The Scots are an intrepid people and this piece celebrates
two empire pioneers, one in darkest 18th – 19th century
Africa, the other leaving his considerable mark on more temperate Australia.
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| Mungo Park |
On his safe return, he applied to the Africa Society and was
asked to plot the course of the Niger River. In 1795 he led a small party to
the Gambia and crossed Senegal, where he was imprisoned by a Moorish chieftain
for 4 months. He escaped and struck the Niger at Segou following the river 80
miles downstream, the first European to do so. He turned back and covered a
further 300 miles, after many vicissitudes, finally emerging in 1797 and
returning to Scotland. He was assumed to have perished and was lavishly and
publicly feted for his discoveries.
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| Mungo Park in Africa |
Mungo then practised as a doctor in Peebles and became a
friend of the celebrated poet and novelist Sir Walter Scott. Finding the
Borders life monotonous, he mounted another expedition to the Niger in 1804. Mungo
speculated (wrongly) that the Niger and Congo Rivers were connected; his
expedition was 20-strong but it was soon decimated by the fevers to which the
Europeans were so susceptible. He constructed two sizeable wooden boats and
covered some 1,000 miles of the Niger and continually had to drive off attacks
by hostile native tribes. His group was well armed with muskets and usually
prevailed but his party was down to 4 white men and 3 slaves. Park then visited
the prominent city of Timbuktu in modern Mali.
A local King in 1806 was offended at the quality of trinkets
sent to him and unleashed his warriors. The river narrowed for the Rapids at
Bussa in modern Nigeria and unluckily Park’s boat got stuck on some rocks and
his party was assailed by spears, bows and arrows. He and others had to jump
into the river and all were drowned. News of this catastrophe took long to
reach Scotland. Park’s exploits were presented in heroic mode and he is
commemorated in several places, not least with a large statue in his home town
of Selkirk. Every generation has its heroes and Park’s bravery caught the
public imagination.
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| Mungo Park Memorial, Selkirk |
The merits of Lachlan
Macquarie (1762-1824) were of a more conventional kind. Born into a poor
but respected tenant farming family on Ulva, just off the larger Isle of Mull
in the Inner Hebrides, Lachlan joined the Regiment of Foot in 1776 and
immediately saw service in the American War of Independence. Returning to
Britain as a lieutenant in 1784 he soldiered for years in India, serving under
Sir Arthur Wellesley, later the famed Duke of Wellington at Seringapatam in
1799, the nemesis of Tipoo Sahib. Promoted and enriched, Lachlan joined General
Abercromby in Egypt in 1801, was present at the retaking of Alexandria and saw
the expulsion of Napoleon’s French army from Egypt. Returning to staff duties
in England he took as his second wife his cousin Elizabeth Campbell in 1807.
After 6 miscarriages, she was to give birth to a much cherished son.
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| Major-General Lachlan Macquarie |
Lachlan was selected to be Deputy Governor of the mainly
penal settlement of New South Wales. The prospective new Governor dropped out
and Lachlan was confirmed in 1809 as Governor by Lord Castlereagh, the Foreign
Secretary. He arrived with a detachment of troops in December 1809 and took the
oath of office in 1810.
The colony of New South Wales was in some turmoil after the
deposition of the previous Governor William Bligh (of Mutiny on the Bounty
fame). The local militia did not obey the civil power but Macquarie soon
suppressed disorder. There was bitter tension between the free settlers and the
ex-convict settlers, who were growing in numbers. Macquarie took a notably
liberal line, encouraging the ex-convicts to stay and decreeing that they
should be able to resume their previous occupation and status. Thus a
time-served baker, lawyer or innkeeper would return to those careers. Macquarie
was the last Governor with effectively autocratic powers, but there were disputes
with other vested interests and Macquarie’s 12-year governorship was
controversial, though history has hailed him as a dynamic innovator and
reformist.
He tried to encourage agriculture, overhauled the courts and
the justice system, introduced new currency and particularly coinage and
sponsored the foundation of the Bank of New South Wales. The home government
saw NSW as essentially a dumping ground for convicts, to be run on the cheap.
Lachlan was more ambitious for this lovely country; he wished to make Sydney a
Georgian city and he laid out many streets which still survive – his Hospital
is now NSW’s Parliament House. He also tidied up chaotic Hobart in Tasmania. In
1817 he formally adopted the name of “Australia” for official purposes.
Above all, he sponsored exploration in the NSW interior and
his groups passed beyond the Blue Mountains to the plains beyond and he also
founded the inland city of Bathurst. An island, a river, mountain, port, hotel
and many streets were named after him, to be supplemented more recently by a
Hospital, University and, in 1970, an investment bank.
At last, after a critical parliamentary report on his
activities written by Thomas Bigge, Lachlan resigned and returned to Britain in
1822. His administration was reckoned high-handed and he was accused of
neglecting the economic potential of NSW. He was denied his promised pension
until he answered the Bigge Report but this he did and a generous pension was
forthcoming. He did not enjoy it for long as he died in London in 1824 from bowel
and bladder ailments.
Macquarie had brought back from Sydney to Ulva exotic
kangaroos, emus and not least the family’s favourite old cow. He had been an
exemplary husband and father and his rule in NSW had been vigorous and game-changing.
His body was laid in a small mausoleum on the island of Ulva, cared for even
now by The National Trust of Australia. A stone bearing the inscription “Father
of Australia” commemorates this admirable Scotsman.
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| The Macquarie Mausoleum on Ulva, Isle of Mull, Inner Hebrides |
SMD
25.6.15
Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2015
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