18 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



Though the Lady Nelson was only of sixty tons burthen, she 

 had been prepared and fitted out by the British Government for 

 the declared purpose of " prosecuting the discovery and survey 

 of the unknown parts of the coast of New Holland, and of as- 

 certaining as far as is practicable the hydrography of that part 

 of the globe," for which important duties her commander was 

 recommended to the good offices of the Governor of New South 

 Wales in a somewhat pompous despatch from the Duke of Port- 

 land. The name of this vessel is indissolubly associated with some 

 of the most interesting phases of Australian discovery, but Lieut. 

 Grant did not add materially to the information. He only made one 

 brief voyage, from 8th March to 14th May, 1801, during which he 

 surveyed the coast from Wilson's Promontory to Western Port 

 Bay, the scientific part of the work having apparently been done 

 for him by Ensign Barrallier, whom, in a despatch to the Duke of 

 Portland, Governor King commends highly, while of Lieut. Grant 

 he says : " Although a good seaman and a steady, capable officer, 

 yet he has no knowledge of surveying and delineation". Indeed, 

 Grant's personal desire was to devote himself to a continuous 

 flying exploration all round Australia, leaving the tedious minutiae 

 of special surveys to be taken up afterwards by those regularly 

 trained for the work. To quote from his own narrative, he says : 

 " All that I aimed at was the making of an eye sketch of the coast, 

 and laying down as accurately as I could with a journal of all 

 occurrences, nature, history, soil, with such remarks and observa- 

 tions as I might be able to make ". To this extent the work had 

 already been performed by Bass, who never made any pretensions 

 to scientific surveying, and it evidently fell far short of the inten- 

 tions of the Government in issuing the Lady Nelson's commission. 

 Probably some expression of this disappointment by the Government 

 may have made Grant dissatisfied with his prospects in New South 

 Wales, or possibly he may have learned that Captain Flinders was 

 on his way out, with a better equipment for the work. Whatever 

 the cause, he appears to have entertained a grievance, and returned 

 to England in the following November, figuring no more in Aus- 

 tralian annals. During his brief voyage to Western Port, where 

 he remained for more than a month, he distinguished himself by 



