180 



THE DISCOVERY OF PORT DALRYMPLE. 



King's! 

 Despatch, 

 21 May, 1802. 



King to 

 Collins. 

 26 Nov., 1803. 



King to 

 Woodriffe, 



26 Nov., 1803, 



Collins to 



King, 



27 Jan., 1804. 



Port Dalrymple, in compliment to Alexander Dalrymple, 

 the well known Hydrograpber to the Admiralty." He 

 employed 16 days in examining the place, explored 

 Western and Middle Arms, worked his way up Whirl- 

 pool Reach, and got as far as Shoal Point and Crescent 

 Shore, when, although he believed that half the river was 

 still unexplored, the limited time allowed him compelled 

 his return. The Norfolk took her departure from Low 

 Head, and, sailing along the north coast, rounded Cape 

 Grim, her commander finally settling the problem of the 

 insularity of Van Diemen ; s Land by his circumnavi- 

 gation. 



The importance of the discovery was at once recog- 

 nised in England; and early in 1800 the Lady Nelson,^ 

 brig of 60 tons, was fitted out and despatched under 

 Lieut. Grant to examine the new strait. It was, how- 

 ever, left to Flinders himself in the Investigator two 

 years later, to complete his own work by making the first 

 reliable survey of its northern shores. 



As we have already seen, the discovery of Bass Strait, 

 and the possible colour it might give to French claims to 

 the island, were among the causes which prompted King's 

 hasty occupation of the Derwent by Bowen in 1803 ; 

 and it was owing to King's urgent representations of the 

 importance of forming settlements in the Straits to assist 

 the seal fisheries and anticipate the French that Governor 

 Collins' expedition was despatched to Port Phillip. 

 When Governor Collins found his position at Port 

 Phillip untenable, he was doubtful whether he should 

 not remove his people to Port Dalrymple rather than to 

 the Derwent. Governor King was also, in the first 

 instance, strongly in favour of the northern locality 

 considering it more advantageously situated for the prin- 

 cipal settlement in Van Diemen's Land, chiefly on 

 account of the protection it would afford to English 

 sealers in the Straits from the attacks of American inter- 

 lopers. His only doubt was whether the soil was as 

 good as that on the Derwent, and whether the entrance 

 to the port was not too dangerous. To enable Governor 

 Collins to satisfy himself on these points, he sent the 

 schooner Francis to Port Phillip to serve as a surveying 

 vessel. She was in a very leaky condition, and though 

 they tried to patch her up at Port Phillip, and sent her, 

 with William Collins, Clark, the agricultural superinten- 

 dent, and Humphreys, the mineralogist, to make an 

 examination of Port Dalrymple, she proved so unsea- 

 worthy that William Collins had to send her back to 



