ion of its shores. For that purpose he chose Lieutenant John
Bowen, who had recently arrived as an officer of a ship of war, and
appointed him commandant of the proposed settlement. The colonial ship
called the _Lady Nelson_ was chosen as the means of conveying him and
eight soldiers, while a whaling ship called the _Albion_ was chartered
for the purpose of carrying twenty-four convicts and six free persons,
who were to found the new colony. This was a very small number with
which to occupy a large country; but Governor King thought that in the
meantime they would be sufficient to assert a prior claim, and that the
authorities in England could subsequently decide whether the settlement
should be increased or withdrawn.

Governor King saw also another object in founding this new colony. He
had some most unruly convicts in Sydney, who were only a source of
trouble and annoyance to all the rest. It seemed to him an advantage
to be able to send these off to a place by themselves, under specially
severe discipline. In September, 1803, the two ships sailed up Storm Bay
and into the mouth of the river Derwent. Lieutenant Bowen caused them to
anchor on the right side of the estuary, in a little bay called Risdon
Cove. The people were soon on shore, and pitched their tents on a grassy
hill a little back from the water. Bowen went out to survey the country,
while the convicts set to work to build huts for themselves; a little
village soon appeared, and in the long grass that surrounded it a few
sheep and goats were pastured for the use of the rising colony. The
place was named Hobart Town, after Lord Hobart, who was then Secretary
of State for the Colonies. A month later Governor King sent forty-two
convicts and fifteen soldiers to increase the strength of the
settlement; and the little village was beginning to look populous, when,
unexpectedly, there came a great accession from another source.

#2. Collins.#--During this same year, 1803, the British Government, moved
by fears of a French occupation, had resolved to form a settlement on
the shores of Port Phillip. Accordingly David Collins, who had been
judge-advocate at Sydney, but had taken a trip to England, was chosen to
be Lieutenant-Governor of the new colony, and was despatched with 307
convicts, 24 wives of convicts, 51 soldiers, and 13 free settlers, on
board two ships, the _Calcutta_ and the _Ocean_. Collins had made an
effort to form a settlement at Port Phillip, on