THE DEPORTATION OF THE NORFOLK 

 ISLANDERS TO THE DERWENT IN 1808. 



By Jambs Backhouse Walker. 



I. — The Settlement of Norfolk Island. 



The laborious and valuable researches made in the English 

 State Record Office by the veteran historian, Mr. James 

 Bonwick, have a great interest for Australians, and mark a 

 new departure for the historian of the Australian Colonies. 



The Government of New South Wales has shown its sense 

 °f the value of the documents which Mr. Bonwick has dis- 

 covered by printing them in eootenso* Our own Government, 

 equally mindful of the importance of these records for the 

 elucidation of our early history, has with a wise forethought 

 availed itself of Mr. Bonwick's special knowledge to secure 

 copies of the papers relating to the settlement and earliest 

 history of Tasmania. Of this period no contemporary records 

 have been preserved in our local archives ; our knowledge of 

 those early times has hitherto been derived merely from vague 

 and inaccurate tradition. The material supplied by Mr. 

 Bonwick, and placed at my disposal by the courtesy of the 

 Government, has enabled me to lay before the Royal Society 

 the first authentic story of the planting of Tasmania and oi 

 the motives which led to it. 



In former papers which I have had the honour of reading 

 before the Society we have seen how the occupation of our 

 island came about. It was merely one episode of the long life- 

 and-death struggle which England waged with France under 

 the first Napoleon. It was due to the dread of possible injury 

 to England from the sudden intrusion of a hostile Frencli 

 settlement in such close proximity to the young English colony 

 at Port Jackson. The first puny occupation by Bowen at 

 Risdon in September, 1803; the expedition of Collins to Port 

 Phillip an d its transfer to Hobart in February, 1804; the 

 occupation of the Tamar by Paterson in August of the same 

 year, and the consequent settlement of northern Tasmania, were 

 all parts of the far-seeing and persistent policy by which the 

 great English statesmen of that day did much to ensure the 

 tall of Napoleon's power, and to give to England her world- 

 wide dominion. 



Up to this date (1895) live volumes have appeared, viz., Historical 

 Records of New (South Wales, 1762-1795 (3 vols.) ; History of New South 

 Wales froip the Records, 1783-1789 (2 vols.) 



