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The Expedition Under Lieutenant Governor Collins in 1803-4 By (No. 108A.) 18 89. PARLIAMENT OF TASMANIA . THE EXPEDITION UNDER LIEUTENANT­ . GOVERNOR COLLINS IN 1803-4. BY JAMES BACKHOUSE WALKER. Presented to ,both Houses of Parliament by His Excellency's Command. THE EXPEDITION UNDER LIEUTEN.ANT-GOVERNOR COLLINS IN 1803-4. ,. BY JAMES BACKHOUSE WALKER. l. THE ORIGIN OF THE EXPEDITION, AND and the story of those months is an essential part of the THE VOYAGE TO PORT PHILLIP. history of the first settlers of Hobart. The idea of the settlement emanated from Captam IN former papers which I Irnve had the honor to read Philip Gidley King, the then Governor of New South before the Royal Society, I have endeavoured to trace Wales, and was, doubtless, suggested to him ~y the the influence of French rivalry in hastening the English arrival at Port Jackson of the French ship the settlement of Australia. I have shown that to the Naturaliste from Bass' Straits, and the suspicions thus pioneer work of French navigators we owe the fi:st excitep. in his mind with respect to French designs on admirable surveys of the southern coasts of ~asmama, His Majesty's territories in New Holland. and that it was wholly due to the apprehensions that On the 21st May, 180~-shortly after the ~r~val of those surveys excited that Governor King sent Lieut. the Natumliste, but .before Commodore Baudm s own Bowen from Port Jackson to take possession of the ship had reached Port Jackson-the Governor addressed Derwent. · a despatch to the Duke of Portland pressing upon hi_m ., I have also briefly touched on the explorations of our the importal!ce of founding a colony at ~he :1-ewly dis­ own Eno-lish sailors in the neio·hbourhood of the Derwent covered harbour of Port Phillip, of the so~!, chmat~, and and in Bass' Strait, and the influence of their reports in advanta<reous0 position of which he had JUSt received a deciding the choice oflocalities for new colonies, while I very favourable i·eport from Captain Flinders, who had have followed the misfortunes of the unlucky settlement explored it in the preceding month. The re~son most at Risdon, and described its collapse after a short and strongly urged by King was ~he 1:eces~1ty ofbemg before­ troubled life of little more than half a vear. hand with the French, who, m his opm10n, were bent on The real history .of Tasmania as an English colony getting a footing somewhere in Bass' Straits. begins with the departure from England, in the spri1'.g of When the Governor's despatch reached England there_ 1803, of the expedition of Lieutenant-Governor C?lhns,* was for the moment peace with France, b1;1-t_ Frenchn the founder of Hobart; and it is with the origm and movements were viewed with the utmost susp!c10~, and misadventures of that. expedition on its way to the a speedy renewal of the war was regarded as II1ev1table. Derwent that I have to deal in the present paper. H.M.S. Calcutta ,vas under orders to take to New South The project of the English Government to found a Wales a further detachment of 400 male convicts and colony on the shores of Bass' Strait, and the unsuccess­ some 50 free settlers, and preparations were ?eing m~de ful attempt of Governor Collins to plant that settlement to send her off immediately. King's recommendat10n at Port Phillip in 1803, may at first sight appear to therefore came at an opportune juncture, and was at be beyond the scope of the histo:'Y ot Tasmania, ~n~ once taken into consideration. to belong exclusively to that of Victoria. _ But C?llms Amongst. miscellaneous Colonial Office documents. III expedition has absolutely nothing to do wit~ the history the Record Office, Mr. Bonwick found a paper ~h1ch of our Victorian neighbours. The sandh1lls of P_ort records the result of these deliberations. lt has neither Phillip merely served for a month or two as a restmg subscription· nor address, and is undated, thoug~ from place for the colonists on, their way t~ th~ De1:went. other evidence its date can be fixed at somewhere m the Th13 short stay of Collins people on Victorian s01l was latter half of the month of December, 1802. · . only an incident in their passage from England to Van This document is of so much interest _as settm~ fo~·th Diemen's Land, like their touching at Rio or the Cape; the views of the Government on AustraJmn ?olomsation *The first lieutenant of the Calcutta published a narrative of the at this important period, that it is here given III full:- voyage of the expedition to Port Phillip, and of its failure_ t_her_e. "Account of a Voyage to establish a <;olouy at Port Ph1lhp, m " J\fEMORANDUM OF A PROPOSED SETTLEMENT IN Bass' Straits, in H.M.S. Calcutta, in 1802-3-4. By James