Several officers of this force are entitled to be remembered in connection with the founding of New South Wales.  Major Ross, the commandant and lieutenant-governor of the colony, was a captain in the Plymouth division when appointed to New South Wales, and was then given the rank of brevet-major.  From the day of his arrival in the colony until his return to England he was a constant thorn in the side of the governor.  A man more unsuitable for the particular service could not have been chosen.  He was a most excellent pipe-clay and stock type of soldier, and his men appear to have been kept well in hand, in spite of [Sidenote:  1788-1792] a service peculiarly calculated to subvert discipline, but there his qualifications ended.

He conceived that the sole duty of himself and his command was to defend the settlement from foreign invasion and to mount guard over the prisoners.  The governor wanted to form a criminal court, as empowered by his commission, and to do this it was necessary to call upon the marine officers to sit upon it.  Ross would have nothing to do with it until Phillip, by superior diplomacy, conquered his objections.  Ross, in fact, would have it that no civilian duty should be expected of him; and when Phillip forced him to admit that the British Government had sent him out to do more than mount guard, he quoted regulations and many other red-tape reasons why he should not be anything but a soldier.  To crown this, he quarrelled with all his subordinate officers in turn, and at one time had them nearly all under arrest together.  During his service in the colony he wrote many letters to the home authorities urging the abandonment of the settlement asserting that it was utterly impossible that it could be colonized.  He returned to England early in 1792, and the Government showed its appreciation of his value by making a recruiting officer of him, and he died in that service at Ipswich in June, 1794.

There are three other officers whose names are familiar to most Australians:  Tench, Collins, and Dawes.  The last-named acted as artillery and engineer officer to the colony, and did incalculable service in surveying work.  He built an observatory and a battery at the head of Sydney Cove, which, though altered out of recognition, still bears the name of Dawes’ Battery.  Captain Tench wrote the most readable book giving an account of the settlement, and as about half a dozen books were written by different officers of the first fleet, this, if it is all, is something to be said about him.

Lieutenant Collins is the best-known officer.  He wrote an official history, and was associated with the colony’s progress for many years after the marines went home.  His book is drier reading than that of Tench, but it is the standard authority; and all the history-makers, good and bad, have largely drawn upon him for their materials.

In the memoirs of Holt, the “Irish rebel general,” who was transported to Australia, and knew Collins well, appears the following truthful account of him:—­