Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania
; 97 IHE FREiNCH IN VAN DIEMEN'S LAND, AND THE FIRST SETTLEMENT AT THE DERWENT. BY JAMES B. WALKER. Prefatory Note. As the subject of the present Paper may appear to be scarcely within the scope of the objects of the Royal Society, it seems proper to state briefly the occasion of its being written and submitted to the consideration of the Fellows. Some two years ago, the Tasmanian Government—of which the Hon. James Wilson Agnew, Honorary Secretary of the Royal Society, was Premier—following the good example set by the Governments of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Now Zealand, directed search to be made iu the English State Record Office for papers relating to the settlement and early history of this Colony. The idea originated in a suggestion from Mr. James Bonwick, F.R.G.S., the well-known writer on the Tasmanian Aborigines, who had been employed for years on similar work for various Colonial Governments, and to him the task was entrusted by Dr. Agnew. Mr. Bonwick searched, not only the Record Office, but the papers of the Admiralty, the Foreign Office, the Privy Council, and the British Museuni, and discovered and co|)ied a large mass of docunu'nts rohiting to the oarly days of Tasmania. in the early jiart of this year, these coj)ics, extending over some (J4() foolscap pages, were received in Ilobart, and the ))resent Premier —the Hon. Philip Oakley Fysh—obligingly allowed me to jioruse them. I found them to be of great interest. They threw (piite a new light on the causes which led to the first occupation of this Islaiul ; gave a complete history of Bowen's first settlement at Risdon Cove and supplied materials for other hitherto unwritten — 98 FRENCH IN VAN DIEMEN's LAND.
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