as soon as they are launched,others will be commanded immediately. In short, Mahomet Ali, nothing daunted by his defeat at Navarino, is determined to have a fleet. He offers the command of his ships to any officers who have served in the English navy. One of them, a very fine frigate (the Kaffir es Sheikh)^ was built at Archangel, and was brought to Alexandria (by Mr. Prissick), a master in the English navy, who now commands her with a handsome salary. His first-lieutenant is like- wise an Englishman, but there is a strong French party, who do all in their power to 68 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE oppose the English." The Lights grew friendly with the Pasha, and the Journal records several conversations with him — for example: "On leaving Cairo, we stopped at Shoubra to pay a visit to His Highness, who was staying there. He received us in one of the arbours in the garden, and was seated in an armchair. Two were placed for us before him. The conversa- tion turned chiefly upon his navy, about which he was in great spirits, having just launched his first line-of-battle ships, the MehaJet el Kebir^ the news of which had reached him by tel^raph twenty-five minutes after the event had taken place. He gave us a long accoimt of different parts of the ship, and amused himself by com- pletely puzzling his Dragoman Etienne Abro with the sea-terms. He told us that he had planted a vast tract of ground with timber-trees, which were thriving very well, and that in thirty years he expected to build all his ships with his own timber. He talked as confidently as if he was sure of living till then. When we were * <'A fine round-stemed two-decker, canyiDg one hundred guns, all thirty-two pounders. Perhaps the best-regulated ship in the Egyptian navy" (''Rambles in Egypt and Candia," C. Rochfort Scott, 1837). THE EGYPTIAN SERVICE 69 with him, some very good wax candles were brought to him as a specimen of the first made in Egypt." And again on the i8th of June, 1 83 1, "Soon after our return from Cairo the Pasha himself arrived, and did us the honour to visit us on board our little craft, and he said that it was not out of mere curiosity, but that he wished to return our visit. He was, as usual, in great good humour, laughing at every- thing. . . . He examined closely every part of the vessel, and when he went forward he made an inclination of the head to our sailors, with which they were much gratified. He remained more than half an hour, and was greatly sur- prised to find so much accommodation in so small a vesseL When he returned to the palace, he scolded all his great Turks for not having been to call upon us, and said they sat smoking their pipes and doing nothing all day. Consequently, the next day we had visits from Osman Bey, Moutouch Bey, and M. Boghos . . ." The result of this friendship was an offer from the Pasha joyfully to admit Colonel Light into his navy and to give him command of one of his line-of-battle ships. The desire of the Pasha 70 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE for English auxiliaries was so great, however, that Light, before the Syrian campaign began, sailed for England on the 7th of August, 1831,^ in his own vessel, entrusted by the Pasha with a mission *' to bring out about seventy officers from an admiral, if he can get one, down to a boatswain."* This mission was originally arranged and intended to last three months only, but it was afterwards prolonged, and even after its completion, Light remained abroad until 1835. It is difficult to ennimierate the names of those whom Light was able to re- cruit, but in the Egyptian service at the time, beside Captain Prissick and the engineer, Galloway Bay, his name is now chiefly associ- ated with that of his friend Captain John Hind- marsh, R.N. The last was the gallant naval officer, distinguished imder Lord Howe, and imder Lord Cochrane, in many battles, and by the particular notice of Lord Nelson, whose thanks for his conduct at the Battle of the Nile ^ His wife during his absence continued her researches in Egypt, and along with Colonel and Mrs. Hughes, Captain H. A. Bowen, Baron de Hiigel and M. Polydore Rous, proceeded to Thebes a second time. An interest- ing Journal of her travels and discoveries still exists. * United Sendee Journal^ 1832, part ii. CAPTAIN HINDMARSH 7 1 will always be remembered. Besides their service in Egypt, with Hindmarsh Colonel Light's future career in South Australia became most closely connected, although unfortunately not always for peace. 72 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE CHAPTER VI. Foundation of South Australia — Light made first Sur- veyor-General — Voyage to South Australia-^Kan- garoo Island ^ Preliminary explorations — The Aborigines. In 183s, his Egyptian mission having been some time finished, a new career opened for Colonel Light by the completion of the nego- tiations for the foundation of the New Colony of South Australia. This colony was founded according to the scheme of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, and was intended to be a self-supporting free colony. Edward Gibbon Wakefield advocated the prin- ciple of ** the universal sale of land instead of land grants, and the exclusive employment of the piurchasers* moneys to promote emigration," as against the system of free grants and the low price of Crown lands in the other British colo- nies. After Captain Sturfs explorations in THE WAKEFIELD SYSTEM 73 New South Wales had drawn the eyes of Britain to Australia, a number of men of mark banded themselves together in 1830 into a Colonization Society to found a new and free colony on the lines of Mr. Wakefield's scheme in South Australia, the coasts of which, discovered by Captain blinders, in 1802, alone were known to the world, and they only to sealers and whaling crews. No free grants of land were to be made. The land was to be sold at not less than twelve shillings and not more than twenty shillings per acre, and the money so acquired was to form an emigration fund for qualified mechanics and husbandmen and their families. The colony was to bear its own expenses, and to have the principal management of its affairs. Mr. Robert Gouger, who had served with the Constitu- tionalists of Spain in 1830, was made secretary. He had been an ardent partisan of Wakefield's, and in 1829 had edited the " Letter from Sydney," which acted as a spur to the enthusiasm of the supporters. The Colonization Scheme simmered until after 1831, when, a South Australian Company having been formed, Mr. Wakefield and Major Bacon obtained the co-operation of Colonel 74 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE Torrens as Parliamentary Advocate, who drafted a Charter and laid it before Lord Goderich, Secretary of State for the Colonies ; but by him it was rejected, as too comprehensive, in 1832, Another attempt was rebuffed by his successor, Mr. E. G. Stanley, in 1833. In Mr. Spring Rice, however, the association found another supporter in Parliament, and " a Bill to erect South Australia into a British Province " (4 & 5 Will. IV. cap. 95), " and to provide for the colonization and government thereof," by the support of Lord Howick, Lord Stanley, Mr. Shaw Lefebre in the House of Commons, and by the strenuous advocacy of the Duke of Wellington in the Lords, was passed, receiving the Royal Assent on the isth of August, 1834. The Act empowered the Crown to establish provinces in South Australian terri- tory : to nominate legislators, commissioners who should survey and sell lands " at no time for a lower price than twelve shillings per acre " (the land feud constituting an emigration fund), and to appoint a Resident Commissioner in the province. Various other provisions were made, and a special clause forbade the transportation of convicts to the territory, this differentiating it THE FIRST COMMISSIONERS 7$ from the other existing colonies of the South, No expense was to fall on the Mother Country, which had power to establish Local Government constitutions after a certain population was attained, and the powers of the Conunissioners were not to become effective until land to the value of ;^3S,ooo had been disposed off, and a loan of ;^2o,ooo had been negotiated. The first Board of Commissioners was com- posed of J. W. Childers, M.P., W. Clay, M.P., George Grote, M.P. (the historian), G. W. Norman, Colonel Torrens, M.P., and W. W. Whitmore, M.P., Mr. Rowland Hill being secretary; but on the 5th of May, as these had resigned. Lord Glenelg, as Secretary of State for the Colonies, gazetted the following as Colonial Commissioners: G. F. Angas, E. Barnard, W. Hutt, John Shaw Lefebre, W. A. Mackinnon, M.P., S. Mills, Jacob Montefiore, G. Palmer, jim., J. Wright, Colonel Torrens (chairman), and Rowland Hill (secretary). The latter afterwards became famous as Sir Rowland Hill, the inventor of the Penny Postage system. The enormous difficulty of obtaining sufficient sale of the amount of land required by the Act, was obviated by the ability of Mr. George Fife ^6 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE AngaSy one of the Colonization Commissioners, who at this juncture formed (by the 15th of October, 1835) the South Australian Company, which fulfilled the requirements of the Act in regard to the sale of land, and raised the stipu- lated loan of ;^2o,ooo, and the foundation of the colony was rendered certain. The first Governor proposed was (Sr) Charles James Napier, the future conqueror of Scinde, but he declined the appointment on the refusal of the Government to allow him to have a body of troops under his command. He wrote, how- ever, to Robert Gouger, the first Colonial Secre- tary, afterwards, to try to secure the appointment for his friend in the following letter : — *< Portsmouth, May 29 (1835). " Dear Sir, "As I wish the colony success, and that others take a different view of it from mine, I advise you to try and get Colonel Light ap- pointed Governor. Whether he would accept it or not I cannot say, but his great accomplish- ments, and his character being so generally known, not only for his distinguished services in the Peninsula under the Duke of Wellington, SIR CHARLES NAPIER yy but also in Spain] at the time Sir Robert Wilson was there, would give an iclat to the appoint- ment which might be useful to the colony, and at the same time secure an able man for the Work. As Light's friend I would not advise him to take the post, for the reasons which make me decline it myself. As far as you are personally concerned, you would find him all you could wish. " Hoping that you may not be disappointed in your own claims, which I think too strong to be rejected, " Believe me truly, "C. Napier." Mr. Gouger was forced to answer, on the 4th of June, that the appointment of Governor of South Australia had already, unfortunately, been promised by Lord Glenelg to Light's Egyptian confrere^ Captain Hindmarsh, whom in his own diary he calls a *' jovial, hearty, and energetic man," and he was in due course ap- pointed, with the small salary of ;;£8oo per annimi, and an allowance of ;^5oo for outfit. Colonel Light, however, though still out of England, was