FESTIVITIES AT HOBART 119 



refitted, all the officers' time was not devoted to science. Hobart 

 redoubled its welcome to the successful explorers ; ' our arrival 

 was hailed with delight by the inhabitants. Invitations of 

 all sorts were poured in upon us for riding, hunting, and shoot- 

 ing. The Theatre invented a Melodrama, and a Panorama 

 showed us all off on the ice.' 



In return June 1 saw a grand ball given on board. The 

 Erebus and Terror were lashed together, the decks roofed in, 

 a covered way run to the shore over a bridge of boats to meet 

 a direct road cut through the woods for 300 yards by Sir John 

 Franklin, decorations and supper on a lavish scale, the whole 

 paid for and it cost a pretty pennyby a contribution of so 

 many days' pay by each officer. Mrs. Fleming, in a letter written 

 a few months later, receives some description of the frolics, 

 which were kept up till 8 next morning, when the hosts were 



left to the misery of seeing the broken supper, the lamps 

 taken down, and the horrid contrast which twelve hours 

 always produces on such scenes. 



The lower deck was shut up and the Captain's cabin 

 fitted with mirrors, brushes, and combs, &c., &c., and all 

 the little nick-nacks you ladies use at toilet, and maid 

 servants from Govt. House to match. Parties of us were 

 stationed at the gangways to show the ladies below, and 

 it was great fun to wait for a lady and gentleman coming 

 along the passage and the moment she emerged into the 

 blaze of light, offer an arm which she of course accepts, and 

 lead her to where the maid servants are, through the crowd, 

 while her poor husband, brother or father stared about him 

 and asks for his partner. 



. . . We were lionized beyond anything, and the glorious 

 First of June is to be noted hereafter in the Van Diemen's 

 Land Almanacks as the day on which the most splendid 

 entertainment the Tasmanians ever witnessed was given. 



It may be imagined that, as a consequence, many hearts 

 were lost to the ladies of Hobart ; indeed, ' two of our officers 

 are engaged in the colony and shall return thither, as soon 

 as we are paid off, to fulfil the contract, or as we tell them, 

 victimise themselves. (Don't you look black now.) ' 



