29 
have dissuaded him from continuing' his solicitations for the estab- 
lishment of the new colony. 
In May and June, 1828, the Earl of Dudley. Lord Palmerston, 
and Messrs, Grant and Huskisson retired from the British Cabinet 
and a reconstruction of Government followed, under which Sir George 
Murray replaced Mr. Huskisson as Secretary of State for War and 
the Colonies, and Messrs, R. W. Hay and Horace Twiss became 
Under Secretaries. This last appears to have been to some extent 
a personal friend of Captain Stirling, and it was probably through 
him that Stirling was induced once more to approach the Govern- 
ment with the idea of forming a colony. On the 30th July, 1828, 
he addressed a long letter to the Colonial Office in which he said, 
rater alia, “The French, under the command of Monsieur Baudin, 
at the beginning of this century visited that shore (that is, Western 
Australia) and rendered an account of it more circumstantial, but 
equally unfavourable, as that of the Dutch. The report which 1 had 
the honour to make last year to 11 is Majesty’s Government differs 
so widely from that of the preceding Dutch and French navigators, 
that it will scarcely be believed that we undertake to describe the 
same country. For while they report the country as sterile, forbid- 
ding, and inhospitable, T represent it as the land out of all that I 
have seen in various quarters of the world that possesses the greatest 
natural attractions.” He then went on to describe the character of 
the country, and concluded: “The above-mentioned recommendations 
poin*- it out as a spot so eligible for settlement that it cannot long 
remain unoccupied. . . . as, by its position, it commands facilities 
fo ‘- ( '<UT\ ing on trade with India and the Malay Archipelago as well 
as ‘with ( hina, and as it is, moreover, favourably circumstanced for 
the equipment of cruisers for the annoyance of trade in those seas, 
some foreign power may see the advantage of taking possession 
should His Majesty’s Government leave it unappropriated.” 
On the receipt of this letter, Stirling’s original report was ap- 
parently looked up, and the whole question re-submitted to the Ad- 
miralty. The Secretary to the Admiralty, after a conversation with 
Carta-in Stirling, more particularly concerning the merits of Swan 
River a« compared with King George’s Sound, exhibited a complete 
reversal of the previous Admiralty opinion, and in reply to the Col- 
onial Office (under date 2nd August) said: “I think there requires 
no hesitation in transferring the establishment at the former (Kin- 
George’s Sound) to the latter place (Swan River), and perhaps the 
sooner the better, as the publication of the chart containing so fine 
an anchorage, entirely overlooked by the French navigators, may 
induce that nation, or the Americans, who are prowling about for 
some detached settlement, to assume possession of the only spot on 
” western coast „f Holl.nd th , lt invitins ” 
1 pose, to » Inch we could bare no right to offer any resistance." 