made, instead, Surveyor-General, 78 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE with the equally small salary of ;f 400, and his appointment was gazetted on the 4th of February, 1836. He was at the time abroad, and in in- different health, and owed his appointment chiefly to the recommendation of the Duke of Welling- ton, with the support of Colonel Napier, which, as we have seen, was very real, as well as to his friendship with the new Governor. His staff, which he did not himself select, consisted of the Deputy-Surveyor, Mr. (afterwards Sir) Geoige Strickland Kingston; the Assistant-Surveyors, Mr. Boyle Travers Finniss, Mr. W. Jacob, Mr. Neale, Mr. W. Claughton, and Mr. W. S. J. (afterwards Vice-Admiral) Pullen;^ and three junior Assistant-Surveyors, Mr. R. G. Symonds, Mr. John Cameron, and Mr. Alfred Hardy. The other chief officers of the colony were Mr. James Hurtle Fisher, Resident Commissioner and Registrar; Mr. Robert Gouger, Colonial Secretary ; Sir J. W. Jeffcott, Judge; Mr. Charles Mann, the Advocate-General ; Captain Lipson, R. N., Harbour-master ; and Mr. Osmond Gilles, Colonial Treasurer. ^ Vice-Admiral Pullen may be considered the dis- coverer of Port Adelaide. He was afterwards distinguished as an Arctic explorer, and died in 1887. DEPARTURE FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA 79 The officials were, after some delay, de- spatched to the new colony. Colonel Light, on his recovery from illness, took his departure in the Rapid as chief of the expedition. The Deputy-Surveyor preceded him in the Cygnet^ which sailed on the 24th of March, 1836, under his orders also. The Governor fol- lowed in the Buffalo^ and Mr. Gouger in the Africaine, Colonel Light, as an experienced seaman and navigator, undertook the onerous duties of sailing-master of his vessel, and with him the crew therefore signed articles. His ship, the Rapidy a brig of a himdred and sixty-two tons, had been purchased by the Government for the purpose of conveying the surveying stafif to South Australia, and both that vessel and the Cygnet were fully equipped, so that they might, if necessary, act independently. They were each furnished with one year's provisions, and Colonel Light was directed to see that each was supplied with a boat fitted for the coast explora- tions, and also a tent on a light carriage to be used in expeditions overland. Proper surveying instruments, tents, arms, and ammunition were also to be provided for the survey. In the 80 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE Cygnet (239 tons) sailed Mr. Kingston, the Deputy-Surveyor, in command ; Captain Lipson, Harbour-master; Messrs. Finniss, O'Brien Neale, Hardy, and Cannan, Assistant-Surveyors; Dr. Wright as Surgeon, and Mr. Gilbert Store- keeper, and a few passengers. The Rapid carried the chief of the party. Colonel light; Messrs. Field, Pullen, and Hill as first, second, and third officers ; Messrs. Jacob and Symonds as Assistant-Surveyors, and Mr. John Woodford as Surgeon. Colonel Light was also advised that there should be among the members of the expedition competent botanists, and experts in agriculture and mineralogy, as well as one who might act as interpreter with the Australian natives. The Rapid, thus equipped, left England on the ist of May, 1836,^ but, owing to the violence of * Colonel Light was not accompanied to South Australia, as he had been to Egypt, by his wife. She lived subsequently at Florence, where her mother purchased the beautiful Villa Corsi (L^Cedri). After her first husband's death, she remarried at the British Embassy, Florence, October 7, 1841, Alfred Lambert, Esq., sometime secretary to the Grand Duke of Tuscany (and by him had a son and two daughters ; one, Augusta Mary Lambert, the wife of Sir Charles Mark Palmer, Bart.}. She died at the Villa Corsi, aged ::3 KANGAROO ISLAND 8 1 [j|ihe weather, did not leave the Nore until the i^ijBemoon of May 4th. The voyage occupied ^""Huee months, and the Rapid arrived on the 19th of August at Ante-Chamher Bay, and on the 90th of August, 1836, atNepean Bay, Kangaroo Island, whither she had heen preceded, through Ae incredihly foolish management of the South Australian Company, hy three ships, the Duke of Ybrkj the Zady Mary Pelham^ and the yohn Pirie^ which had landed there their ninety- seven passengers. Two or three gardeners were landed on the island to cultivate the piece of sevoity-five, December 20, 1879, having had three children by her first marriage. (i) Albert Charles Hugo Light, Lieut. R.A., bom at Aix in Provence, February 26, 1833 ; died at Valetta, Malta, March 5, 1859. (2) Hugo Shelley Light, Major 68th Light Infantry, born at Villa Mojon, Genoa, May 11, 1834. He was in the Crimean, Burmese, and Maori wars, and received the Sebastopol, Alma (1854-55), and N. Z. medals. He died at London, August 6, 1893, having married in 1886 Miss Margaret L. Bailey, of Washington, U.S.A., by whom he left a daughter, Florence Adela Eva Light. (3) Bianca Mary Light, bom at the Casino Feroni, Florence, September 22, 1835. She was author ( " Vera ") of " Under the Red Cross" (1871), an account of her experiences as nurse during the Franco-German war, of *' Our American Cousins " (1873), and died at Florence, May 10, 1892. 82 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE land to produce vegetables for tbe setdeis, and all provisions and stares not necessaiy for tbe survey were disembarked tbereaxxl placed under the charge of Mr. Gilbert, the Storekeeper, with a force of men to guard them. The wives of the colonists and the children were also left there while the surye3rs weie proceeding. It proved in the sequel most unfortunate that settlers should have been sent out to the colony without giving the surveying staff sufficient time for even a scanty survey of the land, as well as to fix a judicious site for the capitaL Kangaroo Island was found to be of little value. It was already inhabited by a number of whalers with some black Gins, whom they had carried off from the neighboiuing mainland, and a few escaped convicts. They were mostly ^* intelligent, quiet men, having spots of land under cultivation; growing a little wheat, with potatoes, turnips, and other vegetables for their own consumption," and Colonel Light inune- diately offered them work connected with the explorations. The settlers all were delighted at an opportunity of again entering into his relations of civilized life, and one of the whalers, one William Cooper, with his Tasmanian THE INSTRUCTIONS 83 native wife " Sal," and his two daughters named " Dumpling " and " Dough-boy," proved of great assistance to Colonel Light by acting as inter- preters with the aborigines of the country. It did not, therefore, take long to convince Colonel Light that Kangaroo Island was a place only valuable on account of the anchorage in one part of Nepean Bay, which is surrounded with fertile soil. Accordingly, after a thorough examination of the island, he left with his staff for Holdfast Bay, to tiy and find a site for the future capital of the cotmtry, according to the instructions he had received on leaving England, before he should be embarrassed by the addition of any other emigrant ships which might arrive. It may be as well to give a digest of these instructions regarding the choice of the capital, which gave rise to so much dissension in the early days of the colony, and embittered so painfully the lives of the earlier officials, and eventually proved the means of showing Light's magnificent self-reliance. After having landed the settlers at Kangaroo Island, Colonel Light was instructed to proceed to examine the coast of the mainland, except where the previous charts of Captain Flinders 84 THE FOUNDSR OF ADELAIDE showed that no safe haibouis existed. His attention was specially directed to Nepean Bay and Port Lincoln, and the coast-line from Encounter Bay to the north of Gulf St. Vincent When he had complied with these and some more local instructions, the letter directs : " You will proceed to determine which of the several sites shall be selected as that of the first town, a duty which you are hereby fully authorized and rci]uircd to discharge," even with the option of changing it, should circumstances justify so stn>ng a measure. In the event of the Gover- nor's arrival before the site was finally fixed, the Surveyor-General was to confer with him; )>ut notwithstanding this conference, the whole rcsiK>nsibility for the choice was to be with the Surveyor-General alone. The Commis- sioners pointed out the desirability of a site combining a harbour, safe at all seasons of the year, fertile land, fresh water, the neighbourhood of extensive sheep-walks, and other natural advantages, and further directed him to lay out the town with regard to " convenience, beauty, aiul salubrity." Further instructions regarding th0 surveying of the surrounding district, reser- vati<.>tt of public parks, roads, squares, and FIRST VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY 85 quays, were combined with the more vital pro- visions. The Surveyor-General, as chief of the expedition, was cautioned to prevent any collision with the natives, to regard the wild animals as their property, to purchase what might be needed for food, to discourage sport- ing as much as possible, and in inhabited districts to prevent it altogether.^ Colonel Light left Nepean Bay on his voyage of discovery on the 23rd of September. He sailed first to a bay which he named " Rapid Bay," and up the St. Vincent's Gulf, examining each inlet he came to, seeking for a fine harbour which appeared in Captain Jones's description of the coast, the search for which misled him considerably. His Journal is extant,^ and gives a detailed accoimt of his explorations along the shores. On the 30th of September he writes, "I was anxious to examine the creek to the eastward in a line with Mount Lofty. Into this I bent my course with the strong hope of finding it prove the mouth of some fresh-water stream * Parliamentary Report, ' " Brief Journal of the Proceedings of William Light, late Surveyor-General of the Province of South Australia,'' 1839 ; a rare book. 86 THE POUNDER OF ADELAIDE from the mountains. On the rise of the tide I returned to the hatch-boat, which, being now afloat, we got under way, and havii^ now fidly persuaded myself that no part of the harbour could be that described by Captain Jones,* I resolved, on returning to the brig, to run again down the coast and see if by any chance we could have missed so desirable a shelter." So he left what ultimately became Port Adelaide, for the time, but later returned to it On the ist of October he reports, " Running down the south coast (I) was enchanted with the extent of the plain to the north (? west) of Mount Lofty. All the glasses of the ship were in requisition. At length, seeing something like the mouth of a small river (Glenelg Creek) and a country with trees so dispersed as to allow the sight of most luxuriant green underneath, stood in, and anchored in three and a half fathoms, in mud and sea-weeds, about one and a half miles from the mouth of the river." He landed a gardener named Laws to