BY JAMES BACKHOUSE WALKER. 209 



David Collins, who was appointed Lieut.-Governor of 

 the new Settlement. An urgent appeal was made to 

 the authorities by Mr. Secretary King, of the Home 

 Office, to send a proportion of women — to allow the 

 wives of the married convicts to accompany their 

 husbands, and to add a number of female convicts. 

 Secretary King pointed out the mischief that had ensued 

 in the Port Jackson colony from the disproportion of 

 the sexes, and remarked, " To begin with a colony of 

 men, jJopulus vlrorum, will do for nothing in nature but 

 what Virgil applies it to — a Hive of Bees." It would 

 have been well if this sensible advice had been acted 

 upon ; as it wa?, out of 307 convicts who sailed from 

 England, only 17 were accompanied by their wives. 

 The military guard, officers and men, consisted of 

 51, of whom some seven had their wives with them. 

 Free settlers were not much encouraged in those days ; 

 for, though it was the policy of the Government to 

 introduce a certain proportion, the number was rigidly 

 limited. Mr. Bon wick says that up to the year 1803 

 the whole number of free settlers introduced into New 

 Holland was only 320, to a total population of over 

 7000. Thirteen persons obtained Lord Hobart's permis- 

 sion to throw in their lot with the new colony as 

 settlers ; and, of these, not more than three or four had 

 wives with them. The Civil Establishment consisted 

 of a Chaplain, the Rev. Robert Knopwood ; three 

 Surgeons, Messrs. Wm. I'Anson, Matthew Bowden, and 

 Wm. Hopley; a Commissary, Mr. Leonard Fosbrook; 

 a Surveyor, Mr. George Prideaux Harris ; a Mineralogist, 

 Mr. Adolarius William Henry Humphreys ; and two 

 Superintendents of Convicts. 



The Colonial Office could probably have chosen no 

 more suitable man than Lieut. -Colonel David Collins 

 as Governor of the new settlement. Collins was an 

 Irishman, having been born in King's County in 

 1756. He had seen military service ; and, as a young 

 Lieutenant of Marines, had been present at the battle of 

 Bunker's HiU. When Governor Phillip sailed with 

 the " First Fleet " in 1788, to found Sydney, Captain 

 Collins accompanied him, as Judge Advocate. He 

 served in this important capacity, and also as Secretary 

 to the Governor, for eight years, returning to England 

 in 1796, with high recommendations from Governor 

 Hunter to the Duke of Portland for his merit and 

 services to the young colony. During his stay in 

 England he wrote and published his well known and 

 valuable " Account of the English Colony of New South 



