206 EXPEDITION UNDER LIEUT.-GOV. COLLINS. 



Labilliere, 

 i., 125. 



Home Office 

 to Colonial 

 Office, 17th 

 Dec. 1802. 



at Port Phillip in 1803, may at first sight appear to 

 be beyond the scope of the history of Tasmania, and 

 to belong exclusively to that of Victoria. But Collins' 

 expedition has absolutely nothing to do with the history 

 of our Victorian neighbours. The sandhills of Port 

 Phillip merely served for a month or two as a resting 

 place for the colonists on their way to the Derwent. 

 The short stay of Collins' people on Victorian soil was 

 only an incident in their passage from England to Van 

 Diemen's Land, like their touching at Rio or the Cape ; 

 and the story of those months is an essential part of the 

 history of the first settlers of Hobart. 



The idea of the settlement emanated from Captain 

 Philip Gidley King, the then Governor of New South 

 Wales, and was, doubtless, suggested to him by the 

 arrival at Port Jackson of the French ship the 

 Naturaliste from Bass' Straits, and the suspicions thus 

 excited in his mind with respect to French designs on 

 His Majesty's territories in New Holland. 



On the 21st May, 1802 — shortly after the arrival of 

 the Naturaliste, but before Commodore Baudin's own 

 ship had reached Port Jackson — the Governor addressed 

 a despatch to the Duke of Portland pressing upon him 

 the importance of founding a colony at the newly dis- 

 covered harbour of Port Phillip, of the soil, climate, and 

 advantageous position of which he had just received a 

 very favourable report from Captain Flinders, who had 

 explored it in the preceding month. The reason most 

 strongly urged by King was the necessity of being before- 

 hand with the French, who, in his opinion, were bent on 

 getting a footing somewhere in Bass' Straits. 



When the Governor's despatch reached England there 

 was for the moment peace with France, but French 

 movements were viewed with the utmost suspicion, and 

 a speedy renewal of the war was regarded as inevitable. 

 H.M.S. Calcutta was under orders to take to New South 

 Wales a further detachment of 400 male convicts and 

 some 50 free settlers, and preparations were being made 

 to send her off immediately. King's recommendation 

 therefore came at an opportune juncture, and was at 

 once taken into consideration. 



Amongst miscellaneous Colonial Office documents in 

 the Record Office, Mr. Bonwick found a paper which 

 records the result of these deliberations. It has neither 

 subscription nor address, and is undated, though from 

 other evidence its date can be fixed at somewhere in the 

 latter half of the month of December, 1802. 



This document is of so much interest as setting forth 



