years, verifying at last the old
adage--_better late than never_."[71] Such were the topics of this
ephemeral journal, which, however, survived the governor himself. In the
number published a few days before his decease, are the following
lines:--

"And thou, dear Cobham, with thy latest breath
Shall feel thy ruling passion strong in death:
Such in that moment, as in all the past:
'O, save my country, heaven!' shall be thy last."

Collins was the son of General Arthur Tooker Collins and Harriet Fraser,
of Pack, in King's County, Ireland: he was the grandson of Arthur
Collins, author of the _Peerage of England_.[72] At fourteen years of
age he was lieutenant of marines; two years after, he commanded the
military guard which attended Matilda, Queen of Denmark, to her
brother's Hanoverian dominions, and had the honor of kissing her hand.
It is said that, three years subsequent, he distinguished himself in
that fatal conflict already noticed--the battle of Bunker's Hill. In
1774, he was captain of marines in the _Courageux_, of 74 guns,
commanded by Lord Mulgrave, and was present with Lord Howe, at the
relief of Gibraltar. At the peace of 1782, he retired to Rochester, in
Kent, with his lady, an American, who survived him. The despatch,
announcing his decease, was filled with lamentations: "I am sure," said
the writer, "when I speak the feelings of my heart on this melancholy
occasion, that it is not my single voice, but that of every department
whatsoever in the settlement, who with the most heartfelt regret
acknowledge him to have been the father and the friend of all," His
person was remarkably handsome, and his manners prepossessing: to a
cultivated understanding, and an early fondness for literature, he
joined a most cheerful and social disposition.

Colonel Collins was buried in the church-yard of St. David's, Hobart
Town. To provide a temporary place for public worship, a small wooden
church was erected on the spot, and its altar was reared over his grave.
This building was blown down in a tempest, and its materials being
carried off, left the resting place of Collins long exposed to the
careless tread of the stranger. Sir John Franklin, always generous to
the memory of official worth, reared a monument, bearing this
inscription:--

Sacred
to the Memory of
DAVID COLLINS, ESQ.,
Lieutenant Governor of this Colony,
and Lieutenant Colonel of the Royal Mar