nd
free settlers began to come out in numbers.

The French expedition under Baudin called at Port Jackson to refresh, and
certain matters in connection with their visit are worth telling. Two
unfortunate incidents occurred: one an accusation against the French
officers of selling on shore certain liquor King had given them permission
to purchase from a merchantman for the use of their ships' companies;
another incident was the manner of hoisting the English ensign on board
one of the French ships, which was "dressed" for a holiday. Baudin
explained these matters easily enough. The flag was wrongly hoisted by
accident, and the accusation for selling liquor was unfounded, and certain
officers of the New South Wales Corps who made the statements did not come
out of the affair very creditably.

[Illustration: SIR JOSEPH BANKS. From a picture by Thomas Phillips, R.A.,
in the National Portrait Gallery. _To face p._ 158.]

But the most noteworthy incident is explained in this extract from a
letter dated Sydney, May 9th, 1803, from King to Sir Joseph Banks:--

"Whilst the French ships lay here I was on the most friendly
footing with Mons'r Baudin and all his officers. _Entre nous_, he
showed me and left with me his journals, in which were contained
all his orders from the first idea of his voyage taking place, and
also the whole of the drawings made on the voyage. His object was,
by his orders, the collection of objects of natural history from
this country at large and the geography of Van Diemen's Land. The
south and south-west coast, as well as the north-west and north
coast, were his particular objects. It does not appear by his
orders that he was at all instructed to touch here, which I do not
think he intended if not obliged by distress. With all this
openness on his part, I could only have general ideas on the
nature of their visit to Van Diemen's Land. I communicated it to
Mons'r Baudin, who informed me that he knew of no idea that the
French had of settling on any part or side of this continent. They
had not been gone more than a few hours when a general report was
circulated that it had been the conversation of the French
officers that Mons'r Baudin had orders to fix on a place for a
settlement at Van Diemen's Land, and that the French, on receiving
his accounts, were to make an establishment at 'Baie du Nord,'
which, you will obser