Meanwhile in anticipation of the abandonment of Melville Island, it had been resolved to found a second settlement upon the north coast of Australia.  For this purpose, H.M.S.  Success, Captain Stirling, with a convoy of three vessels conveying troops, convicts, stores, and provisions, sailed from Sydney, and arrived at Raffles Bay on June 17th, 1827.  Next day the new settlement of Fort Wellington was formed.  A grand error was made in the very beginning, for the site was chosen behind a mudbank, dry at low tides, in order to secure proximity to a lagoon of fresh water, which after all disappeared towards the close of the dry season.  At first the natives committed many depredations, chiefly during the night.  About a month after the founding of the settlement, it was thought necessary to order the sentries to fire upon the natives whenever they approached, and on one occasion they were greeted with a discharge of grape-shot.  At length one of the soldiers was speared, and in reprisal a party was sent out, which, coming unexpectedly upon a camp of natives, killed and wounded several, including a woman and two children.  When the Bugis paid their annual visit to the coast several prahus remained to fish for trepang under the protection of the settlement.  Of the healthiness of the place the medical officer states:  “There is no endemic disease here.  The climate of the place surpasses every other as far as I know, which is equally as near the equator; and were it not for the great height of atmospheric temperature, I should consider this one of the best in the world.”  However, two years after the foundation of the settlement, when hostilities with the natives had ceased, and a friendly intercourse had been established—­when the Bugis had already taken advantage of the protection of Europeans to carry on the trepang fishery in the bay—­when the reported unhealthiness of the climate had never exhibited itself—­in short when the settlement had been brought into a flourishing state, orders were suddenly received for its entire abandonment, which were carried into effect on August 29th, 1829.

SETTLEMENT OF VICTORIA.

Eight years afterwards, Government resolved for the fourth time to establish a settlement on the north coast of Australia, with the double view of affording shelter to the crews of vessels wrecked in Torres Strait, and of endeavouring to throw open to British enterprise the neighbouring islands of the Indian Archipelago.  For this purpose, H.M.S.  Alligator, under the command of Captain J.J.  Gordon Bremer, and H.M.S.  Britomart (Lieutenant Owen Stanley) were sent out, and left Sydney for Port Essington in September 1837.  Another vessel with stores accompanied the Alligator, and both arrived at Port Essington on October 27th of the same year.  Soon afterwards, upon a site for the settlement being chosen, the necessary operations were commenced, and by the end of May in the following year, the preliminary arrangements having been completed, the Alligator