218 EXPEDITION UNDER LIEUT. -GOV. COLLINS. 



then addressed the people, pointing out the comforts 

 they enjoyed and tlie ill use they made of them, and the 

 folly of desertion, which could only end in suffering and 

 death, either from the attacks of the savages, or from 

 starvation and hardships in the fruitless attempt to travel 

 1000 miles through a wild and inhospitable country 

 inhabited only by savages. The five deserters were then 

 brought up for punishment, and, in the presence of all, 

 received 100 lashes each, administered by the drummers. 

 Notwithstanding this example, desertions still continued 

 in spite of all the vigilance that could be exercised. 

 Some of the runaways, after a bitter experience of the 

 miseries of the bush, voluntarily returned, in a deplorable 

 state of illness and exhaustion, having travelled over 100 

 Collins to miles and subsisted on gum and shellfish. One or two 

 King, 29th were shot, others were recaptured, but on Collins' 

 Feb. 1804. departure at least seven were left in the woods. What 

 became of them was never known, except in one instance. 

 Thirty years after, when the first party from Launceston 

 went over to settle Port Phillip, they found amongst a 

 tribe of blacks a white man, unable to speak English, 

 and hardly distinguishable from an aborigine. This was 

 William Buckley, one of the runaways from Collins' 

 settlement. Buckley received a free pardon and settled 

 in Tasmania. His huge ungainly form and heavy face 

 were familiar in the streets of Hobart in the memory of 

 many now living. 



Considering the character of the people, and the fact 

 that they were broiling on the sandhills in a Victorian 

 summer, with an insufficient supply of water, and unem- 

 ployed on any useful work, it is not to be wondered 

 that disorder broke out in the camp. From Collins' 

 General Orders, and Mr. Knopwood's diary, we learn of 

 drunkenness amongst the marines, of plundering of the 

 stores by the convicts. After some particularly daring 

 robberies on Christmas eve, it was found that the military 

 Knopwood, guard was insufficient, and, by the Governor's desire, the 

 4th Jan. 1804. officers of the civil establishment, including the chaplain, 

 formed themselves into an association to patrol as a 

 watch at night for the protection of property and the 

 maintenance of order. 



The Governor did his best to find employment for his 

 men by setting them to build huts, and to construct a 

 stone magazine for ammunition, but he made no further 

 effort at exploration, nor did he attend to King's hint that 

 better coimtry might be found at tlie head of the port. 

 If he had done so it is probable that the systematic 

 settlement of Hobart might have been long deferred, 



