AN OLD COLONIAL ROMANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 138, 10 July 1909, Page 3

AN OLD COLONIAL ROMANCE.

THE STORY OF JORfiEX JORfiEXSOX KING, CONVICT,. A\D CONSTABLE. It is a pale grey sheet of paper with the watermark "Snellgrove's, 1827." The writing in a faded brown ink seems labored, almost schoolboyishr or is il that the quill which traced the words' was blunt of point or crudelv cut? Yd this simple sheet is one of the pages of the history of Van Diemen's Land, for upon one side a neater hand sets forth that it is "Rex v. Isaac Kemp, informa-' Hon of dorgen Jorgenson, August 12. 182!)." "Van Diemen's Land." proceeds the information. "Be it remembered that this I2th dav of August, in the year one thousand eight hundred anil twenty-nine, at Oatlands. in the siiid island, Jorgcn -Torgonson. a constatd" attached to the Band of the Field Police, in his proper person exhibited to me. Thomas Anatey. lisquirc, one of his \f"icst""s Justices of the peace for the said island, a complaint and information, and thereby informctli me fir' ~-a:.e, K«nm. of flie Tea Tree Brush. ti the district of Richmond, in the said island, veomnn. did, from the fifteenth dav of, April till the tenth day of June, now last past, harbor for the space of fifty-seven days one John Jones, a prisoner of the Crown, illegally at large, contrary to the form of the law or ordinance in that case made and provided, •wh'ere-by the said Isaac Kemp hath for-

feited a sum of money not exceeding fifty dollars nor less than five dollars, besides a further sum of one dollar for each and every day he, the said Isaac Kemp, so harbored the said John Jones. And therefore the said Jorgen Jorgenson prayeth the judgment ot two ot his Majesty's justices 01 the peace in that behalf* and that he, the said Isaac Kemp, may be summoned to answer the premises before the said justices." The signature in the same hand is that o! Jorgen Jorgenson; and tile appended . signature that of Tlioinns Anstey, one of the justices in the days when Governor Arthur was 'shaping from the lawless; land the great penal settlement which'lie left it.

In the story of the old colonial days there arc few figures more remarkable than the Anglo-Dane, Jorgen Jorgenson —king, convict, and constable. While yet the slutdow of Napoleon was over Europe, Jorgenson was a prisoner of war in England. The unequal war which Denmark waged with England had brought about a cessation in the trade with Iceland, and it seemed that famine threatened an unfortunate and innocent people. From no humanitarian purpose, it is reasonable to assume, but with an eye to a financial deal, a prominent London merchant, Phelps by name, resolved to freight a vessel at Liverpool with a stock of provisions for Iceland. The ship was the Clarence, and she was loaded with barley meal, potatoes, sugar, coffee, salt, and tobacco, in return for which valuable Icelandic produce was likely to be received—tallow in particular. Necessarily Phelps was in want of some man acquainted with the Danish tongue, manners, and methods of trade. Who so fit as Jorgen Jorgenson? Jorgenson was then in' his twenty-eighth year, "No one," he writes, "will dispute tlie fact that I was born in the city of Copenhagen, in the year 1780. . . i As a hoy in Copenhagen 1 saw so many ships from foreign climes' that my mind had become insensibly imbued with an ardent desire to go to sea and visit other countries. When .1 beheld a Danish Indiainaii set sail with its olliccrs on deck, dressed in their attractive uniform, my heart burned with envy, and it appeared to my susceptible imagination that there could be no enjoyment greater than that of gliding over the smooth waters' in an immense ship, anion" new men and new scenes, presenting pictures of endless novelty ami delight. t ; i „ | This love of the sea iwas not to be 1 checked even by the life aboard an English collier, to which his father had him bound apprentice. At the age of eighteen Jorgenson sailed to the Cape on a South Sea whaler, and thence with Captain Black, of the schooner Harbinger, to Algoa Hay, with Government stores. This Black was himself a bit of a celebrity. The son of a clergymen in Suffolk, he had' taken to the sea, and had been the purser of the Jane Shore, a convict transport, which was seized by the prisoners and soldiers on the voyage to Botany Bay. The captain and most of the crew were murdered, while Black and nineteen others, including the light-lingered, if heroic, "Major" Semphill, were placed in an open boat, finally making their way, after enduring the agonies of famine and thirst, to the West Indies. Returning to England, Black sailed thence to the Cape, where he obtained command of the Harbinger. The vessel arrived in Algoa Bay, with stores for the troops stationed there to prevent the Kaffirs from massacring the settlers, just in time to iook on at a sharp encounter between H.M.S. Rattlesnake and H.M.S. Camel and the French ship La Prcncuse, of forty-four guns. On returning to the Cape, Jorgenson joined the Lady Nelson, '. that little brig of sixty-five tons' which played so prominent a part in the earlyexploration of the Australian coast. 'lhe Lady Nelson had left Portsmouth under command of Lieutenant Grant, on 17th March, 1800. ■ "We were under orders," -writes Jorgenson, "to proceed ' to the south of Australia, and ascertain ! definitely whether the strait now cassed . Bass's, separating Australia from Van Dicmen's Land, really existed. The first point we made was King's Island, which I had escaped the notice of Captain Flin- ' dcrs. We sailed round it, and named it after the then Governor of New South i Wales, Captain King, R.N. Our discovery of this passage lessened the dis- ', tance to Sydney from the Cape and o.ther places to the westward by some li'ir.id'cfls of miles, and superseded the necessity in the stormy seasons of running down a high southern latitude. From King's' Island we proceeded to Sydney.

