The Far Horizon (4 page)

Chapter Five

In the end, it was not General Balfour or even the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, the Duke of York, who persuaded Lachlan Macquarie to go to New South Wales; it was the Prince of Wales.

In previous times, after his return from India and while he was working at the War Office in London as a staff officer to Lord Harrington, Lachlan had often been required to dine with the Prince of Wales in the company of his boss.

Upon receipt of his refusal of the posting, Lord Harrington sent him a dispatch a few days later.

The Prince of Wales remembers you well and fondly, and would consider it a personal favour if you did take the post as Governor-General of New South Wales.

Although it has not been revealed to the country or even to Parliament, the King’s health is failing badly and it is quite probable that the Prince of Wales will be taking over his duties as the King’s Regent very soon.

Lachlan looked up from the letter, realising he had no further choice in the matter. If a Regency Bill was approved by Parliament, and all royal power was vested in the Prince of Wales as Regent, then refusing his request would be tantamount to refusing the King himself.

And for a soldier … an officer in His Majesty’s Army to do that …

But first, even before the King, Lachlan chose to give priority to consideration of the views of his family.

*

Over the previous week, Elizabeth had given long thought to the matter of New South Wales. A grim place from all accounts, and certainly not a place for a gentle-bred lady. She knew that most army wives in her position would choose to stay behind in the comfort of their own homes while their husbands were away on service.

But she also knew that if
her
husband was forced to go, and to a place so far away, no matter how awful it was she would still go with him, even to the ends of the earth, because she loved him.

*

Lachlan understood the baffled expression on George Jarvis’s face.

‘Why not?’ George asked.

‘Because if I
did
get you commissioned into the 73
rd
, George, all your freedom – and assistance to me – would be lost. You would be under the control of your superior officers, going out into the field, marches, parades morning and night. And it won’t be anything like India or Egypt – all deployed soldiers will be there simply to
guard
the colony and the convicts.’

George at last understood. He nodded, ‘Yes, yes, I understand now.’

A silence hung in the room before George finally asked, ‘So what is it you wish me to do?’

‘Just to … come with me, George. Be my personal and private aide … Help me in this trial that I’m sure New South Wales will be. It’s only for a couple of years, and you are still very young. When we return, then – ’

‘How soon do we go?’ George asked quietly.

In blank silence Lachlan stared at him … He knew George Jarvis had no reason that would compel him to go with him to New South Wales. Years ago, from the money left in Jane's will, a trust had been settled by her on George which he had received from the day of his twenty-first birthday. So he was financially independent now and could go wherever he pleased.

He said: ‘George, it’s a hellhole of convict colony … are you sure?’

George looked at the man who had rescued him, brought him up through his childhood years and educated him, the man he would follow anywhere, because he loved him.

‘Yes, my father,’ George answered with certainty. ‘I am sure.’

*

Two weeks later, Elizabeth and George accompanied Lachlan down to London where he was officially presented by the Duke of York to the King, who officially appointed him as Governor-General of New South Wales, Van Diemen’s Land, and all islands adjacent in the Pacific Ocean.

Unlike previous Governors of New South Wales, the new vice-regal powers that King George the Third gave “
To our trusty and well-beloved Lachlan Macquarie
,” were almost those of a Monarch of the entire antipodean region.

Elizabeth could not stop herself from feeling extremely proud of the honours bestowed on her husband by the King and his sons, but Lachlan was not nearly so impressed.

‘
We are shortly to be transported to a penal colony
,’ he wrote to his friends in India, ‘
but myself and the 73
rd
Regiment have now become reconciled to our banishment to Botany Bay.’

PART TWO

This fifth part of the Earth

Which would seem an after-birth

Not conceived in the Beginning,

But emerged at the first sinning,

When the ground was therefore curst;-

And hence – this barren wood!

Kangaroo

Chapter Six

As far as the white man was concerned that barren wood, founded in 1779 by Captain James Cook on the east coast of New Holland, was now a British settlement only twenty years old. Its main benefit as a newly found Crown Colony was a much-needed dumping ground for the felons who could not be contained in Britain's overflowing jails.

Murderers, thieves, and villains,

We'll send them all away.

To serve out their sentence

In the hell of Botany Bay!

No prisoners were ever landed at Botany Bay itself. In 1788, nine years after Cook's discovery, Captain Arthur Phillips arrived at Botany Bay with the first shipload of convicts, but decided that the anchorage was unsafe, finally anchoring in a beautiful harbour further up the coast, which he named Sydney.

During the twenty years since the arrival of those first prisoners, vast tracts of the barren wood had been chopped down and cleared by the energy of the convicts and the lash.

Regiments of soldiers had been dispatched there, many taking their wives and children with them. A number of free-settlers, too, had emigrated there, for wealth was always to be made in a new land, especially when the men and labour needed to make it were supplied free of wage. A man with only a few pounds might be a worthless nobody in London or Devon, but in the new colony of New South Wales he could be a land-owner, a squire, a gentleman with his own tribe of slaves!

Southward ho!

Away they go!

