172 



THE DISCOVERY OF PORT BAIIIYJIFLE. 



Patersou 

 to King, 

 27 Dec, 



Sydney 

 Gazette 



Sydney 

 Gazette, 

 10 Mar., 



land to yield a food supply for their people. It was, 

 doubtless, considerations such as these which led Pater- 

 son deliberately to turn away from the fertile banks of 

 the North Esk and fix his people on the little strip of for- 

 bidding soil at the head of Western Arm. 



The Lieut-Governor gave the name of York Town to 



1804 t } ie Sp0t he had cll0sen for his tow) »- He marked out 

 • the ground for erecting dwellings, and set the prisoners 

 to work to load the Lady Nelson and Francis with a 

 portion of the stores and with two wooden houses which 

 he had brought with him from Port Jackson. He 

 detained the Lady Kelson until after the new year in 

 order to assist in the removal from Outer Cove, and 

 when she sailed for Port Jackson on the 11th January, 

 1805, she took some tons of the iron ore which he had 

 found in great abundance in the neighbourhood of his 

 settlement. 



From this point it is difficult to trace the history of 

 York Town from the official papers. Paterson's ' de- 

 spatches present a great contrast to the careful and 

 voluminous reports sent by Governor Collins from the 

 Derwent. Collins could give interest even to an official 

 document, and introduced into his despatches an amount 

 of graphic detail which not only gives us a full history 

 of events but enables us to reconstruct the actual con- 

 dition of his colony. Paterson was neither so precise 

 nor so picturesque as Collins ; bis official communica- 

 tions are meagre, and his carelessness in supplying 

 regular and full returns brought upon him the censure of 

 Governor Bligb. The Lieut-Governor's deficiencies 

 can, however, be partly supplied from the columns of 

 me Sydney Gazette, which, during the vear 1805, con- 

 tained many letters giving information with regard to the 

 new settlement at Port Dalrymple. 



In January or early in February, 1805, the schooner 

 1805 % nte 9 rit y was despatched by Governor King to examine a 



' port situated to the westward of the mouth of the Tamar • 



presumably Port Sorell— -which had been discovered bv 

 Surgeon Mountgarrett and Ensign Piper, and by them 

 named Supply River. On the 22nd she left, carrying a 

 report that the country between the Supply River and 

 York Town had been found so good that it was intended 

 to give the first free settlers locations of land in that 

 district Ihe buildings at York Town were rapidly 

 approaching completion. The colony at Outer Cove was 

 doing well, the gardens had flourished, and on the 18th 

 January— ten weeks after the first landing— the Governor 



