n lands
of the colony, lands probably of less value then than any other in the
possession of civilized people, Grose's officers, who had to do a great
deal of extra civil work, were given land in payment for that work. Much
abuse has been heaped upon Grose for his alleged favouring of officers by
giving them huge grants of land, but, as a matter of fact, Grose behaved
very honourably; and Mac Arthur, who owned more land than any other
officer in 1794, had only 250 acres in cultivation, and the grants to
other officers never exceeded in any one case 120 acres. If Grose's land
policy was bad, he was not to blame, but the trafficking which he
permitted to grow up and practically encouraged was a different matter
altogether.

Phillip warned the home Government before he left the colony that rum
might be a necessity, but it would certainly turn out a great evil. Soon
after Grose took command of the colony there arrived an American ship with
a cargo of provisions and rum for sale. The American skipper would not
sell the provisions without the purchaser also bought the spirits. This
was the beginning of the rum traffic; and ships frequently arrived
afterwards with stores, and always with quantities of spirits--rum from
America and brandy from the Cape. The officers purchased all the spirits,
and paid the wages of the convicts who were assigned to them with the
liquor; not only this, but they hired extra convict labour, paying for it
the same way, and strong drink became the medium of exchange.

All this has been an apparent digression from the history of the New South
Wales Corps, but, as will be seen, the subjects are intimately connected.
A later governor, who found the colony not so bad as it was at this time,
said its population consisted of people who had been, and people who ought
to have been, transported. Little wonder then that the New South Wales
Corps, enlisted from the lowest classes of the English population, became
demoralized. Most of the recruits came from that famous "clink" the Savoy
Military Prison. They had little drill or discipline when they were
embarked for the colony, and the character of the service they were
employed in was the very worst to make good soldiers of them.

In consequence they became a dangerous element in the early life of the
colony; there were frequently breaches of discipline, there were cases of
downright mutiny, and their career in New South Wales ended in a
rebellion. The respon