To break the backs of convicts,

And make their fortunes O!

The drawback to the fortune-seeking emigrant was the stigma he suffered on his return from New South Wales. The reason being that, before anything else, he had to prove his sojourn there had been
legitimate
. Even when he had proved that his time in the colony had been taken of his own free will, he was still viewed with a suspicious eye. No matter how wealthy, the returned emigrant discovered that it was a rare neighbour who could entertain his company without constantly making surreptitious checks that the contents of his pockets were safe, that his wife was safe, that his safe was safe.

Such a stigma, however, would not be suffered by Lachlan Macquarie.

*

Portsmouth harbour was bustling with activity. Two ships, the
Hindustan
and
Dromedary
had been loaded with water and supplies for the long voyage to New South Wales.

The 73rd Regiment, comprising of a thousand soldiers and their officers, filled both ships. Well-furnished cabins had been reserved for General and Mrs Macquarie on the
Dromedary
.

Accommodation had also been found for the Macquaries' entourage of new servants, which included a cook with the appropriate name of Mrs Ovens, and a sturdy carriage-driver who stood six-feet-six-inches tall, named Joseph Bigg. The latter had been sent with personal compliments to General Macquarie from the service of Lord Harrington.

HMS Dromedary
was a first rate ‘Man-of-War’ according to her commander, Captain Pritchard. ‘Made of the best English oak, fine Welsh copper, and stout enough for anything!’

In the chill wind Elizabeth's eyes stared up at the towering masts of the ship, and then her eyes finally settled thoughtfully on the bowsprit as she wondered what lay ahead.

Seasickness.

A fierce wind astern blew them swiftly down the English Channel, the white topsails of both ships billowing and banging gustily.

Two days after leaving Portsmouth, Elizabeth was unaware that the Lizard had been passed and England left behind. She lay in her cabin sicker than she had ever been in her life, listening to the woodwork creaking all around her as the ship rolled on the swells and dipped the troughs.

She prayed for calmness, for mercy, but two more weeks of rough weather lay ahead. Occasionally the shouts of the crew penetrated the slight lulls. ‘
Move it, you bugger! Where d'ye think you are? Strolling in Hyde bloody Park!’

It was not until the weather calmed as they approached Madeira, that Elizabeth finally emerged from her cabin, pale and dazed.

On deck she saw her husband and George Jarvis, both looking as calm and relaxed as if they had spent the last three weeks on dry land.

Lachlan stared at her white face. ‘My God,' he said, you look as pale as a corpse.’

‘Thank you,’ she said with mock sweetness. ‘I
do
love your compliments.’

‘General Macquarie!’

Lachlan turned his head to where Captain Pritchard stood by the quarterdeck rail and called down, ‘A moment, sir, if you please!’

Lachlan nodded to the captain, and then assured Elizabeth. ‘I'll be straight back.’

Now that she had left her cabin, Elizabeth met the other civilian passengers on board ship. Only two. A young couple, Mr and Mrs Bent, who seemed very eager to acquaint themselves with the newly-appointed Viceroy of the colony in which Ellis Bent hoped to secure a good living as an attorney or a magistrate.

In the evenings Mr and Mrs Bent often stayed up to join General and Mrs Macquarie in an after-dinner game of whist. A game which Captain Pritchard also enjoyed, except when his partner – which was usually Elizabeth – made a mistake, and he found himself forced to severely reprimand her.

‘That man makes me so
cross!
' Elizabeth complained one night on the way back to their cabins. ‘Who does the old sea dog think I am? One of his midshipmen!’

Smiling, Lachlan confessed that he found Captain Pritchard a likable sort of man. It was the captain of their companion ship, the
Hindustan
, who was beginning to wear his patience near the limit.

From the day they had cleared England, Captain Pascoe of the
Hindustan
had been unable to prevent himself from tearing off-course in pursuit of every strange ship he spied, convinced the ship was French, and determined to capture her and claim the prize money. All had turned out to be merely trading vessels, but thanks to Pascoe's wild pursuits they had lost many a good breeze, causing a number of delays in the process.

‘Pascoe's a Merchant man,' Captain Pritchard said with a grunt when Lachlan brought up the subject, ‘not Royal Navy. That's why he is mastering an Indiaman and I am commanding a King's ship.’

‘Nevertheless,’ Lachlan said, ‘the
Hindustan
is carrying half a regiment of my soldiers. And if any of those ships
had
been French, it would have been
my
soldiers who took all of the blows and none of the profit.’

He looked through the stern window of the cabin in the direction of the trailing merchantman. ‘My orders, Captain Pritchard, are to proceed to New South Wales with all possible speed.’

‘As are mine,' Pritchard said, then after a thoughtful pause. ‘We could, of course, leave the
Hindustan
to sail its own undisciplined course and join up with us later in New South Wales.’

Lachlan looked at him coolly. ‘Would you ever, under any circumstances, desert your ship?’

Pritchard responded as if insulted. ‘No, sir, never.’

‘And neither will I desert my soldiers.’

Pritchard nodded. ‘Aye, aye, I understand, my apologies, sir.’

