The speculative and enterprising John Macarthur, indignant at interference with a traffic which Grose, Paterson,
and Hunter had openly sanctioned, offered (30th Sept.) the
whole of his stock to the government-50 cattle, 10 horses,
and 600 sheep-for £4000, the land and improvements to
be included in the price. He intended to return to England.
King recommended the purchase to the Secretary of State.
The Duke of Portland (19th June 1801) saw no advantage
in the purchase of the horses, but approved of buying the
sheep and cattle. The farm would be as advantageous to
the settlement in private hands. Grose, in encouraging
military officers to devote themselves largely to farming
pursuits, and providing them with convict labour, deviated
from Phillip's practice and from instructions from England.
The Duke of Portland animadverted strongly upon the
proof now afforded of the extent of Grose's disobedience.
"I highly disapprove of the commanding officer of the corps to which Captain Macarthur belongs allowing him or any other officer to continue in such contradictory situations and characters. . . . The evil, and a great one it is, consists in individuals who are not settlers (and whose characters and situations necessarily incapacitate them from becoming so) being enabled at the public cost to do that which should have been done for the public itself in the first instance."
When these strictures reached the colony Macarthur had left it, and was labouring to found an industry which was to become important both to the colony and to England. (He left to his amiable wife the difficult task of superintending his property.)
King's proceedings in arresting the spirit traffic were highly commended. "Any master of a vessel who disregards the orders should not be allowed to remain in your port an hour, nor should he be ever suffered to return to it."
Traders in the East Indies had pampered the vicious craving of the community, and before King left England in 1799 a despatch to India had deprecated the exportation of spirits thence to New South Wales. In March 1801 King wrote that the embargo in India had done much good, but that from America, the Brazils, and the Cape of Good Hope large quantities of bad spirits were poured into the colony. Transport ships chartered to the colony continually brought spirits. Not a convict ship arrived with less than 8000 gallons. He implored that the Transport Board would
