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Dieman’s Land ; yet was it ordained by Providence to be the means of settling that island, and afterwards to be settled from that island. The reader may be anxious to know something further of the enter prising medical sailor, Bass. Leaving Sydney in a vessel for Valparaiso, he was chosen commander in the place of the insane master. Approaching the Spanish Settlements, he sought to trade with the people. The authorities forbade commercial intercourse with the English. The restless Bass sent word ashore that if they would not trade he would bombard the town. This brought about a slow and sulky barter. Watching an opportunity, the Spaniards seized Mr. Bass, and he was never heard of more. It is supposed he perished a slave in the unhealthy quicksilver mines of Chili. The next hero of Port Phillip discovery was Lieutenant James Grant. In his voyage out from London to Sydney, he commanded H. M. little 40 ton brig, “ Lady Nelson.” He was the first to pro ceed along the shortened route through Bass’s Strait, and had, therefore, the good fortune to be the first observer of the Northern shore, as Flinders and Bass had been of the Southern shore of that Strait. He does not appear to have approached the Australian coast until near the present western boundary of Victoria. On December 3rd, 1800, he sighted and named Cape Banks, afterwards appropriated by the French as Cape Boufflers. He then successively discovered Capes Northumberland, Bridgewater and Nelson ; Portland Bay; Point Nepean ; Capo Liptrap, and Rodonto Rock. In fact, he discovered all the coast from Western Port to longitude 141 E. Two of the Capes and the Bay were named after Dukes, Otway from a Captain, and Nepean after a Secretary to the Admiralty. He called one island after Mr. Churchill, who gave him seeds to plant in waste places for the benefit of Europeans or Savages. Grant obtained leave to return to England in October, 1801. He published a sketch of his voyage in 1803. Now arrived the period of the discovery of the noble harbour of Port Phillip, which led to the first settlement of this colony. Governor King, of New South Wales, was desirous of ascertaining the nature of the inlet passed by Lieutenant Grant, one headland of which had been named Point Nepean. At the end of 1801, he despatched Lieutenant John Murray thither in the little government craft “ Lady Nelson.” That Officer passed the Heads and beheld a spacious basin, February 15th, 1802. Delighted with the prospect, he after wards wrote, “ the southern shores of this noble harbour in some