examine the soil, and was satis- fied with his report, " he being a good judge." On the next day (October 4) he writes, " I cannot express my delight at seeing no bounds to a flat of fine country, with abundance of PRELIMINARY EXPLORATIONS 87 fresh-water lagoons, which, if dry in summer, convinced me that we need not dig a deep well to gain a sufficient supply. The little river, too, was deep." On the nth he resolved to go into Rapid Bay, and sent the brig to Kangaroo Island, where the Cygnet had now arrived, to fetch the assistant-surveyors. On the 2nd of November his Journal continues, " Divided the surveying party into two, Mr. Kingston having the largest party, and Mr. Gilbert with the greater part of the stores to embark on board the Rapid for Holdfast Bay. Mr. B. T. Finniss, with his party, including Mr. Jacob, Mr. Hiram Mildrid, and others to remain at Rapid Bay, each party to make as many observations as possible during my absence at Port Lincoln or elsewhere." On the 6th of November the Africaine arrived at Rapid Bay, having on board Mr. Gouger, the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Brown, the emigration agent, and other colonial officers. They were naturally anxious to know where they should settle, and Colonel Light could (as Port Lincoln was not yet reported on) only recommend them to proceed to Holdfast Bay in the mean time, which the whole party did on the 8th of November, when Colonel Light, with 88 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE Captain Duff, Mr. Gouger, and Mr. Brown, attempted to explore the mouth of the river Yatala (now theTorrens), already discovered by Messrs. Field, Kingston, and Morphett The Surveyor-General writes, " Looking generally at this place, I am quite confident it will be one of the largest settlements, if not the capital of the new colony. The creek will be its harbour ; " and on seeing the Cygnet in the bay he says, " It is impossible to describe my feelings on this occasion, seeing three English vessels on a lee shore riding safely at the roadstead." He also reports on the 22nd to the South Australian Commissioners, "I could not leave this coast without looking once more at this harbour. . . . It is one of the finest little harbours I ever saw. ... I have sent Mr. Kingston to trace the con- nection between the head of the salt-water creek and the fresh water, and to make his way back to the Glenelg camp by land." He then sent Captain Duff to Hobart Town for fresh pro- visions, as, owing to the want of fresh meat, an epidemic of illness was breaking out. The Sur- veyor-General's cares at this time can hardly be over-estimated, and his lU'gent appeals to the Commissioners for proper transport animals and THE ABORIGINES 89 vehicles show the magnitude of his difSculties. All his surveys had, owing to the want of horses, bullocks, or vehicles, to be performed on foot, and all his tents and baggage to be transported by hand-trucks — ^no convenient process. He himself wrote, " I ought to have been sent out at least six months before anybody else, which would have given me time to settle emigrants and stores as they arrived." An interesting light thrown on Colonel Light's kindly nature is reported in Mr. Gouger's " South Australia in 1837." When at Rapid Bay the exploring party first came in contact with the Australia black-fellow aborigines, and the Sur- veyor-General at once, " by his peculiarly con- ciliatory manner and mild treatment," managed to attach closely to himself the tribe that in- habited that spot. " We saw them there carrying for him wood, reeds for thatching, and otherwise rendering such assistance as they could; and we saw them sleeping round his hut at night, each party, white and black, having mutual and deserved confidence." 90 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE CHAPTER VII. Examination of Port Lincoln and Spencer's Gulf— Both found unsatisfactory — Resolution to fix on Adelaide as the chief town — ^Arrival of Governor Hindmarsh — Inauguration ceremony — The Governor's dis- approval of the site. Leaving the settlers at Holdfast Bay, where a camp of huts, tents, and reed houses were formed, and the subordinate surveying party left to explore the surrounding land. Colonel Light, on the 27 th of November, now sailed to Port Lincoln and the adjacent coasts to see if they were better suited for the capital than the spot he had already seen. Notwith- standing a scarcity of fresh provisions, and the fact that at Rapid Valley "nine labourers out of fifteen are hardly able to do anything from scorbutic sores on their feet and ankles," he was enabled to report on the 5th of December, "I am decidedly of opinion that this is no harbour for merchant ships. Looking at it as a port for men-of-war, well manned, plenty of PORT LINCOLN 9I boats, etc., it is very well. It is capacious, and has good holding ground, but the strong gusts of wind, shifting all round the compass, render the entrance not altogether so safe as the plan of it on paper would indicate." A strong party, however, afterwards rose in the colony which upheld the natural advantages of Port Lincoln, until the prosperity of Adelaide showed un- questionably the superiority of its situation. Colonel Light, finding Port Lincoln and Spencer Gulf unsatisfactory, returned with all haste. "The time now lost in much extra labour, and the arrival of many people from England, made me anxious to find some place to locate the land pturchasers and others, and from every answer from the sealers, and from the view I have had of the western coast (of the gulf), I felt convinced I should never find anything more eligible than the neighbourhood of Holdfast Bay." He had considered but only to condemn on account of their dangerous entrances. Port Lincoln and Encounter Bay. On the 1 8th of December he decided on the site of the capital where Adelaide ^ now stands, and ^ The capital, by the express wish of King William IV., was named '^ Adelaide ** after his Queen, n^ Princess of 92 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE enters in his Journal, '^At half-past nine got under way with the Tarn a* Shanter for the harbour. At six entered the first reach, and came to anchor. About ii a.m. the Tarn d Shanter struck on the edge of the western sand- spit, having three fathoms of water within half her own length; she remained here until the 22nd; about 4 p.m. she was hove off, both crews assisting, and both ships made sail for the higher part of the harbour. I preceded both ships in my hatch-boat. It was really beautiful to look back and see two British ships for the first time sailing up between mangroves in fine smooth water, in a creek that had never before borne the construction of the marine architect, and which at some futiure period might be the channel of import and export of a great com- mercial capital." He says later, on the 24th of December, after he had explored the plain to the place where Mr. Kingston had pitched his tent, " My first opinion with regard to this place be- came still more confirmed by this trip. Having Saxe-Meiningen. Gibbon Wakefield had intended to have named it "Wellington," in recognition of the great Duke's support, and he afterwards bestowed the name on the chief town in New Zealand, which was another of the colonies founded in accordance with his system. SITE OF THE CAPITAL FIXED 93 traversed nearly six miles of a beautiful flat, I arrived at the river, and saw from this a con- tinuation of the same plain for at least six more miles to the foot of the hills under Mount Lofty, which heights, trending to the sea in a south-westerly direction, were there terminated about four or five miles south of the camp- ground at Holdfast Bay, aflbrding an immense plain of level and advantageous ground for occupation. Having settled some matters for future proceedings with Mr. Kingston, I left him and returned to the brig at 6 p.m., to make arrangements for finally leaving the ship." On the 1 8th of December, Mr. Gouger writes, on Colonel Light's arrival from ICangaroo Island at Holdfast Bay, "It is impossible for him to speak in more deprecating terms than he does of the lands adjacent to Port Lincoln, and of the entrance to the harbour. . . . This being the case, he considers the position of the chief town determined, and has therefore re- turned to Gulf St. Vincent with the full intention of making an accurate survey of the harbour and river eight miles north of Holdfast Bay." On December the 28th, H.M.S. Buffalo^ with the Governor and the Resident Commissioner on 94 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE board, entered Holdfast Bay; and from the Cygnet Captain Lipson, R.N., came on board and presented a letter from Colonel Light to the Governor, giving the information that the most suitable site for the new capital was, in his opinion, on the east of Gulf St. Vincent. Colonel Light writes in his Journal — December 2%th, — " Pitched my tent near Mr. Kingston's at the side of the river. I heard of the Governor's arrival at Holdfast Bay, but, having much to do, had not time to go down to meet him." The Governor, his suite, and family, however, were cordially received by the colonists, at the head of whom were the Colonial Secretary and the Deputy-Surveyor. Surrounded by an escort of marines, at eight o'clock the Governor, in Mr. Gouger's newly erected tent, read the Orders in Council, which created the British Province of South Australia, and his own commission as Governor. The oaths were then administered to the Governor and the other colonial officers. After this had been done, for the benefit of the settlers, who stood around, numbering about two hundred in all, the Clerk of the Council had them assembled under the shade of an old gum THE governor's HESITATION 95 tree, read aloud the Proclamation, and, the British flag having been hoisted, a royal salute was fired. The marines discharged a feu-de- jaie^ and the Buffalo saluted with fifteen guns. A cold collation, loyal toasts, and the solemn singing of " God save the King " concluded the inauguration ceremony. But the "present unanimity" which the Governor, in his ceremonial speech had hoped would continue among the officials, was of short duration. The site of Adelaide was the first ground of contention. The Governor, notwith- standing the discretionary powers given to his friend the Surveyor-General by the South Australian Commissioners, and also that the ultimate responsibility of the choice of the new capital's site was to rest with him, seems to have arrived in the colony burdened with the idea that the city should be in the neighboiurhood of Encounter Bay. He was at first apparently moderately well satisfied with the position of the capital; for in his journal Colonel Light enters on December 30, " His Excellency the Governor arrived at our camp, and we walked together that we might see the site I had selected. His Excellency expressed his sense of the beauty 96 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE of the place, but said it was ' too far from the harbour/ " The great drawback to the site, in the view of the early settlers, was that the town was six miles from the