The Botany Bay Medallion

 ‘Ever since [Francis] Drake’s voyage in the Golden Hind, and his capture of a treasure ship off the coast of Peru, the South Sea had exercised a powerful hold over the English imagination. At one level it promised to an ‘Inexhaustible Fountain  of Gold’; at another it was the jousting ground of satirical and utopian writers.

To the accounts of the imaginary travellers of Defoe and Swift were added the narratives of actual voyages, from William Dampier to Captain George Sherlvocke, whose books did much to shape English perceptions of the Great South Sea’.  Glyn Williams, The Prize of All The Oceans, The Triumph and Tragedy of Captain George Anson’s Voyage Round the World, Harper Collins, 1999

***********

‘In 1770 on 22nd  August [ @Possession Island ]Lieutenant James Cook RN claimed ‘discovery’ of New Holland and  claimed its entire eastern coast for Britain. Once more the discoveries of Captain Cook were influencing the direction of Britain’s overseas expansion.

During the period 1763 and 1793 the character of the Second British Empire was being formed…the gates of the Pacific were open [to] the empire of commerce in the Indian and Pacific Oceans’. Vincent T. Harlow, Founding of the Second British Empire 1763-1793, Vol. 2, Longmans, 1964

*********

‘We, reposing especial trust and confidence in your loyalty, and experience in military affairs, do, by these presents, constitute and appoint you to be said Governor of our territory called New South Wales…from the Northern extremity of the coast called Cape York…to the Southern extremity of  New South Wales or South Cape. King George III, to our trusted and well-loved Captain Arthur Phillip’. London, 12 October 1786.

*********

‘We have come here today [7 February 1788] to take possession of [New Holland] this fifth great continental division of the earth on behalf of the British people. I do not doubt that this country will prove the most valuable acquisition Great Britain ever made’. Governor Arthur Phillip RN, 7 February 1788, Frank Murcott Bladen Historical Records of New South Wales Vol. 1

***********

‘The Way of War is A way of Deception. When deploying troops, Appear not to be‘. Sun-Tzu, Penguin Books ed. 2009

**********

‘In determining the daily ration no distinction was drawn between the marines and the [750 male] convicts…the standard adopted was that of troops serving in the West Indies’. Wilfrid Oldham, Britain’s Convicts to the Colonies, Library of Australian History, Sydney 1990

(more…)