98 FRENCH IN VAN DIEMEN's LAND. 



chapters of Tasmanian history. Upon informing Mr. 

 Fysh of tlie result of my examination, he entered warmly 

 into my proposal to put before the public in a narrative 

 form the information ac(iuiretl, and placed the documents 

 at my disposal for that purpose. It is at Mr. Fysh's 

 suggestion that this first paper on the subject is now sub- 

 mitted to the Royal Society. The introductory sketch 

 of the operations of the French in Tasmania has been 

 compiled from the original ])ublished narratives of the 

 expeditions. Some history of preceding events seemed 

 necessary for a proper understanding of the transactions 

 referred to in the documents under notice. My object 

 has been, not to give a history of the discovery and 

 early exploration of our island, but merely such an outline 

 of the rivalries of the French and English in these seas 

 as would suthce for a better apprehension of the motives 

 which prompted the first occupation of the Derwent. 



The story of the first settlement of Tasmania, and of 

 Lieutenant Bowen's little colony at Risdon Cove, has 

 never yet been told, so far as I can discover. AVest, 

 Fenton, and other authors give meagre, inaccurate, and 

 contradictory particulars. No writer records even the 

 date of Bowen's landing. Mr. Bonwick's researches now, 

 for the first time, enable us to give this missing first 

 chapter of Tasmanian history. 



I. — The French in Van Diemen's Land. 



The Cambridge Professor of Modern History, in a 

 recent remarkable book, has shown that the great English 

 event of tlie 1 8th century, indeed, the greatest fact of 

 modern English History, has been the expansion of 

 Engiand into lands beyond the seas — the foundation and 

 growth of a Greater Britain. I'rofessor Secley holds 

 that the great hundred years' struggle between England 

 and France, lasting from the time of Louis XIV. to the 

 days of Napoleon, was, in the main, a duel between 

 the two nations for the possession of the New World. 

 Even in the English conrpiest of India the Professor 

 traces, not so much the ambition of conquest and tlie lust 

 of empire, as fi'ar of tlu; French and rivalry with them. 

 By the clo.se of the last century th(> issue of the strife 

 was no longer <loubtful. In India, AVellesley had anni- 

 hilated French iiiHucnce, and was rapidly consolidating the 

 English dominion. France had lost for ever her finest 



