PHILLIP AND THE MILITARY. 109 manding Officers of Marines at Portsmoutli and Plymouth "; 1788-98 they would govern themselves by that letter, and not by any requests they might receive from Governor Phillip. On these grounds they absolutely declined to '^ interfere with the convicts " in any way, even to the extent of giving an . occasional word of encouragement to the diligent, or a caution to the idle ; although, at the same time, they claimed ^jn®^" a right to convict labour in the cultivation of their gardens. in*«rf«re- So punctilious were they with respect to the strict lines of their military duty, as they conceived it, that they thought " the being obliged to sit as members of the Criminal Court an hardship," because they were not paid for it. They did not suppose that they were sent out to do more than garrison duty"; and they thought themselves '^hardly dealt by in that Government had not determined what lands were to be given them." These demands were no doubt designed to bring pressure to bear upon Phillip, in order that he might obtain from the Home Government the concessions to which they considered themselves entitled. They thought Their view they ought to have their grants of land immediately, as well **' ***® ^^^ as convict labour for its cultivation; and also that they ought to be paid for their services in the Criminal Court. Because he did not adopt their views on these points, they had no hesitation in giving him plainly to understand that they declined the least interference with the convicts, unless when they are immediately employed for their own con- veniency, or when they are called out at the head of their men." Phillip thus found himself, soon after his arrival in the colony, in a position which every day threatened to bring him into collision with the head of the military force ; and the attitude assumed by Major Boss was such as to leave conflicts very little hope of satisfactory relations being ever estab- civu and lished between them. This was the beginning of the dis- sension between the civil and the military authorities which continued through succeeding administrations, and finally culminated in the deposition of Governor Bligh. It owed Digitized by Google
