16 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



hours' journey of Port Phillip, and without having definitely ascer- 

 tained the existence of the Strait, which, however, he considered 

 was undoubtedly indicated by the direction of the currents and the 

 force of the waves. 



On one of the islands off Wilson's Promontory, now known as 

 the Glennies, he found seven convicts, part of a gang of fourteen 

 who had escaped from Sydney in a small vessel in the previous 

 October, and who had been treacherously deserted on the barren 

 island by their comrades. Unable to spare them any provisions, 

 without risking the lives of his own party, but unwilling to leave 

 them to the slow starvation which awaited them on their island 

 prison, he transferred them to the mainland, providing them with 

 a musket and some ammunition, a compass, and some fish hooks 

 and lines, and directing them the course to pursue towards Sydney. 

 Two of them were found to be so weak and ill as to be unable to 

 walk, and for these he made room in his already crowded boat. 

 The other five started hopefully on the journey, but were never 

 heard of again. 



Between Wilson's Promontory and Cape Howe Bass encoun- 

 tered very bad weather on his return voyage, high seas and 

 tempestuous adverse winds not only retarding his progress, but 

 threatening destruction to the whole of the party. More than 

 once he was obliged to beach his boat through a dangerous surf, 

 and remain high and dry for days together waiting the moderation 

 of the weather. On one of these occasions he was an object of 

 much curiosity to a large number of aborigines, whose first en- 

 counter with white men was marked by most friendly demonstrations. 

 Finally, however, he triumphed over all his adverse surroundings, 

 and succeeded in regaining Port Jackson on the 24th of February, 

 1798, after an absence of eighty-three days. The result of this 

 courageous exploit, which Captain Flinders said " has not perhaps 

 its equal in the annals of maritime history," was not very encour- 

 aging in the interests of the extended settlement. Governor 

 Hunter, in his despatch to the Duke of Portland, 1st March, 1798, 

 while bearing testimony to the courage and perseverance of Bass, 

 says : "I find he made several excursions into the interior of the 

 country, wherever he had an opportunity. It will be sufficient to 



