ishment of a settlement at Port Phillip being determined on by
the ministry of Great Britain, an expedition was forwarded, which
consisted of the _Calcutta_, 50 guns, Captain Woodriff, and the _Ocean_,
a transport of 500 tons. In addition to the convicts, there were forty
marines, four hundred male prisoners, twelve free settlers and their
families, six unmarried women, six the wives of prisoners, and six
children. It is scarcely necessary to remark, that the morals of the
officers, or of the women, were not superior either to the service or to
the times. The events of the voyage, worthy of remembrance, were not
numerous; it was disturbed by rumours of plots and conspiracies;
punishments were not infrequent, and one woman was flogged for stealing
the cap of a companion.

The _Calcutta_ did not convey the settlers to the Derwent. On her return
to Great Britain, Lieutenant Tuckey published an account of the voyage to
Port Phillip, which he surveyed. In the year following (1805), the
_Calcutta_ was convoy to St. Helena, and encountered the Rochefort
squadron. Captain Woodriff determined to engage the whole division: the
merchantmen escaped; but the _Calcutta_, in the unequal contest, became
unmanageable, and struck her colors. Captain Woodriff was soon
exchanged, but Lieutenant Tuckey remained in captivity until the allied
armies entered France.

Promoted to the rank of commander, he received charge of the expedition
in 1816, sent to explore the Zaire; but with most of his people fell a
martyr to the spirit of African discovery. He is said to have been
handsome in person, and generous in hand. "He knew nothing of the value
of money, except as it enabled him to gratify the feelings of a
benevolent heart."[35]

The spot selected at Port Phillip, was ill-chosen as the site of a town,
and they found great difficulty in obtaining pure water. These
circumstances, represented by Collins to the Governor-in-chief, were
thought sufficient to justify a removal to Van Diemen's Land, and long
postponed the occupation of a country, inferior to few in this
hemisphere; a measure lamented by several of the settlers. A lady,
writing to her friends from the banks of the Derwent, censured, in terms
of great contempt, the relinquishment of Port Phillip, which she
described in glowing language: she seemed alone capable of estimating
its future importance; but she pronounced Van Diemen's Land a dreary and
desert region, destined never to pros