port, and the difficulty of trans- port from thence to the town was, in the infant colony, very considerable, if not insuperable; but, in the opinion of the Surveyor-General, this difficulty was more than counterbalanced by the plentiful supply of water which existed near the town, it being easier to convey goods to the town than water to the port in large quantities, and under the circumstances, as Mr. Finniss writes, '^ Colonel Light saw that nature had done a great deal, but not everything ; . . . (he) accordingly did the best he could. He selected the spot marked out by nature ; his eye, trained to observe nature, and accustomed to judge the capabilities of a country for the wants of bodies of men, could not mislead him ; " and even the reluctant Governor wrote home on the 5th of January, 1837, " Adelaide is on the bank of a beautiful stream, with thousands of acres of the richest land I ever saw — ^altogether a more beautiful spot can hardly be imagined." The Governor's interference had, however, done much THE GOVERNOR'S SUGGESTIONS 97 harm, and had created a party adverse to the chosen site. Colonel Light says wisely with reference to it, "The reasons that led me to fix Adelaide where it is, I do not expect to be generally understood or calmly judged of at present. My enemies, however, by disputing then- validity in every particular, have done me the good service of fixing the whole of the responsibility upon me. I am perfectly willing to bear it, and I leave it to posterity, and not to them, to decide whether I am entitled to praise or blame;"* and in his Journal puts forth a defence of his opposition to the Governor's objections : " Now, I did pay due regard to the suggestion of the Governor, for that suggestion caused me to alter my first selection, much against the grain, for we were only gaining a distance of one and a half miles over an un- interrupted plain, and for this sacrificing the most beautiful position of the country. During the few days that intervened previously to my commencing the plan of the town, I was in- cessantly treated with some hints at my want of ability in the performance of my duty. One gentleman, I am told, said that he considered » Preface to his "Brief Journal." 98 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE himself a ruined man through Colonel Torrens and myself, but chiefly through me, and that he would publish my proceedings in all the news- papers in England. I could make no other reply to my informant than this, that he would be taking a great deal of trouble and spending a great deal of money to prove himself an ass ! The same gentleman said that the site of Adelaide was lower than the plain of Holdfast Bay, and, arguing with a friend of mine, he said that as to the river at Adelaide he could drain it dry in a few hours with a bucket. It would be long and by no means entertaining to relate all I heard about this time ; but my mind was made up fully to the permanent settlement, and on the 3rd of January, 1837, I removed my tent to the ground where I might be near my work. From this time to the nth of January, I was em- ployed in looking over the ground, and devising in my own mind the best method of laying out the town, according to the course of the river and nature of the ground. It was generally supposed that planning and measuring out a thousand acres for a capital was so easy a job that it would be completed in a few days, and the disgrace heaped upon me again became THE SURVEY COMMENCED 99 warm." And this in a new country with a virgin forest of " mangrove, dense scrub, thickets of dwarf wattle, tough she-oak, and everlasting gum " to contend with ! The survey of Adelaide began on the nth of January, 1837, and again the Surveyor- General met with constant interference from the Governor and his party. They objected to the width of the streets, to the space of the open squares, and put many obstacles in the way of his legitimate work. He proceeded, however, to lay out the town of Adelaide in the spacious manner of which all South Australians are now so proud, in the face of the greatest opposition.* This opposition became serious when the Colonial Secretary, commanded by the Governor, who declared that unless five himdred acres ' Adelaide was "laid out with perfect regularity. The main streets being straight and parallel, and the cross ones equally so. Between every two of the latter crossing the former, the intermediate space is divided into blocks of six or eight double sections, abutting on each other, and each section consists of an acre, a perfect square, of course, about seventy yards a side. In the centre of the city are observed two hundred acres for a park, and all round the city a width of about five hundred yards to form a beautiful drive of about seven miles, like the Boulevards of Paris,*' — Quarterly Review^ 1841. ICX) THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE were surveyed for building land at the harbour he would not proclaim the port nor establish the Government at Adelaide, most injudiciously called a public meeting of land-holders to dis- cuss the proposed site of the city, the reason given being that a strong party wished the pro- ceedings of the town survey stayed even at the eleventh hour. At the meeting, which was held on the loth of February in Mr. Stephen's tent, the Governor's faction submitted a resolution* : " That it is the opinion of this meeting that the site at present selected for the chief town of the colony, being at a considerable distance from navigable waters, is not such as they were led to expect would be chosen." A letter from the Surveyor-General to the Hon. J. H. Fisher, the Colonial Com- missioner, was then read. In this Colonel Light vindicated his choice of Adelaide on account of its nattural advantages, and suggested that the distance from the port would not be a serious objection when, with the advance of the colony, carriage traffic became more frequent. ' I am indebted to Mr. Rodder's " History of South Australia " and Mr. Worsnop's " City of Adelaide" for these details. flDE^OPJOSjCriON lOI * V »* - * -- «• <• "* ■» * He also quoted the appfoSaHdn; whith the Governor had bestowed on the sife. " Adelaide, February 9, 1837. " Sir, " I have received your letter, dated the 6th instant, with a copy of a letter from the Colonial Secretary, stating that His Excel- lency the Governor considers it necessary that I should report to the Colonial Government forthwith what steps have been adopted to ascertain the capabilities of the country now under survey, etc., etc., and also, that after my report of the Harbour-master's opinion that he would take in the Buffalo^ still His Excellency does not feel himself sufficiently warranted to proclaim the same a port without a detailed plan being laid before him. " I beg in my reply to state that this plan I conceive, in the first instance, it to be the duty of the Harbour-master to make, not only because it is more especially within his province, but because it is impossible for me to attend to the survey of the town and harbour at the same time. " The steps taken to ascertain the capabilities - • * , •* - - - - ■» * - •• • • - *-- - • - -- - - • • • • • • •• 102 THE FOUNQEl(*.^*.JLbtLAIDB . .•: .• : •. • • • ••• \ • of the dpuntryvnpW Under survey are the results . tpf jriy ojilrn observations, which, in comparison *.. '• trith* all other parts I have seen of this coast, are so superior, the soil so good, the plains in the immediate neighbourhood so extensive, and the proximity of a plentiful supply of excellent fresh water all the year round, the probability also of one of the plains extending as far as the Murray River, or very near it, which from the termination of the mountains in the plains at the great distance they do, I have every reason to expect, the excellent sheep-walks in the neighbourhood, and the easy communication with the harbour over a dead flat of about six miles, and also the beauty of the country ; these objects, to my mind, could admit of no doubt of its capabilities for a capital. "The relative position of the town is about N.E. by N. or N.E. of the mouth of the river at Holdfast Bay, and the harbour from Adelaide is about six miles N.W. by W. nearly. " A river runs close by the front of the town, which in time can be made navigable, if such a thing be necessary, for such ships as come now to the harbour, and connected with the harbour by means of a canal ; in the mean time, DEFENCE OF THE SITE 103 the plain between the town and the harbour is so level and destitute of every hindrance, that carriages of every description can at once be drawn without even the trouble of making a common road, and the only thing wanted is to construct a temporary wooden bridge over the river at the town, or perhaps half a mile from it. " The harbour is good and safe in every wind, and the entrance only wants buoying down ta make it easy for ships drawing fifteen or sixteen feet of water, and in time for ships of more draught " There is a great scarcity of fresh water at the harbour, which is the principal reason for not fixing on that as the site of the capital ; but in time water may be conveyed in pipes, or the canal, if cut, would supply it ; and as soon as any waggon or other carriages are established between Adelaide and the harbour, water may be sent down every morning, and the same vehicles return with goods in the afternoon. I mention this as the present means, for as the colony advances the communication will im- prove. " I have now further to state that the site of 104 T^^ FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE the town was not determined on before EQs Excellency tiie Governor appeared in person, and that we walked together to look at it ; and Mr. Cock, whom the Governor brou^t with him, expressed his opinion that no conmierdal town could be built except at a port (an opinion I beg to differ from) : that at the Governor's suggestion I consented to remove the town about two miles lower down the river, and we also walked together to that spot, which was agreed between His Excellency and myself to be the site; but on examination afterwards I found the winter torrents overflowed the banks considerably. I therefore returned to the site flrst selected, and some few days after I had the satisfaction to hear His Excellency approve of it in the highest terms. With regard to die harbour. His Excellency the Governor had him- self examined it with Mr. Field, and he had expressed his approbation of that also, with the site of the town at the Council, on the 19th of January (the day I was desired by an official letter from the Colonial Secretary to attend), and declared then that the only point on which His Excellency differed with me in opinion was of the anchorage of Holdfast Bay. I did not APPROVAL OF THE SITE 10$ consider it necessary to make any further reports of the steps that had been adopted to ascertain the capabilities of the coiintry now under survey. " I beg, moreover, to add that I have deferred sending in any plans of the country or harbour, until such time as accurate ones fit for public inspection can be drawn, for which there