rivalry with the suttlers in commission. The chief constable was himself
a publican, and the chief gaoler shared in the lucrative calling, and
sold spirits opposite the prison.

The moral laxity which prevailed, produced its natural
consequences--violations of discipline, which led to great crimes. The
offenders, to escape immediate punishments, retreated to the remote
districts; occasionally sheltered by the emancipist cotters. The feeble
resistance offered to their depredations, inspired, and almost justified
the prisoners in the hope, that the common bondage might be broken. A
large agricultural establishment, belonging to the government, at
Castle-hill, Parramatta, employed many Irishmen implicated in the recent
disorders of their country. These prompted the rest to attempt to
recover their liberty, but they were subdued by the military under Major
Johnstone: some were shot, and several executed.

In this unsatisfactory condition was the colony of Port Jackson, when
Van Diemen's Land was occupied. Its remote distance, its comparatively
small extent and insular form, fitted it for the purposes of penal
restraint--a place where the most turbulent and rapacious could find no
scope for their passions. Its ports closed against commerce, afforded
few means of escape. In New Holland, labor and produce were redundant:
overwhelming harvests reduced the price of grain so low, that it was
rejected by the merchants; goods could not be obtained in exchange;[33]
and the convicts at the disposal of government were a burden on its
hands--almost in a condition to defy its authority. Thus, Van Diemen's
Land was colonised; first, as a place of exile for the more felonious of
felons--the Botany Bay of Botany Bay--

"And in the lowest deep, a lower deep!"

Lieutenant Bowen, in the _Lady Nelson_, set sail from Sydney, and in
August, 1803, landed at Risdon, on the east bank of the Derwent: his
party included a few soldiers and prisoners, and Dr. Mountgarrat, the
surgeon. A far more important immigration soon followed.

Port Phillip, on the east coast of New Holland, first discovered by
Captain Murray in the _Lady Nelson_, 1799, was surveyed by Flinders in
1802, and in 1803 by Grimes, the surveyor-general. They reported the
country to be lightly timbered, to abound in herbage, and gentle slopes
suitable to the plough. The port offered an asylum against both war and
tempests, sufficient for the fleets of all nations.[34]

The establ