220 EXPEDITION UNDER LIEUT.-GOV. COLLINS. 



Collins to This advice only confirmed the conclusion to which 



p^h^iftni^ Collins had at last brought himself. He gives as his 

 reasons, in addition to King's recommendation, that the 

 advantages of being in a place already settled had great 

 weight with him, but that a stronger consideration was the 

 mutinous spirit amongst his soldiers, which, he thought, 

 would be checked by the presence of the detachment of 

 the New South Walles Corps at Risdon ; and, moreover, 

 that he considered the Derwent better for commercial 

 purposes than any place in the straits, and that he hoped 

 before long to see it a poit of shelter for ships from 

 Europe, America, and China, and a favourite resort of 

 whaling ships. 



The Lieut. -Governor was so anxious to get away from 

 the place he detested that he kept his people at work 

 loading the Ocean all the week round, Sundays included. 

 He says, in his General Order of Sunday, 31 st 

 December, " It has never been the Lieut.-Governor's 

 wish to make that day any other than a day of devotion 

 and rest ; but circumstances compel him to employ it in 

 labour. In this the whole are concerned, since the sooner 

 we are enabled to leave this unpromising and unpro- 

 ductive coixntry the sooner we shall be able to reap the 

 advantages and enjoy the comforts of a more fertile 

 spot ; and as the winter season will soon not be far 

 distant, there will not be too much time before us 

 wherein to erect more comfortable dwellings for every 

 one than the thin canvas coverings which we are now 

 under, and which are every day growing worse." 

 Collins to When Wm. Collins, on 21st January, returned from 



T ^1804^ Port Dalrymple in the Lady Nelsoii — which vessel had 

 taken him from Kent's Group, the Francis having 

 proved too leaky to venture across the straits — he found 

 the Ocean loaded and ready to go to the DerAvent. The 

 fact that he brought a report on the whole very favour- 

 able to Port Dalrymple did not induce the Lieut.- 

 Governor to alter his mind. 



A few days sufficed to select the people he intended to 

 leave behind him, some 160 in number, of whom Lieut. 

 Sladden, with a small guard, was to have charge, and 

 to embark the majority, some 200 souls, on board the 

 Ocean, the settlers finding a place on board the Lady 

 Nelson. On the 27th January Collins writes to King 

 that he was now only waiting for an easterly wind to clear 

 the Heads and leave this inhospitable land behind. They 

 had to wait four days for the wind ; and on the 30th 

 January, 1804, the Ocea7i send. Lady Nelso7i sailed out 

 pf Port Phillip in company, and headed for the Derwent. 



