216 EXPEDITION UNDER LIEUT.-GOV. COLLINS. 



Collins to 

 Hobart, 28th 

 Feb. 1804. 



King to 

 Collins, 26th 

 Nov. 1803, 



Mertho to 

 King, 26th 

 Nov, 1803. 



King to 

 Collins, 26th 

 Nov. 1803. 



Governor was anxious to detain the Calcutta as long as 

 he could, both for protection and to be at hand to assist his 

 removal if afFaiia took a more serious turn. In this 

 dilemma he found a friend in need in one of the settlers, 

 Mr. William Collins, formerly a master in the navy, who 

 had come out in the Ocean on a seal-fishinpf speculation. 

 This William Collins volunteered to go to Port Jackson 

 in an open six-oared boat to carry despatches to 

 Governor King and to bring back his reply. Six con- 

 victs volunteered as a crew,* the boat was victualled for a 

 month, and on the 6th November Mr. Collins started on 

 his plucky trip. The surf was so bad at the Rip that he 

 could not get out of the entrance for four days. A week 

 later the Ocean was ready for sea, and sailed out of Port 

 Phillip on her way to China. She was, however, 

 destined to play a further part in the history of Tas- 

 manian colonisation. When within 60 miles of Port 

 Jackson Captain Mertho came upon William Collins in 

 his cutter. The boat had been nine days at sea, and had 

 had a very rough time of it. The captain took the 

 people on board and carried them to Sydney, arriving on 

 the 24th November, and the despatches were delivered 

 to Governor King. King acted promptly, the more so, 

 as from Grimes' report he was prepared for Collins' 

 unfavourable account of Port Phillip. The Lady Nelson 

 was on the point of sailing for Norfolk Island ; he 

 immediately changed her destination and sent her to 

 Port Phillip with what little fresh provisions and live 

 stock he could spare, and with orders to return with 

 despatches. He wrote to Captain Woodriff begging 

 him, if it was consistent with his instructions from the 

 Admiralty, to assist by removing the convicts to the 

 Derwent or Port Dalrymple ; and, finally, he arranged 

 with Captain Mertho for a charter of the Ocean for four 

 months, at 18s. per ton per month, to proceed to Port 

 Phillip to remove the stores. The Ocean and Lady 

 Nelson sailed within four days after receipt of the 

 despatches. 



Governor King, in his despatch, fully endorses Collins' 

 opinion about Port Phillij^. " It appears," he says, 

 " as well by Mr. Grimes' and Mr. Robbins' surveys, as 

 by your report, that Port Phillip is totally unfit in every 

 point of view to remain at, without subjecting the Crown 

 to the certain expensive prospect of the soil not being 

 equal to raise anything for the suppoi't of the settlement, 

 unless you shall have made any further observations to 



* For this service the six men received conditional pardons, 