has not been sufficient time or other convenience, but they are proceeding with all possible despatch. " I have the honour to be, " Your obedient humble servant, "William Light, " Surveyor-General. « To the Hon. J. H. Fisher." The reading of this forcibly expressed letter brought forward an amendment, moved by Dr. Wright and seconded by the Deputy-Surveyor, Mr. Kingston, approving of the Surveyor- General's selection of the site on various grounds, the chief of which were that it was " a central point in the province, in the neighbourhood of a safe and improvable harbour, abundance of fresh water on the spot, and of good land and I06 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE pasturage in the vicinity." The votes were taken by representation of land orders, and there voted for the amendment 218, and against it 127, so that Colonel Lighfs selection was upheld by 91 votes. Mr. John Brown, the emigration agent, seconded by Mr. John Morphett, then moved, "That the meeting considers that the Surveyor-General, William Light, Esq., has most ably and judiciously dis- charged the responsible duty assigned to him by the Commissioners, and is fully entitled to their confidence in every respect " — a resolution which was carried unanimously. The Surveyor- General's trimnph was complete, although it is not evident that he would have yielded had the result been different,^ and the Governor, who had appealed to the South Australian Commissioners, received the chilling reply that " when he applied for the office of Governor he was distinctly informed that the right of selecting the capital would be vested solely in the Surveyor-General," and that no interference with the officer appointed to execute the surveys was permitted him. * Rusden's "History of Australia." ( 107 ) CHAPTER VIII. The surveys — Report home — Dinner to Colonel Light — His survey difficulties — Explorations — End of 1837 — Resignation of Colonel Light — His refusal to resume Government survey work. The hindered surveys of the town were slowly proceeded with, but the vexatious delays caused by the quarrels as to the site, and the paucity of the surveying staff, many of the subordinates of whom had been appointed by the Commissioners, although without any sufficient training, gave rise to much dissatisfaction. They were com- pleted about the loth of March, and the plan of the town mapped out and exhibited for public inspection.^ The apportionment then began, the Surveyor-General and the Resident ' Stephen's "South Australia," which contains Colonel Light's " Plan of the City of Adelaide," as well as an interesting early view of the town, and a sketch of Rapid Bay by him. He published "A Trigonometrical Survey of Adelaide," and also ** Views of Adelaide " (Smith, Elder : 1839). I08 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE Commissioner first reserving ten acres of land, close to the Torrens river, and in a very beau- tiful position, as the "Government domain.'* One thousand and forty acres were marked out and numbered — exclusive of streets, quays, and public walks — and on the 23rd of March the holders of the 437 preliminary sections began (by lot) then: selections of the sections as numbered. A few days later the remaining lots were sold, and gambling in the town lots commenced, 563 town acres being sold by public auction on the 27 th of March. On the 28th of March the public were given permission to cut down trees in the public streets, and on the 23rd of May the streets, squares, and public places received names commemorating the founders and early pioneers of the colony, the right of naming giving rise to yet another dis- pute among the chief officials, as it was claimed by the Governor and the Resident Commis- sioner as well as the Surveyor-General. It was determined by the Resident Commis- sioner that a report should be forwarded to the Commissioners in England respecting the survey. This was strongly urged by Colonel Light also, and he was for many days occupied in fitting DINNER TO COLONEL LIGHT IO9 out the Rapid to convey the bearers of it. On the sth of June, 1837, the Rapid^ commanded by Lieutenant W. Field, sailed for England, carrying with her the Deputy-Surveyor, Mr. Kingston,^ who was to lay the survey reports and plans before the Commissioners, '^ and impress on them the necessity for a larger staff.** On the sth of June a dinner was given by a hundred and twenty colonists, under the chair- manship of Mr. Morphett, in honour of Colonel Light ; and the South Australian^ reporting it, broke out into a stirring panegyric, expressing their "esteem for him as a man, and their admiration for him as an officer," recounting his difficulties and responsibilities, and adding, " He has given us a spot and a plan for a capital of which we may be justly proud." The capital began to grow, although the " appearance of the dwellings of the first settlers was very singular." The walls and roofs of the houses were constructed variously — of mud, and grass, rushes, brushwood, marl, and red earth, to the number of three hundred. Government > Mr. Kingston afterwards became first Speaker of the L^[islative Assembly of South Australia. He was knighted in 1870, and survived until 1881. no THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE House Mr. Gouger described, in July, 1838, as consisting of three rooms, which were built by the seamen of the Buffalo (who forgot at first to put in a fireplace) of laths and mud, and thatched with reeds. The only public buildings of importance were the church, which "does credit to the piety of the early settlers," the Land office, and the Surveyor-Generars office, " which were erected at little cost, and will, if necessary, last for years; . . . built of deal, weather-boarded, and lined within, and are spacious and comfortable ; " the others were all of a temporary nature. Still, Sir John Jeflfcott, an opponent of the Surveyor-General's plan, was able to write home, "The site of this incipient city, where I now write — ^in a tent, be it said — is most beautifiil, and looks quite like an English park. Nothing can be finer than the rich pastures spread over the land in all directions. There are now located here between twelve and thirteen hundred people, who are scattered over the plain of Adelaide, in tents, huts, and wooden houses ; I assure you, a very picturesque group. The avidity with which the land in the town, consisting of a thousand acres in lots of one acre each, was bought up at auction THE COUNTRY SURVEYS III in two days, every acre fetching from j^y to ;;^io, satisfies me of the eventual success of the colony." Now that Colonel Light had established the capital, he hastened to push forward the survey of the country — a want which was being more and more severely felt as the settlers were pouring in. Great difficulties were in his way. Most of the survey journeys had to be performed on foot. The transport vehicles belonging to the survey staff were extremely insufficient, and were very frequently diverted from the survey to the use of the colonists to help to bring goods from Holdfast Bay to Adelaide, and the men of the survey as well gave much trouble, owing to the scarcity of their covenanted rations. The Surveyor - General writes, " It was reasonable to expect that on the completion of the town the survey of the country sections would commence, but by this time our survey labourers had become a different set. The constant taunts and jeerings of the new-comers, who would not work, soon produced an effect on them also, and they gladly availed them- selves of the least defalcation in rations to strike work. This misfortune became daily of more 112 ^HE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE consequence as the increase of settlers took i^ce. The demand for every kind of carriage became greater, and even our small survey trucks were often used for transporting luggage from Hold- fast Bay. This will be laid hold of by some as another reason for abusing the site of Adelaide; but if this town had been placed at the harbour, more carriages would have been required for carrying water there, and although some felt much inconvenience from being many days without goods, the want of fresh water would have been a much greater evil. The survey labourers were several days wantihg either rum, biscuits, beef, pork, tea, sugar, flour, etc., and these were excuses for knocking off work. The men, who had at first worked without murmur- ing, were now changed by the jeers alluded to. They were called by many of the new-comers the 25.-a-day slaves, and if one day a party was formed to commence the survey, the next was sure to begin by the absence of nearly all of them. Their complaints had much truth. They had signed articles in England for 12s. a week, and rations the same in quality as allowed in His Majesty's navy ; and they were sometimes many days with hardly anything EXPLORATION DIFFICULTIES II 3 but biscuit, and sometimes not that. Had there been no difficulty with the men, we could not have detached a party from the town, as not a single bullock could be had. The tents were all in use by emigrants, who had no other means of subsisting than from the Commissioners' stores, and the remaining part of the twelve months' stores purchased in England for the use of the siurvey alone were now shared by all. Humanity required this, but the consequence was a cessation of work and apparent neglect of duty on the part of the Surveyor-General, for which, of course, there were many quite ready to abuse him." Eventually, however. Colonel Light was able, in April, to despatch a party under Mr. Finniss to survey the western side of Adelaide, with the Torrens on his right, while he himself began on the eastern side of the river. The explorations extended to the Mudla Wirra Forest, the discovery of the rivers Para and Light, as well as the Lyndoch Valley, Happy Valley, and Noarlunga, and included the designs for a projected canal. On the 14th of June of the same year. Colonel Light, Mr. J. H. Fisher, the Commissioner of Crown Lands, with a sergeant, corporal, and I 114 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE guard of eleven marines from the Buffalo^ and Mr. Stephen Hack^ as guide, started from Glenelg on the sth of June for the first Govern- ment expedition into the hush. Attempting to reach Encounter Bay from Adelaide overland, the guard proved an encumbrance, and, after disturbing the party by mistaking the cries of Dingoes for advancing natives, the leaders were glad to get them sent back on the 19th to the coast, where their ship lay in Holdfast Bay, The exploring party were also detained by the wildness of their draught bullocks, but reached the foot of the ranges, where Willunga now stands; and thence, as they feared further advance amongst the wild blacks without a guard, they returned to the settlement.