116 FIRST SETTLEMENT AT DERWENT. 



fired thi'ee volleys, gave three cheers, and took formal 

 possession of the island in the name of King George. 

 This defiant assertion of British claims by a handful of 

 Englisii sailors in the teeth of ten times their number of 

 traditional enemies, might well have wounded the vanity 

 of })eople less susceptible than Frenchmen, and we need 

 not therefore wonder that we hear of no more mutual 

 hospitalities. Pcron remarks that "such proceedings may 

 probabl}' seem childish to people unacquainted with the 

 £nglish ])olicy, but to the statesman such formalities 

 have a more important and serious aspect. By these 

 repeated public declarations England continually aims at 

 strengthenhig her claim, and establishing her rights in a 

 positive fashion, and uses these pretexts to rei)el, even by 

 force of arms, all nations who may desire to form settle- 

 ments in these lands."* Pcron must often have recalled 

 to mind the warning of the l^resident of the Parhament 



* The high-handed and exclusive policy of the English is a 

 frequent to])ic of complaint in Peron's work. Thus, he relates that 

 two days alter leaving Port Jackson they foil in with a schooner, 

 on board of which w is u M. Coxwell from the Isle of France, who 

 had accompanied anotiier Frenchman, Lecorre, on a sealing cruise 

 to Bass' Straits in the Enterprise^ of Bordeaux. He goes on 

 to explain that while other nations had been inditl'erent to the 

 importance of New Holland, England had in 1788 despatched a fleet 

 thither and found"d a Colony, and had, witliout remark from 

 Euro])ean statesmen, taken ])ossession of half the Continent. 

 Emboldened by the silence of other Governments, the British 

 Government had published the instructions to (iiovernor Philhp 

 claiming the country from Cape York to the South Cape (lat. 10° to 

 43" S.), and as far to the West as the 185th parallel, besides all tho 

 islands in the Pacific, and had established a policy of exclusion of 

 other nations from the fisheries. So that on the arrival of the 

 Enterprise, Governor King, although peace had been declared, 

 warned Lecorre off the coast under a threat of seizing his vessel, 

 and though he finally allowed the Frcnehmen to fish at th(> Two 

 Sisters, it was only on the condition that he should undertake not 

 to enter Bass' Straits, and that no vessels in future would be allowed 

 even so much indulgence. Lecorre's vessel was wrecked at the Two 

 Sisters, and he himself and two-thirds of his crew j)erished. Peron 

 says it is jilain that the intentions of the English (iovernment 

 are so hostile that it will be dangerous for other speculators to 

 venture into these waters. (I'eron's Vr)yage, "ind ed., vol. 3, ]). 3.) 



Governor King, in a despatch to the Admiralty (Oth May, 1803), 

 states his intention of restricting seal fishing by foreigners ; and in 

 another despatch to Lord Hobart, referring to Lecorre's vessel, 

 remarks with some satisfaction that the French schooner liarl l)een 

 wrecked at the Cape Barren Lslands, " which may stoj) mon; 

 adventurers from that quarter." 



