manner in which he resisted them have been totally and happily forgotten.

The history of Australia up to, and until the end of Bligh's appointment,
can be summed up in half a dozen sentences. Phillip, during the term of
his office, had repeatedly urged upon the home Government the necessity of
sending out free men. Convicts without such a leaven could not, in his
opinion, successfully lay the foundation of the "greatest acquisition
England has ever made." Time proved the correctness of his judgment. The
population of the colony, from something more than 1000 when he landed,
had been increased at the close of King's administration to about 7000
persons. Half a dozen settlements had been formed at places within a few
miles of Sydney; advantage had been taken of the discoveries of Bass and
Flinders, and settlements made at Hobart and at Port Dalrymple; while an
attempt (resulting in failure on this occasion and described later on) was
made to colonize Port Phillip. A good deal of country was under
cultivation, and stock had greatly increased, so that in the seventeen
years that had elapsed some progress had been made, but the state of
society at Botany Bay had grown worse rather than better. In the direction
of reformation the experiment of turning felons into farmers was not a
success. Few free emigrants had arrived in the colony, and those who came
out were by no means the best class of people. Nobody worked more than
they could help; drinking, gambling, and petty bickering occupied the
leisure of most. This was the state of affairs which Captain Bligh was
sent to reform, and we have seen how his mission succeeded.

In the case of the mutiny of the _Bounty_, it is reasonably believed that
the mutineers were, at any rate, partially incited to their crime by the
seductions of Tahiti; in the case of the revolt in New South Wales, it is
known that allegiance to constituted authority had no part in the
character of Bligh's subjects. Therefore, notwithstanding that Bligh was