^ The year 1837 closed with two important events. The first was the quarrel between the Governor and the Resident Commissioner, which embroiled the whole colony, and it brought on the suspension of Mr. Gouger, the Colonial Secretary. Mr. Gouger had been one of the ^ Brother of John Barton Hack, one of the pioneers who first took out a special survey of land at Little Para and the Three Brothers, near Echunga. « Bull's " Experiences." SIR J. JEFFCOTT DROWNED II5 chief supports of the founders of the colony, and on his departure the chief colonists, includ- ing the Surveyor-General, addressed a letter of regret to Colonel Torrens, the chairman of the Board of Commissioners. The second important event, which did much to vindicate the selection of Adelaide as the capital, and to rivet the colonists to it, was the drowning of Sir John Jeflfcott the Judge, on the 1 2th of December, when trying with Captain Blenkinsop to prove the safety of the harbour of Encounter Bay. He had been a strong opponent to the choice of the site of Adelaide, and had always been a warm advocate of the capital being placed at Encounter Bay, where he ultimately was unfortunate enough to meet his death. The Governor despatched a formal complaint to the South Australian Commissioners about the delay of the surveys, and as a counterblast to this, the colonists sent home three complaints against the Governor, one of which was that he had a second time been the cause of hindering the progress of the surveys by interfering with his quondam friend, the Surveyor - General. Colonel Light continued to do his best to push Il6 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE on the surveys, and by the 12th of May the first country lands were surveyed and ready for selection. A plan, engraved in London in 1839, of sections round Adelaide surveyed by Colonel Light, contains the names of purchasers of 473 sections, containing 134 acres each. The Hon. B. T. Finniss describes the survey as " a rough topographical survey • . . carried on to inform Colonel Light of the nature of the country, and point out the best sites for survey, in order that the purchasers of the preliminary land-orders might obtain possession of the country. The claims of the early settlers be- came so urgent, and the Governor's party backed up their claims so earnestly, that the Surveyor- General was driven to the expedient of at once projecting the trigonometrical survey on a plan, in order that the country might be divided into sections on the map, numbered in proper order, and offered for selection," The natural features marked on the map permitted the preliminary land-order holders to recognize and occupy their lands, the boundaries of which were then measured off according to the diagrams of the plan. Poor Colonel Light, now in serious illness, harassed and worried, along with the RESIGNATION OF COLONEL LIGHT 11/ whole of his staff, excepting three recently appointed from England, tendered his resigna- tion on the 2nd of July. One may know what it cost him to do so, as he had complete knowledge that he had, in spite of vexatious interference and incalculable difficulties from the inefficiency of some of his underlings, done all he could in his office, and had, moreover, supreme faith in the future of the new colony which he had helped to found. The unexpected action of the Commissioners, which limited him to a certain distasteful method of surveying under a special agreement in the survey — one hundred and fifty square miles of land in three months' time — ^failing which, his arguments being imheard, Mr. Kingston was sent back from England to supersede him, left him, he thought, no honourable alternative. It is safest to rely upon the South Australian Commissioners' Parliamentary Report for the causes which made this step inevitable to one who, like Colonel Light, had confidence in the rectitude of his position. The Commissioners, in November, 1837, re- ceived by the hand of Mr. Kingston, the Deputy-Surveyor, the reports, sent home in the i Il8 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE Rapid from both Light and the Resident Com- missioner, narrating the arrear of the surveys, and praying for a great increase in the number of efficient surveyors to complete the survey. This demand came unexpectedly, and put the Commissioners in something of a dilemma. They were confident in Colonel Light, whose conduct in the colony, they found, "had won the esteem even of those on whom the tardy progress of his surveys had afflicted loss," and they add, "furthermore, we felt that much credit was due to Colonel Light for the manner in which he resisted the subsequent attempts to unsettle the colony by removing the capital; and we considered that due allowance should be made for the anxiety and distraction pro- duced by the incessant and virulent attacks to which he was exposed. For the paralyzing influence of these causes Colonel Light could not fairly be held responsible." They feared, however, to burden the colony with the ex- pensive staff the Surveyor-General demanded, and they hit upon the plan of calling on him to effect a " running survey " of one hundred and fifty square miles in three months' time. Should Colonel Light refuse, his authority was to be THE COMMISSIONERS' ACTION II9 for the time suspended, the execution of the survey was to be confided to Mr. Kingston, and Light was to be employed, retaining his full salary, in surveying secondary sites and in completing the explorations of the coast-line and of Lake Alexandrina. They adopted, also, the precaution of taking from the unwilling Mr. Kingston, in spite of his protests, a written declaration that he would undertake the survey in the event of Colonel Light's declining. This most unpleasant position was forced on Mr. Kingston, and the Parliamentary Report especially states, notwithstanding the opinions the Commissioners' action evoked, that " he had acted towards his superior with scrupulous honoiu:." The documents on both sides are therefore fittingly introduced here, being on both sides too characteristic and fiill of interest to be omitted, and they show the ungracious treatment which the Surveyor-General received at the Commissioners' hands at a time when, after all his difficulties, " his energies were en- feebled by disease, and his mind in a state of nervous irritability from the harassing and vexatious opposition which he had to encounter 120 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE from the quarter whence he had the right to expect the most willing encouragement" The Board of Commissioners wrote to the Resident Commissioner that, in order to secure early completion of the surveys, unless they should, on the arrival of their instructions, be ahready completed, as follows : ^' You will address a letter to Colonel Light, calling upon that officer to state in writing, within one week, whether he will undertake to effect a running survey of a hundred and fifty square miles — in addition to what may be then surveyed—- on the conditions laid down in a letter to Mr. Kingston, viz. that he, Mr. Kingston, was called upon to enter into a written agreement to affect a survey of a hundred and fifty square miles of land in a given time, if, on arrival in the colony, the management of the survey should devolve on him. The Commissioners trust that Colonel Light will pledge himself to die required con- ditions, but if not done within the week allowed, you will inf<»rm Mr. Kingston wi&out delay that the supervision of the survey has devolved on him, and he is dioiceforward to act on instnictions given from time to time to die Sur>^yor- General, and exercise all powers COLONEL light's REFUSAL 121 attached to that appointment/' A copy of this was thereupon sent by the recipient to Colonel Light, with a suspension of his duties should the conditions not be accepted Colonel Light at once replied on the 21st of June, " I am allowed one week to consider whether I will undertake a running survey of one hundred and fifty square miles on the conditions laid down in letters of Mr. Rowland Hill to Mr. Kingston, dated loth and 24th of January last. In reply, I beg to state I do not require one week to consider this matter, but say at once I will not do it, and despise and contemn the language used by Mr. Hill." He further wrote, when a proposal to continue his salary and to retain him in survey work at Nepean Bay was made, " I beg to reply that Mr. Rowland Hill may save the Commissioners the expense of my salary (;^4oo per annum), for I will never take ofl&ce under such insulting conditions." The Surveyor- GeneraPs part was taken by his whole staff, and also by the colonists, who were voiced in the Southern Australian of the 7 th of July, where the leading article says, " It is due to Colonel Light and the other officers of the survey, the Commissioners, Mr. Kingston, and the \ 122 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE colonists, before they quietly sit down to deplore the loss of the splendid ability of such an individual as Colonel Light, they ought to see clearly to what, and to whom, that loss is attributable. The whole effect of this injurious and absurd scheme would have been avoided had the Commissioners entrusted their own officer with the confidence to which by his position he was entitled." ^ ^ Parliamentaiy Report ( 123 ) CHAPTER IX. Governor Hindmarsh's departure — Non-payment of survey — Captain Sturt---Governor Gawler — Light, Finniss, and Company — Illness of Colonel Light — Burning of his Journal — Death and funeral of Colonel Light — Monuments and memorials — Conclusion. To return to the administrators. On the 14th of July Governor Hindmarsh left in the Alligator for England. He had been recalled by the Commissioners on the ground that, "with the exception of the Judge and Harbour-master, he is more or less at variance with all the official functionaries of the colony, whether belonging to the Government or the Commission." Although all authorities concur in praising his private character, his administration, from a variety of these unfortunate circumstances, can- not be said to have been successful.* The colony was deeply involved in debt, and the quarter's salaries of the officials due on the ' He was made K.H., became Governor of Heligoland, and died in 1S60. 