I INTRODUCTION 23 



sequently in 1803 Lieutenant Bowen was sent to 

 the Derwent with a few soldiers and convicts, and 

 Risdon, which had been so favourably reported 

 on by Bass, was recommended as the site of the 

 first settlement. 



The Risdon settlement was from the first a 

 failure, partly owing to the barren hilly ground 

 and lack of water, but largely to the bad material 

 with which Bowen had to deal and his own rather 

 small capacity as a pioneer. The experiment did 

 not, indeed, last long ; for Collins, who had been 

 sent out to found a new settlement at Port Philip, 

 being dissatisfied with the site, sailed for Van 

 Diemen's Land, took over Bowen's command and 

 removed the settlement from Risdon to Hobart 

 Town, which he founded (1804). From this date 

 the history of Tasmania as an English colony 

 begins ; but for the first forty years, although a 

 large number of free settlers came out from the 

 old country, the standard of living and wealth re- 

 mained low, owing to the depravity and insecurity 

 attendant on the convict system. Although many 

 of the convicts were transported for trivial of- 

 fences, there were others of an utterly degraded 

 type, and the brutal system of punishments, and 

 the appointment of ex-convicts as overseers, 

 tended to reduce the better parts of the convict 

 population to the same low level. The wonder is 

 that the colony flourished to the extent it did, and 

 the greatest honour is due to those settlers who 

 by their industry and honesty reclaimed the land 



