Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/172

ENGLAND African exploration, 1787 had some share in its ultimate abandonment. There can be no doubt that the idea of colonising Africa with felons/' to which he alluded, had assumed some shape, however indefinite, in the minds of Ministers. The despatch of the Nautilus to the African coast, to which Lord Sydney referred in the letter already quoted, is sufficient evidence on that point. The ship was sent on the recommendation of a Committee of the House of Commons, to " explore the southern coast of Africa in order to find out an eligible situation for the reception of convicts, where, from their industry, they might soon be likely to obtain means of sub- sistence — in other words, to become self-supporting. In pursuance of these instructions, the eastern coast was care- fully explored from Port Mozambique to the southern bor- ders of Kaffirland ; but the report brought back by the The scheme Nautilus was SO Unfavourable — the coast being pronounced unfit for settlement — that the scheme was immediately abandoned. The Government then fell baok on the pro- posals made for colonising New South Wales. The silence which prevailed in Parliament with respect to the Expedition was not owing to the existence of far more important events, such as wars abroad or disturbances at home. It was a year of profound peace in England. The long and disastrous struggles in which the country had been engaged for many years previously had been brought to an end shortly before. The war with the American colonies, which began in 1775, was finally closed in 1783; and the contest with Prance and her allies, Spain and Holland, was brought to an end in the same year. For ten years after- wards England lived at peace with her neighbours, until the great war of the French Revolution broke out. There was no foreign complication, therefore, to distract the national attention while Sydney and his colleagues were maturing their plans fOr the establishment of a new colony in the southern hemisphere ; and even supposing that all proposals of the kind had become absolutely distasteful to the British PoUtical situation. fin^land at peace. Digitized by Google