124 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE 30th of June were still unpaid. Colonel Light, in addition to the non-payment of his salary, had sacrificed much of his own fortune, which he had intended to employ in the purchase of lands, in advances to the survejring staff, without any possibility of recovery. On the 3rd of September, from work and ill health. Light was, to his great regret, unable to preside at a public dinner given by the inhabitants of Adelaide to the explorer. Captain Charles Sturt, a man after his own heart, who had arrived in Adelaide after the exploration of the rivers Hiune and Murray. In his letter to Mr. Finniss on the 3rd of September, 1838, he bore testimony to his admiration for the great Australian explorer. " It is not out of disrespect to Captain Sturf s merits and enterprise that I wish to be absent No one more fully appreciates them than I do, and no one has more reason to acknowledge himself indebted to Captain Sturt than I have. It was his account of the Murray, his concep- tions of the country between St. Vincent's Gulf and the Murray, that first led my views so strongly this way." The continual friction and slights were preying on his sensitive mind, and in a letter of the 5th of October to his shipmate GOVERNOR GAWLER 1 25 and former assistant, William Jacob (now of Moorooroo), he writes at this time about his money affairs, " I was never sanguine on any point but one, and that was the eligibility of the site for Adelaide ; ^ in that I was always confi- dent, but in my own affairs never. I have been so long accustomed to making lee-way, that round- ing any Cape of Good Fortune never enters my head. My only wish is to die easy, and have something for the support of those who have exerted themselves a little towards my comfort." The new Governor, Colonel George Gawler, K.H., late of the 52nd Light Infantry, a gallant officer who had showed his valour both in the Peninsula and at the battle of Waterloo, arrived in South Australia in Captain Hindmarsh's place in October, and was beset with difficulties from the time of his arrival. He found an empty treasury, heavy public debt ; the colony indeed most flourishing, but prices high, and the spirit of imrest everywhere. He wrote a fortnight after landing, " The surveys are altogether un- equal to the demand for land. ... It is my * He writes also " he felt the well-being of thousands . . . might in a great degree depend upon the correctness of his decisions.'* 126 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE intention, with the consent of the Commissioners, to put on every surveyor that I can until the survey comes up or nearly up to the demand." He attempted to persuade Colonel Light to reconsider his decision, and to resume the office of Surveyor-General, considering him to be the most suitable person, his method of surveying having been approved of by an over- whelming vote at a public meeting at Adelaide; * and not only was this confidently hoped for in the colony, but a petition to the Governor on the subject was contemplated. Wearied and broken down by work and by what he con- sidered undeserved injustice. Light, however, declined again to take up the reins of office, and the Governor, after delaying to try to induce him to consent, at length, seeing his weak state of health, delegated his duties to Captain Sturt* Colonel Light, now freed from his public position, entered (July 3, 1838) into partner- ship with Mr. Boyle Travers Finniss, late » July 9, 1838 (Hawker's "Early Experiences"). * The salary was raised, however, to £soo, ;^ioo more than Colonel Light had enjoyed, it having been found, by the committee appointed to inquire into the question of salaries, that it was impossible for a man and his servant to /tV^ under ;^444 yj*. 2d, in the colony. LIGHT, FINNISS AND CO. 12/ lieutenant 82nd Regiment/ and former As- sistant-Surveyor; Henry Nixon, late lieutenant 96th Regiment ; Mr. William Jacob, both late Assistant-Surveyors ; and Mr. Robert S. Thomas as the draughtsman of the siurey, under the style of " Light, Finniss, and Company," as surveyors and land agents. The firm under- took " to negotiate all business connected with the selection of agency and land in the colony," and opened an office in a wooden building in Stephen's Place, where they transacted business. Among other things in his new sphere of useful- ness. Colonel Light imdertook the survey of the town of Glenelg for Mr. W. Finke ; and in 1839, by agreement with Governor Gawler, he made, on behalf of the Harbour Survey Company, a thorough survey of the Port River, assisted by Mr. S. Hamilton, who took the soundings, and by Mr. A. H. Burslam as draughtsman. The Government brig Rapid^ under the command of Lieutenant Field, R.N., was again put at his disposal for the purpose, and this survey appears ^ B. T. Finniss had originally been in the 56th Regt. He sold his commission in the 82nd Regt. in 1835. He became later, in 1852, Colonial Secretary, and in 1856 first Premier of South Australia. He died, aged eighty- six, December 25, 1893. 128 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE to have taken at least seventy days. Colonel Light* s partnership with Mr. Finniss lasted only until September i, 1839, when it was dissolved on account of the declining health of one partner, and from the other having again re- ceived a Government appointment, that of Deputy Surveyor-General, in August, 1839, from Governor Gawler. For Colonel Light was now a great invalid. In 1837 he had been forced to write, " I began to feel a very evident change in my health, which, with anxieties of mind, wore me down very much, and I was obliged to neglect many days* working in consequence." Exposure to wet and cold, hardship and fatigue, during his duties wore him out. The wounds received in Spam continued, with few intervals, to give him trouble, injustice from unrequited labour preyed upon his mind, and his malady developed into consumption. His garden must have been a great solace to him diuing his illness, since he was in 1838 "the most successful gardener," mixing the natural soil with the river mud, in the full belief that the country was as fertile as any part of Spain or Italy, and causing his friends envy by producing " far better vegetables THE BURNING OF THE JOURNAL 1 29 than any other Australian." His friends were many, and his companionship was much sought after for "his gentlemanly deportment and nobility of character," and he was greatly respected also on account of his widespread learning, fascinating manners, and the memory of his former adventurous career. In the beginning of 1839, however, while he was preparing his Journal for publication (a fragment only of which was printed in 1839 by A. MacDougal of Rundle Street, Adelaide^), he received a stunning blow, through the destruction of the memorials of his life. When Light retired from the position of Surveyor-General, he had left some cases of papers for safety in the survey office, a wooden house with a thatched roof, which was situated next the office of the Resident Commissioner, on the banks of the Torrens and close to Thebar- ton. On the 22nd of January, 1839, a great fire broke out in Adelaide. It consumed these two buildings, as well as Government House, which was built of native pine, and the fire raged with ' Under the title of " Brief Journal of the Proceedings of William Light, Surveyor-General of the Province of South Australia." It has been already much quoted. I30 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE great fury. The conflagration was supposed to be the work of a mad incendiary, and it caused an incalculable loss to the colony by the destruction of the great majority of the docu- ments connected with its foundation and survey, although some were saved at great risk. To Colonel Light it was a heartbreak, for the Journals he had kept for thirty years, "his experiences in Turkey, Egypt, the Mediterranean, and on the battlefields of Spain," as well as his plans and sketches, all perished in the flames, leaving hardly any evidences of his career except the small portion of his Journal which he had been fortunate enough to revise for printing, and the letters and pictures he had left with his relatives in Europe. He felt the loss very deeply, and his illness was greatly accelerated by the personal distress it caused. He lingered all the year, carefully tended by his friends, but rapidly growing worse, and when Colonel Frome,^ his successor in the office of Surveyor-General, visited him in October at * Colonel Frome, R.E., married Jane, second daughter of Alexander W. Light, of Lytiscary, Canada, of the family of Baglake, Dorset. He was Lieutenant-Governor of Guernsey, 1869-74. DEATH OF COLONEL LIGHT 13I Thebarton House, the residence which he had built on his own allotment, section number one, and which he had named after his early Suffolk home, he found him " hardly able to converse," and he died in the presence of his good friend Mr. B. T. Finniss and his wife, a few days afterwards, on the 5th of October, 1839. His dying wish, and one much dwelt on in his last illness, was that he should be regarded as the founder of Adelaide, and he directed a plate of engraved copper indicating this to be placed in his coffin. The Government, however, rendered tardy justice to his memory. The Government Gazette (bordered with black) of the loth of October contained the notice of the Proceedings in Council that "His Excellency (the Governor) had felt it right to call a special meeting of Council for the purpose of considering what manifestation of respect the Government should make to the memory of one so dis- tinguished as an officer, and who had rendered such important services to the colony." And all the public officials, from the Governor down- wards, met at the " old Native Location " to do his memory the last possible honour. His public funeral took place from his house, near 132 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE Hindmarsh, and the car^ proceeded to Trinity Church, where a service was held on the loth of October. Minute-guns were fired, military honours rendered, and the colours were lowered to half-mast at Government House ; and in the presence of over two thousand of the inhabitants of Adelaide, including 423 gentlemen in deep mourning, many bathed in tears, Colonel Light was laid by his especial desire in a vault in Light Square, which had been named after him. The list of the mourners is not uninteresting, as it conunemorates the names and offices of many of the South Australian pioneers.^ * Hawker's '* Early Experiences in South Australia " gives the order of the funeral procession as follows : — The Undertaker The Colonial Chaplain (Rev. C. B. Howard) and other Clergymen. Mr. Nicholson. Lieutenant Mundy. Captain Lichfield. Mr. McPherson. Captain O'Halloran. Captain Berkeley. Captain Field. Dr. Woodforde. Mr. W. Jacob. Mr. B. T. Finniss. Mr. H. Nixon. p Mr. J. H. Fisher. Mr. E. Stephens. O Mr. J. Brown. Mr. D. McLaren. Mr. J. Morphett. Mr. T. Gilbert. Mr. C. Mann. Dr. Wright. Mr. J. Stephens. Mr. G. O. Ormsby Captain Duff. Mr. R. E. Thomas. Captain Walker. RECOGNITION OF HIS WORK 1 33 The good work that Colonel Light did in the early history of South Australia is now univer- sally acknowledged, and the judgment of pos- terity on which he relied has been entirely favourable to him. In his resolute adherence to the choice of Adelaide as the capital, and his rejection of Port Lincoln and Encounter Bay in the face of the most powerful official oppo- sition, he is now justified by all. His almost unsurmountable difficulties — the hardships, the incompetency of some of his subordinates, and the want of transport — ^are now, through the vista of time, seen and recognized. Of his private character there has always been only one estimate, and that one full of praise. The Servants of the Colonel's Household. The different Government Departments. Government Architect. Colonial Surgeon. Colonial Storekeeper. Protector of Aborigines. Emigration Agent. Inspector of Hospitals. Superintendent of Police. Postmaster-General. Collector of Customs. Colonial Treasurer. Bench of Magistrates. Sheriff. Assistant-Commissioner. Advocate-General. The Judge. The Governor. The Private Secretary. The