Ir> 1303 Jorgenson set sail' from Sydney with Bowen as commandant to assise iii establishing a settlement on the ' Derwent in Van Dicmen's Land. "The 1 temporary establishment at Uisdon was ! found lobe ineligible, and the present site of Hobart Town was ultimately Selected. As I walk up and down the streets of this now large and populous town the recollection of the primeval wi'doniess of the scene as I saw it thirty-two years ago fills me with eonUicting emotions." Jorgenson further served as chief officer under Lieutenant Simmons on the Lady Nelson, taking part, it is s'aid, in the deportation of the Norfolk Islanders. Next the master of a sealer, faring adventurously-to New Zealand, nearly losing his' ship in a skirmish with' the Maoris, driven by storm to Otaheite, off thence to St. Catherine's, on the Brazil coast, at last in London, June, 1800. From London he went to Copenhagen, "where I found my native city bombarded -by the English under Lord Cathcart. Towards the elos'i! of this meiiiora'blc year (1S0T) f was placed in command of a Danish vessel armed with twenty-eight small guns." This vessel was captured by the sloop-of-war Sappho, commanded by Captain l/Ongl'ovd. "We fought for three-quarters of an hour . . . but as u full account of the engagement is recorded in London Gazette I will not tire my readers with a full account of it." Such was the' adventurous career of the young man who stood in Mr. Phelps's office one morning in December, 1800. But he was to crown his career with a venture which for. pure impudence is almost unexampled. The Clarence arrived at Iceland, discharged, anil returned to England. So profitable was the venture that Phelps chartered the 10-gun skip Margaret and Anne, which sailed shortly for Iceland with Jorgeir son, William Jackson llookc, the emi ncnt botanist, and Phelps on board' Ar riving, they found the authorities hai issued a proclamation condemning anj Icelander to death who should "truth with the English. Jongensoivs reply was emphatic. The Danish Governor Count Tramp, was seized suddenly ant deposed, and the adventurer prompth installed himself as autocrat of Iceland "I am not aware," he boasts,'"that anj revolution in the annals of nations wa'i ever more adroitly, jnore harmlessly or more ili'cisivcly"efl'ceted than this".' On 26th June. ISO!), cairn: Jorgen-'oii' first proclamation declaring the aboli tion of Danish rule. (In llt'h Julv. 18(111 the fifth announced that "We. "jorgei Jorgenson, have undertaken the iiriii ilgemcnl of public affairs, under tin name of Protector, with full power ti make war or conclude peace with I'orcigi Powers." Alas! for tl u . Protector England insisted on abdication; the ex King sailed for London, and the furioii indictment hurled against him l>v C-otiu T-iunp, vlik-h is now in the' Jlrilisl Museum, followed in his wake. T-.vclv. months' imprisonment was the penalty nid Jorgens'on emerged with the vice 'hat altered the course of his after life \ confirmed gambler, a fleet debtor, : '""S("" , it on secret service, were th next phases of his career. And then h was arrested for illegally disposing a furniture at his lodgings .in Tottcnhan road, ami was sentenced at the 01 Hailey to seven years'' transportation, across seas.

In Newgate- Jorgenson appeared aspiritual adviser to the prisoners. His sentence was suspended, and he was reeased at the end of twelve months' on condition that he left England in a month. But ho did not; was betrayed by an acquaintance; and was sentenced to death. This was commuted to transportation for life, and he sailed by the ship Woodman from Shccrness to Van Women's Land in .November, 1825. On irrival at Hobart Town Jorgenson was appointed by Governor Arthur to a clerkship in the Government office. He was attached then to several exploration parties on the properties of the van Dicinen's Land Company, meeting among blacks and bushrangers not the least stirring adventures of his career, ■hi the nomination of Governor Arthur, he became at last constable of field ponce and assistant clerk in the court at Oatlands, to which period the old inloruiaiion belongs. In the Mack W.ir ™ played n leading part, by reason of Ins knowledge of the country. In reward for lii.,'services he received a grant "f 100 acris, but turned it into cash. '•lnch, u-itli a legacy of £5(10 from Denmark, vanished speedily. His last rash folly was to select a shrew as a wife, in privation and obscurity thence he lived to the age of sixty-five years. The last page of his romantic and eventful story closed in the hospital at HobaH town.