BY JAMES BACKHOUSE WALKER. 215 



the Port, there was no land within five miles of the water 

 which would grow corn. Water was everywhere scarce. 

 Snakes were common, and insects innumerable and tor- 

 menting, but game was not plentiful and fish scarce. At 

 the head of the Bay, where a level plain stretching to the 

 horizen appeared more promising, the blacks were 

 numerous and hostile. A mob of 200 attacked Tuckey's 

 party, and were so pertinacious and threatening that 

 Tuckey had to fire upon them with fatal effect. 



It seemed to the Lieut.-Governor that any attempt 

 to plant his colony in this apparently more favourable 

 situation, amidst swarms of hostile savages, with his 

 little military force of 40 men — already hardly sufficient 

 to restrain the convicts — must only end in disaster. 

 He wrote to Lord Hobart, " Were I to settle in 

 the upper part of the harbour, Avhich is full of natives, 

 I should require four times the strength I have 

 now." Yet this was the only alternative he could see 

 to his present position in a waste of waterless sand. 

 So gloomy was the view he took of the situation, Collins" to 

 that he even found the Bay itself wholly unfit for King, 5th 

 commercial purposes on account of its difficulty of ^°^- ^^^■^• 

 access, and that, owing to the dangerous entrance and 

 strong tides, it required a combination of favourable cir- 

 cumstances to enable a vessel to enter without disaster. 

 His sole idea w^as to remove as soon as possible from 

 these forbidding shores. His instructions from the instructions. 

 Colonial Office iiad contemplated such a possibility, and 7th Feb. 1803. 

 allowed him considerable latitude of choice as to the final 

 destination of the colony. "Although Port Phillip has 

 been pointed out as the place judged most convenient and 

 proper for fixing the first settlement of your establish- 

 ment in Bass' Straits, nevertheless you are not positively 

 restricted fi'om giving the preference to any other part of 

 the said southern coast of New South Wales, or any of 

 the islands in Bass' Straits, which, upon communication 

 with the Governor of New South Wales, and with his 

 concurrence and approbation, you may have well- 

 grounded reasons to consider as more advantageously 

 situated for that purpose." With the idea, therefore, 

 fixed in his mind that at Port Phillip nothing but failure 

 was possible, it became his most anxious thought to 

 obtain Governor King's permission to remove his settle- 

 ment. But here was a new source of embarrassment. 

 By the beginning of November the Ocean had landed 

 her stores. Captain Mertho w^as anxious to proceed 

 on his voyage to China, and to charter the ship for 

 Port Jackson would entail a heavy expense. The 