Half an hour later the
Dromedary
had hove to, and sailors were dropping a boat over the side. Captain Pritchard stood by the entry port looking down as General Macquarie climbed into the longboat, but it was his own sailors that his eyes watched carefully as the boatswain shouted orders.

‘Shove off! Give way all!’

Captain Pritchard watched the twin line of oars rising and falling in a strong and regular rhythm as the boat pulled swiftly across the sea towards the
Hindustan
, a quarter of a mile away.

He was still watching when the longboat and its passenger returned, the oars pulling steadily until the boatswain ordered, ‘Easy all!’ and the two lines of dripping oars rose up in the air like the two wings of an albatross; and the bowman swiftly hooked the boat on to the chains of the ship.

Captain Pritchard called down his approval to the boatswain, his voice deliberately loud. ‘Expertly done, Mr Hawkins. Expertly done!’

It was praise meant for all the boat's crew, but it had to be addressed to their petty officer, Mr Hawkins, who was making sure that General Macquarie did not slip between boat and ship as he climbed up the side steps, acknowledged the praise with a smile but without lifting his eyes. ‘Thank you, Captain.’

Pritchard greeted Macquarie as he stepped back on board. ‘You spoke to Pascoe?’

Lachlan nodded. ‘I spoke to Pascoe.'

And as Macquarie walked away, Pritchard had a feeling that that, too, had been expertly done.

*

The journey went on, over miles and miles of empty sea with never a view of land. Elizabeth and Mrs Bent spent their days in the manner of most seafaring passengers on their first long voyage: when the weather was hot and becalmed, with no wind to aid their progress, they got in a bad mood and blamed the captain, attributing to him at least twenty faults which he probably did not possess.

When a fair breeze finally arrived, permitting the ship to sail speedily and steadily, their good humour was instantly restored, and the captain forgiven.

Captain Pritchard, meanwhile, was becoming very impressed with the care and attention General Macquarie constantly gave to his troops. Not the smallest detail relating to their comfort and health was overlooked.

Macquarie personally ensured that all provisions served to the men were of the best quality and well cooked. Each day he inspected those parts of the ship that housed his troops, insisting their decks be kept as clean as possible, and stressed the importance of all hammocks being kept dry.

‘In warm weather,’ Captain Pritchard heard Macquarie instructing his officers, ‘all hatchways must remain open so as much air as possible can be allowed inside.’

Oh no, Captain Pritchard thought to himself with certainty, no soldier on the
Dromedary
would be allowed to die of pneumonia or pleurotic fever or catch even the smallest infection, not if their commanding officer could prevent it.

And now, of the three hundred and seventy soldiers aboard the
Dromedary
all remained very healthy.

Not so on the
Hindustan
.

All Lachlan's fears came to fruition when Captain Pascoe sent a cutter to the
Dromedary
to inform General Macquarie that there was a severe outbreak of dysentery on board his ship, and the sick list of soldiers was increasing by the day. Some were now so ill they needed the care of a hospital.

Nor could Captain Pascoe hope for a favourable change in the condition of the soldiers, having nothing but salt provisions, and his supply of water had run so short he had insufficient to carry them to the Cape of Good Hope.

Lachlan said to Captain Pritchard. ‘Now you see why it was so important that the two ships should never part company! The
Hindustan
needs vegetables and water and we can supply them immediately.’

‘That would reduce our own supplies drastically.’

‘Our own supplies can be supplemented at the nearest port,’ Lachlan replied impatiently. ‘And many of those men on the
Hindustan
are so ill they will die if they don’t receive water and medical help soon. So tell me – which is our nearest port?’

‘The nearest port is miles off our charted course.’ Captain Pritchard was already peering at the chart on his desk, finally stabbing it with his finger. ‘Rio de Janeiro … miles off in the opposite direction. We would lose a lot of time.’

‘Or we could save that time and lose a lot of decent young men instead. Which would you prefer?’

Pritchard looked up, alerted by the undertone of anger in Macquarie’s words.

‘Well,’ he said, turning his gaze back to the map, ‘I would prefer to carry on to the Cape … but, in view of the sick men, I suppose I have no choice but to veer way off course and head southwest to Rio.’

*

The spectacular beauty and grandeur of the harbour of Rio de Janeiro on a fine clear evening was enough in itself, without the extra splendour of the red sun slowly setting behind the Sugar Loaf.

Elizabeth stood at the ship's rail beside Lachlan and stared at the scene in awe. A good wind had carried them in, and the town of St Sebastian could clearly be seen. Church spires pierced the skyline and perched on her hills the town of St Sebastian was surrounded on all sides by the magnificent houses of noblemen. Here, at last, was the architectural
art
of the Portuguese.

If there's one thing the Doms do well,’ Lachlan said, ‘it's building beautiful houses.'

‘
Let go!
' a voice yelled, followed by a thundering crash as the ship's anchor plunged into the water.

Now steady in her anchorage, Lachlan left the
Dromedary
to be rowed across in a gig to the
Fondroyant
, a Portuguese flagship of 80 guns.