258 THE CHRONICLES OF SYDNEY COVE. 1798-1803 having had no difficulty in adopting the melancholy air and manner which distinguish his predecessor ; as if, when sitting down to write, he had wrapped himself up in the inky cloak which Collins had left behind him for the pur- pose. The reader is too often reminded of the propensity for moralising on the iniquity of human nature which figures so prominently in the first volume. At the same time, Hunter did not neglect the opportunity for displaying the nature and extent of his own services, as well as defending himself from charges which he knew might be made against his administration. The energy unconsciously displayed in Authorship passagos of this description reveals the author's hand ; as, for instance, where he tells us (p. 86) — ^in reference to the trading monopoly which the officers of the New South Wales Corps had succeeded in establishing — " it must have been evident to every one who had sense to see it, that the Governor, from the hour of his arrival, had used his utmost endeavours to put an end to the practice of so much impo- sition.*' That fact is not made at all so clear to the reader as might be wished ; more especially as Hunter, for reasons Delicate which ho docs not explain, carefully refrains from any expla- nation on the subject, or any allusion to the officers con- cerned. His reserve is the more remarkable because, during his residence among them, those gentlemen had encircled him in their folds like so many cobras. He endured the painful struggle for five years; and then, ijiocoon. finding that the only means by which he could shake them off was by leaving the colony in their grasp, he said good- bye to them in an order in which he expressed his admira- tion for their services, and the confidence he had so long reposed in them. Digitized by Google