Colonists two and two. 134 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE His name remains little, however, in the colony of South Australia. Light Passage, Light County, the River Light, and Light Square in Adelaide, alone commemorate it, while the names of the other pioneers were not for- gotten. A small monument of freestone, at the cost of ;£^46o, was erected over Lighfs tomb, accord- ing to the design of Sir George Kingston,* by his grateful fellow-pioneer colonists, and in 1876 the following inscription was inscribed on it : — ^ Francis Dutton, in '* South Australia and its Mines," thus describes it : "A pentagonal Gothic cross, height forty-fiye feet, and is divided into three compartments. The lower compartment comprises five tablets, on one or more of which will be inserted the inscription and arms of the deceased. The second consists of five deep trefoil- headed niches, surmounted by crocketed gables, and, like the first, is supported and further ornamented by buttresses, with their appropriate pinnacles and finials. The third compartment is pierced on each face, with open trefoil- headed arches, ornamented with tracery. The spire rises from a light open battlement, and is ornamented with crockets, the top terminating with a cross, and the pentagonal figure being preserved throughout . . . Mr. Kingston's services have been devoted to this elegant and elaborate structure out of respect to the deceased, without any charge to the committee." MEMORIALS 135 ERECTED BY The Pioneers of South Australia IN MEMORY OF COLONEL WILLIAM LIGHT, First Surveyor-General, and by whom The Site op Adelaide was fixed on the 29TH OF December, 1836. Died 5TH of October, 1839, Aged 54 Years. Buried under this Monument, ioth October, 1839. His memory, however, is not forgotten, for a picturesque ceremony takes place on the election of each Mayor of Adelaide. The " Memory of Colonel Light " is solemnly pledged in colonial wine in a silver cup, which was given for the purpose to the Mayor and Corporation of Adelaide by his friend and admirer, Lieutenant- Colonel George Palmer, of Nazing Park,^ one of the Colonization Commissioners, with the ' Colonel Palmer writes in 1875 that his father, a captain in the Hon. East India Company's Service, was a friend of Captain Francis Light, the founder of Penang. 136 THE FOUNDER OF ADELAIDE concurrence of Jacob Montefiore, Esq., Raikes Currie, M.P., and Alexander Laing Elder, Esq. The same friend also presented the Adelaide Corporation (through Sir Samuel Davenport) with a portrait of Colonel Light in uniform, copied in 1876 from a full-length picture in the possession of his grand-nephew, the Rev. William Lewis Mason, British Chaplain at Com- pi^gne, and this now hangs in the Adelaide Council Chamber. Another portrait, by George Jones, R.A,, exists in the National Portrait Gallery, London.^ Colonel Light played a very great though a silent part in the foundation of a new and a great country. His career was adventurous and his life was brave ; and, notwithstanding all his difficulties, and the tremendous opposition he encountered, his part in the foundation of the capital of South Australia was the chief glory of the life of one whose accomplishments and attainments receive so great commendation from Sir William Napier, and who, in every deed in ' A copy by M. Meilliere is in the possession of the author, and is reproduced for this work. Another por- trait of Colonel Light by himself belongs to Mr. G. G. Mayo, of Adelaide. CONCLUSION 1 37 his life of adventure, was actuated by the highest and least self-seeking motive. The materials for a sketch of his career are woefully scanty, and the details have hitherto been neglected, carelessly put together and but little known, and this must be the excuse for so meagre a life of one whose memory should never be allowed to sink further into oblivion, as he was one of the many builders of Greater Britain. APPENDIX ••o*- Letter, Lord Edward Somerset to Colonel Light.* Ninove (five leagues from Brussels), Monday evening, May 29, 1815. My dear Light, I am very happy to have it in my power to offer you the situation of Brigade-Major to the Brigade under my command, and I need not say that I shall be very glad if it should suit you to accept it. When I first received my orders in England to repair to the army in Flanders, I was informed by the Adjutant- General at the Horse Guards that Captain ViUiers of the Blues was appointed by the Duke of York Brigade-Major to the Household Brigade ; but to this day no notification of his appointment has been received either by the Adjutant- General in this coimtry, by his regiment, or by the dep6t of the Blues in ' From a copy in the Private I-«tter Book of the Hon. B. T. Finniss, kindly communicated by Miss Julia Finniss. 140 APPENDIX England, nor has Captain Villiers made his appear- ance here. I have therefore made a representation of the circumstances to the Duke of Wellingtcm, and recommended you for the situation ; and I can assure you that he has approved of your being appointed to it in the handsomest manner, and has desired me to write to you to come out here as soon as possible. I have been thus explicit on the subject of the supposed appointment of Captain Villiers, lest by any accident he should after all come out here in consequence of his nomination by the Horse Guards; and I can only say, that should such an event unexpectedly occur to deprive you of the situation, I should be very glad to have you on my staff as an extra aide-de-camp until a permanent appointment should offer. However, from the conversation I have had with the Duke of Wellington this evening, he appears perfectly to approve of your being my Brigade-Major, and therefore I hope I shall see you very shortly. Be so good as to write to me by return of post to acquaint me with your determination. The sooner you can come out the better, as we expect to commence operations very soon ; and when I hear of your coming, I will send a letter to meet you at Ostend, directed to the commandants at that place, to let you know where to join the Brigade. There has been a grand review of all the British Cavalry, consisting of forty-six squadrons, and six troops of Horse Artillery, by the Duke of Wellington to-day. Marshal Blucher was present, and a very fine spectacle it was. APPENDIX 141 My Brigade consists of two squadrons of each regiment of Life Guards, two of the Blues, and four of the King's Dragoon Guards. They are in exceedingly good order, but it is not quite so active a service as the last I was employed on last year.^ Believe me, my dear Light, Ever very truly yours, R. Edward H. Somerset. To Captain Light (3rd Foot), 54, Gloucester Place, Portman Square. > Lord Edward Somerset was Lieutenant-Colonel of the 4th (Queen's) Dragoons, in which regiment Light served in the Peninsular War. r I INDEX •«^*- Abdulla, Rajah of Keddah, , Tunku, 11 «. Adelaide, Queen, 91 n, Ahmad Taj-Udin of Keddah, II n, Allen, John, 5 Angas, G. Fife, 75 Beatson, John, 23 BennSt, Caroline, 61, 64 , Mary, 59, 70, 80 n. , Mrs., 60 Besson, M. de, 67 Blessington, Lord, 65 Bonaparte, Lucien, 64 Bourke, General, 55, 58 Boyd, George, 35 n, Brightwell, Stephen, 5 Brooke, Francis, 5 , George, 5 Bunbury, Sir Henry, 64 , Emily Lady, 61 Byron, Lord, 51, 65 Calatrava, Don Jos^, Cameron, John, 78 Caroline, Queen, 52 Cerisy Bey, 67 Chee Hong, 33 Chee Kay, 30 Cherbonneau, M., 6 Churchill, Colonel W., 4 Claughton, W., 78 Crawfurd, W., 2(5 ConoUy, Lady Louisa, 61 n. Cooper, William, 82 Curran, Miss, 65 De WiNT, P., 51 Doughty, George, of The- berton, 34, 42 , Rev. G. C, 42 «. , Mrs., 42»., 59 Eliot, Lieutenant, 54 Erskine, Captain, 54 Esan, a slave, 34 1 l\ 144 Evans, Sir G. D. L., 53 INDEX Fairue, William^ 34 Fergusson, John, 23 Field, Captain, 88, Z09, 127 Fielding, Joseph, 5 Finniss, Boyle T., 78, 80, 87, 96, 113, 124, 127, 128, 131, 139 ». Fisher, J. Hurtle, 78, lOO, 113 Frome, Colonel, 130 Furtado, Mendez, iz Galloway Bay, 70 Gawler, Governor, 125, 128 Gillespie, Sir R. R., 31 n. Glass, Captain, 23, 38 Glenelg, Lord, 75, 77 Gordon, Sir W., 46 Gouger, R., 73»78, 87-89, 114 Gray, James, 22 Grote, George, 75 Gurwood, Colonel, 46 Hack, J. B., 114 n. , Stephen, 1x4 Hamilton, Captain A., 25 n. Harding, J. D., 63 Hardy, Alfred, 78 Hastings, Warren, 7 Hill, Rowland, 75, 121 Hindmarsh, Captain, 70, 71, 77* 93. 106. "4. 123 Holcombe, James, 23 Howell, Captain, 22 Hunter, Chariet, lU , David, of Bm^ IscANDBR Mnda II H, Jacob, WiUiam, 7!, Jeflfcott, SirJ., 78,11 Keith, Lord, 50 «. Kingston, Sir G. & 87, 92, 94. zos J 121, 134 Kinloch, Mr., 9 Kirkup, Seymour, 61 Koenig, M., 7 Lambert, Alfred, 80 , James. 5 , Mary Anguata, , Thomas, 5 Landor, Walter Sava Lever, Charles, 6a Light, Albert C H.. , Alexander W., , Bianca Maiy, 8 , Florence, 8z j». , Francis, foundc nang, 1-38 , Francis Lanooi 35 Francis, 31 n. Sir Heniy, 66 n Major HugoS., INDEX 145, Light, Mary (Mrs. Boyd), 35 n. , 45 , Mrs. {vide Mary Bennet) , Robert Rollo, 31 «. , Sarah (Mrs. Welsh), 35 , Sarah M. (Mrs. Koe- nitz), 31 n, — '-, William, founder of Adelaide, 34, 35, 41-141 , William, 31 n. Lindsay, William, 23 Lipson, Captain, 78, 94 Low, Colonel, 8 n, Lynedoch, Lord, 46 Macpherson, Sir John, 9 Magenm's, James, 23 Mann, Charles, 78 Marrong Mahawangsa, 10 n. Marsden, A^Uiam, 26 Mason, Rev. William L., 45 n. , 136 Mathers, Captain, 56 Mehemet Ali, 66-70 Mendonpa, Diego de, 11 n. Monckton, Mr., 13 «. Moore, Thomas, 50, 62 Muazim Shah II. of Keddab, 13 Nadauld, Henry, 5 , Margaret, 5 «. Napier, Sir Charles J., 46, 76, 77 , Sir George, 46, 47 , Captain Henry E. , 61 Napier, Sir WiUiam, 48 , Lady Sarah, 61 Negus, Francis, 4 , William, of Melton, 4 Nonyah Yeen, Princess, 27 n. Novella, Don F., 58 Palmer, Colonel, 45 »,, 135 Pegou, Thomas, 34 Phyd Tak, King of Siam, II n., 12 Porter, Rev. Moses, 6 Prya, Captain David, 23 Pullen, Vice-Admiral, 78, 80 QuiROGA, General, 54 Richmond, Charles, 2nd Duke of, 61 H. , Charles, 3rd Duke of, 60 Roberts, Captain, 65 Ross, Andrew, 24 Rozells, Martina, 26, 27, 33, 34. 6i ». SARDINIA, King of, 65, 66 Scott, James, 8, 38 , Robert, 38 Shelley, Percy B., 51, 65 Skinner, J. M., 37 Smith, George, 23 Somerset, Lord Edward, 49 n. , 139-141 L ■V 146 INDEX Soult, General, 48, 49 Stuart, Lady Dudley, 64 Stmt, Captain, >;% 124, 126 Symonds, R. G., 78 Taj-Udin, Raja of Keddah, II n, Talleyrand, Princesse de, 50 Torrens, Colonel, 74, 115 Trapaud, Captain Elisha, 22, 26 Trelawney, E. J., 51, 65 Topping, Michael, 13 n. Tuanko China, 15 ViLLAMILL, M., 50 Villa Dorata, Prince, 51 Villiers, Captain, 139, 140 Wakefield. E. Gibbon, 72, 73. 91 «. Wjdl, Thomas, 23 Walter, John, 6 Wellington, Duke of, 45, 46, 48, 76, 139. 140 Welsh, General James, 27 n. , 35 Wilson, Sir Robert, 52-58, 77 Zein-el Rashid of Keddah, II n, Zorva, General, 55 THE END LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWBS AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. n ■i: I iiiiill STANFORD UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES STANFORD AUXILIARY LIBRARY STANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305-6004 (650) 723-9201 salcirc@sulmoil.stonford.edu All books ore subject to recoil. DATE DUE o -im-c zm