Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/339

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INSTRUCTIONS FROM LORD HOBART TO COLLINS.

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difficulties" at Port Phillip Collins was to send convicts with an adequate guard to form a post at King's Island, if on examination the place should be found suitable.

In a separate despatch to King, Lord Hobart instructed him as to the manner in which the new settlements would be supplied with food.

"In three years, if the soil and climate at Port Phillip should appear as favourable as they have been represented, the new colony will grow sufficient corn for the consumption of its inhabitants; considering at the same time the superior advantage under which the establishment there will commence its operations, by the facilities it will derive from your fostering care and attention."

There was hardly any subject which was not embraced by the instructions given at this time to King. The decision with regard to the court-martial on Lieut. Marshall was not calculated to strengthen the Governor's position, but highly complimentary expressions were applied to his exertions.

The discovery of coal in quantities at Newcastle prompted Lord Hobart to send a mineralogist, Mr. Humphry,^[1] to assist Collins, and afterwards conform to King's commands.

Captain Woodriff, of H.M.S. Calcutta, who conveyed Collins to Port Phillip, desired to become a settler, and King was instructed to grant him six hundred acres of land in "any of the settlements" under the customary conditions.

Collins reached Port Phillip on the 9th Oct., and reported his arrival to King on the 5th Nov. 1803. Three subalterns, three sergeants, three corporals, two drummers, and thirty-nine privates of the marine service were with him to control the two hundred and ninety-nine male convicts. Collins had also "a complete civil staff, of whom the Judge-Advocate alone is absent, but I have my Lord Hobart's assurance that he shall be sent out by the first ship that sails after me.^[2] The Ocean, storeship, arrived (7th Oct.)

↑ The name is spelt in various ways in the documents of the day. In an order published in Sydney while the mineralogist was there he is styled "Adolerious E. W. Humphry, Esq."
↑ The fortunes of Bates, the Deputy Judge-Advocate, were singular. He arrived in 1806 at Hobart Town, and remained there nearly ten years, receiving salary but doing no duty. He was provided with no patent or authority under which Collins thought he could act, his commission being framed with reference to Port Phillip.-Bigge's "Report" (Judicial), 1823, p. 41.

[1] The name is spelt in various ways in the documents of the day. In an order published in Sydney while the mineralogist was there he is styled "Adolerious E. W. Humphry, Esq."

[2] The fortunes of Bates, the Deputy Judge-Advocate, were singular. He arrived in 1806 at Hobart Town, and remained there nearly ten years, receiving salary but doing no duty. He was provided with no patent or authority under which Collins thought he could act, his commission being framed with reference to Port Phillip.-Bigge's "Report" (Judicial), 1823, p. 41.

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