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 



