This letter was addressed to the directors of the London Missionary
Society, and many of similar purport written by Johnson and Marsden, the
chaplains of the settlement, are to be found in the records. All these
writers agree on one point: the colony had fallen from grace under the
military administration. Phillip had left it in good order, and Hunter at
the time, these witnesses testified, was doing his best to improve
matters.

Lang (not a reliable authority in many things, but to be believed when
not expressing opinions), in his _History of New South Wales_, tells an
anecdote of Hunter which is worth retelling. Captain Hunter was on one
occasion the subject of an anonymous letter addressed by some disreputable
colonist to the Duke of Portland, then Home Secretary. (There was no
Colonial Secretary in those days.) The Duke sent back the letter without
comment to Hunter, who one day handed it to an officer who was dining with
him. "You will surely notice this?" said the officer. "No," replied
Hunter. "The man has a family, and I don't want to ruin them."

It was this good-nature, this disinclination to fight his enemies to the
bitter end, that ultimately had much to do with Hunter's recall. A certain
Captain John MacArthur, of the New South Wales Corps, of whom we shall
presently hear very much, was, when Hunter arrived, filling the civil post
of Inspector of Public Works. He was also a settler in the full meaning of
the word, owning many acres and requiring many assigned servants to work
them and to look after his flocks and herds, and from some cause connected
with these civil occupations he came into collision with the governor.
This presently led to much correspondence between the Home Office, the
governor, and MacArthur. In these letters Hunter and his subordinate say
very unkind things of each other, which nowadays may well be forgotten.
The settlement was so small, the life was such an uneventful one, that it
would be wonderful indeed if men did not quarrel, and these two men were
naturally antagonistic to each other.

Hunter was an old-fashioned naval officer, sixty years of age, and fifty
of those years had been spent in disinterested service to his country, "a
pleasant, sensible old man," says a young ship's officer, writing home to
his father; and in another letter, published in a newspaper of 1798, we
are told that "much may be expected from Captain Hunter, whose virtue and
integrity is as conspicuous a