until December, 1794, and Captain Paterson, of the same regiment, who had
charge until the arrival of Hunter. The New South Wales Corps had such an
influence on the lives of these naval governors of Australia that in the
next chapter it will be necessary to give a sketch of this remarkable
regiment; meanwhile it may be merely mentioned that the commanding officer
of the military, during the period of the four New South Wales naval
governors, held a commission as lieutenant-governor, and so took command
in the absence of the governor.

Upon Hunter's arrival he did not at all like the state of affairs. Major
Grose had permitted to grow up a system of trade in which his officers had
secured monopolies, and, as a leading article of this commerce was rum, it
can easily be understood in what a state of disorder Hunter found the
colony. Instead of the prisoners being kept at work cultivating the
ground, the officers of the New South Wales Regiment employed more than a
proper proportion of them in their private affairs; and the consequence
was, the settlement had made little or no progress on the road to
independence--that is, of course, independence in the matter of growing
its food supply, not its politics. Further than this, Grose's methods of
governing a colony and administering its laws were the same as those he
employed in commanding his regiment. He was not able to rise above this;
and under him martial law was practically, if not nominally, the form of
the colony's government. Paterson, his successor, passively carried on
until the arrival of Hunter the same lines as his predecessor; and the
consequence was, the colony existed for the benefit of the officers of the
regiment, who, by huckstering in stores, were rapidly acquiring fortunes.
A few free settlers had already arrived in the colony, and by degrees
emancipated prisoners and emigrants from Great Britain were forming a
small free population, and were beginning to have "interests." Thus there
were slowly growing the elements of a pretty quarrel, a triangular duel,