BAss's STRAIGHTS. Kingston Tuckey." London, 1805. The principal official documents relating to the exped1t10n down "The attention of the French Government has recen~ly to the date of its departure from Port Phillip, have been printed by been directed to New Holland, and two Fre~ch ships Mr. Francis Peter Labilliere, in his " Early History of the Colony of Victoria," 2 vols., London, 1878; and also by Mr. James have, during the present year, been empl?yed m ~urvey­ Bonwick. in his "Port Phillip Settlement," London, 1883. The in(l' the western and southern coasts, and m explormg the Rev. Robert Knopwood's Diary has been printed by Mr. John J. pa~sage through Ba~8es Straights to New Sout_h Wales. Shlllinglaw in his " Early Historical Records of_ Port Philli"('," By the accounts which have been recently r~ceived from Melbourne, 1878; 2nd edition, 8vo., 1879. The diary was copied Governor King at Port Jackson, there 1s r_eason to from the original then in the possession of the late ~Ir. Vernon W. 1Iookey, of Hobart. believe that the French navigators had not discovered 4 either of the two most important objects within those. inf01'med their reunion with the objects of their regard Straights, namely, the capacious and secure harbour in would depend upon their own good behaviour, as well the North, to which Governor King has given the name as upon that of their husbands." of Port Phillip, nor a large island called King's Island, The recommendations of the memorandum were situated nearly midway on the western side of the adopted by the Cabinet. Early in January, 1803, it Straights, and which extends about 50 miles in every was ordered that the destination of the Calcutta should direcrtion. be changed, and that the convicts, with a detachment "Governor King represents each of these objects ·as · of 100 Royal Marines as guard, should proceed direct to deserving the attention of Government, but especially Port Phillip, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Port Phillip, where he urgently recommends that an David Collins, who was appointed Lieut.-Governor.of Establishment should be immediately formed, at the same the new Settlement. An urgent appeal was made to time observing that, if the resources of his Government the authorities by Mr. Secretary King, of the Home could have furnished the ineans, he should have thought Office, to send a •proportion of_ women-to allow the it his duty, without waiting for instructions, to have wives of the married convicts to accompany their formed a settlement there. · husbands, and to add a number of female convicts. "The reasons adduced by Governor King in support Secretary King pointed out t~e mischief that had ensued of~his opinion are principally drawn from the advantages in the Port Jackson colony from the disproportion of which the possession of such a port naturally suggests for the sexes, and remarked, "To ·begin with a colony of the valuable fishery that may be carried on in the men, populus virorum, will do for nothing in nature but Straights, where the seal and the sea elephant· abound, what Virgil applies it to-a Hive of Bees." It would and from the policy of anticipating the French, to whom have been well if this sensible advice had been acted our discovery of this port and of King's Island must soon upon; as it was, out of 307 convicts who sailed from be known, and who may be stimulated to take early England, only 17 were accompanied by their wives. measures for establishing themselves in positions so The military guard, officers and qi.en, consisted of favourable for interrupting in any future war the com­ 51, of whom. some seven had.their wives ,vith them. munication between the United Kingdom and • New Free settlers were not much encouraged in those days ; South Wales, through the channel of Basses Straight. for, though it was the policy of the Qovernment to " In addition to these reasons, it may be stated that it introduce a certain proportion, the number was rigidly would be of material consequence to the settlement at limited. Mr. Bonwick says that up to the year 1803 Port Jackson, which has now arrived to a population of the whole num her of free settlers introduced into New near six thousand persons, if an interval of some years Holland was only 320, to a total population of over were to be given for moral improvement, which cannot 7000. Thirteen persons obtained Lord Hobart's permis­ pe expected to take place in any material degree while sion to throw in .their lot with the new colony as there is an annual importation of convicts, who_ neces­ settlers ; and, of these, not more than three or four had sarily carry with them those vicious habits which were the wives with them.
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