mai'giii of tlie aea-ahoi-c, ... I found a level of riljout live acres upon which I instantly determined t-o land my people, stores, and provisioua. ♦ . . That every further infoi mation lespectinj^ the capacioits harbour should forthwith be olitained, Captain W€x>drilt despatched the first officer, Lieut. Tiickey, accompanied by Mr. Harris, the Deputy'Surveyor of the settlement ... on a survey of the harhour. . . . Upon this business they were absent nine *lays, and I have now the honour to enclose a copy of the report maile to me f**r your inforaiation, hy which I tJiirik it will appear that, having before me but a choice of diliiculties, I could not he anywhere better placed than I am," Captain Woodriff landed a few marines to assist in guarding the stores, but Collins plaintively remarked :
- ' As the same nceegsity will exist after the departure of the Calcutkti I
must submit to your Excellency whether it would not be expedient to increase my force hy a small fiarty from the troops under your command at Port Jackson. As this niiist in a great measure depend upon wlvat may he youi' deteiTuination reH,pecting uiy future proceedings, I shall add nothing further on the subject, but that were I to settle in the upper part of the harbour, w*hich la full of natives, I should reouire four times the force I have now to guard not only the convicts, but perhaps myself, from their attacks. I cannot but suppose that all the disadvantages of Port Phillip are as well known to your Excellency as they are to myself at this jnoment." It -will be remembered that, amongst the titles of Grose to gratitude, Collins had represented the encoiiragement shown to the soldiery in Sydney, even in their dissipation. He now desired (separate despatch) to confer favoiu's on the civil officers placed under himself. The Secretary of State j had directed him not to issue Bpirits to the civil officers: hal was certam that '* it could not be intended by the Secretary] of State to make such a distinction between civil and military officers. On this head Governor King gave him no eomforL Neither to the civil uor the military were sph'its
- ' to be issued as a ration. Neither King nor any officer In
the settlement could recollect such an indulgence since 1791, "except on their Majesties* birthdays/' Mr. G. P. Harris, the Deputy- Surveyor, made a report on Port Phillip as disparaging as that of Collins, and, as regarded the territory to the west of the port, egregiously misleading. Knowing that the surve}^ made by Grimes, and sent to England by the Glatton in May 180B, had not been seen by Collins, King sent him a copy of it C26th Nov.) together with Flinders' chart. After receiving the report of Collins, King concluded " that Port Phillip is totaWy wwtiV. m ^n^x^
