of
Port Phillip.

#2. Governor Collins.#--This was the expedition of David Collins, already
mentioned. He brought out nearly 400 persons, of whom over 300 were
convicts. There is good reason to believe that Collins from the first
would have preferred to settle at the Derwent, in Tasmania, but at any
rate he carried out his work at Port Phillip in a very half-hearted
manner. Tuckey chose for the settlement a sandy shore at Sorrento, where
scarcely a drop of fresh water was to be had, and where the blazing sun
of midsummer must have been unusually trying to a crowd of people fresh
from colder climates.

[Illustration: THE FIRST HOTEL IN VICTORIA.]

It soon became apparent that the site selected would never prove
suitable, and Collins sent Lieutenant Tuckey in search of a better
place. That officer seems to have made a very inefficient search. He
found no river, and no stream better than the little one on which the
town of Frankston now stands. Here he was attacked by a great crowd of
blacks, and had a conflict with them sufficiently severe to prevent his
landing again. He was thus debarred from exploration by land, and the
stormy weather prevented him from remaining long in the open bay. Tuckey
therefore returned with a very gloomy report, and increased the
despondency of the little community. Every one was dull and dispirited,
except the two or three children who had been allowed to accompany their
convict parents. Among these, the leader of all their childish sports,
was a little lad named John Pascoe Fawkner, who was destined to be
afterwards of note in the history of Port Phillip. Everybody grew
dispirited under the heat, the want of fresh water, and the general
wretchedness of the situation; and very soon all voices were unanimous
in urging the Governor to remove. Collins then sent a boat, with
letters, to Sydney, and Governor King gave him permission to cross
over to Tasmania. He lost not a moment in doing so, and founded the
settlement at the Derwent, to which reference has already been made.

Before he left, there were four convicts who took advantage of the
confusion to escape into the bush, hoping to make their way to Sydney.
One returned, footsore and weary, just in time to be taken on board; the
other three were not again seen. Two are believed to have perished of
hunger, and thirty-two years passed away before the fate of the third
was discovered.

#3. Western Port.#--When Hume and Hovell returned