At the Cape he found Riou with the wreck of the Guardian, he who fell at Copenhagen, and whose epitaph is written in Nelson’s despatch, telling how “the good and gallant Captain Riou” fought the Amazon.  The Guardian, loaded with stores for Port Jackson, had struck an iceberg, and her wreck had been navigated in heroic fashion by Riou to the Cape.  To the colony her loss was a great misfortune, and King realized that there was so much the greater need for hurry, and two months later he reached England.  This was on the 20th of December, eight months from Port Jackson!

At home his superiors quickly recognized that King was a good officer, and Phillip’s warm recommendations were acted upon. [Sidenote:  1792] He was given a commission as lieutenant-governor of Norfolk Island, L250 a year, and the rank of commander.  He spent three months in England, married, and sailed again in the Gorgon, which was the first warship, unless the Sirius and Supply and the Frenchmen are counted as such, to visit Sydney.

Phillip went home, Grose took charge at Sydney, and King returned to his island command, which during his absence had been under Major Ross, of the Marines, and martial law.  Then began serious trouble.  In England, curiously enough, no thought of New Zealand had been taken yet.  Some of the masters of transports to New South Wales, who were already beginning to experiment in whaling (whales in plenty had been seen from Dampier’s time), had visited the coasts of New Zealand, and King himself was strongly of opinion that a settlement should be attempted there.

The expedition under Vancouver was, in 1792, in New Zealand and Australian waters.  Vancouver induced a couple of Maoris to leave their home for the purpose of teaching the colonists how to use the flax plant, promising the natives that they should be returned to New Zealand.  The Maoris were despatched by Vancouver in the Daedalus to Port Jackson, and Grose sent them on to Norfolk Island.  Little was to be learnt from them, and, as a matter of fact, the attempt to grow and use flax never came to anything.

King was very kind to the two natives, who became much attached to him, and he, anxious to carry out the promise of the white man to return them to their homes, did a very imprudent thing.  The Britannia, a returning storeship, was detained by contrary winds at the island on her way to the East Indies.  The wind served for New Zealand.  King chartered her to take the two natives home, and himself accompanied them on the passage to the Bay of Islands.  King’s reasons for the step were—­

    “the sacred duty that devolves upon Englishmen of keeping faith
    with native races, and the desire to see for himself what could be
    done towards colonizing New Zealand.”