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last-named settlement to Captain Stirling, who had become Governor of (Western Australia or) Swan River; and then to make a more accurate survey at Lake Alexandrina than had been possible for Sturt. The gallant Barker, who was reputed to be well acquainted with the aborigines, and kindly disposed towards them, fell a sacrifice to the hatred inspired by less humane visitors. Being the only one of the company who could swim, he crossed the channel, which connects the lake with the sea, alone, taking his compass on his head. His companions saw him no more. Sturt bewailed the loss of one so true and just, so intelligent and dauntless, so kind and indefatigable, and thought it probable that the "cruelties practised by sealers had instigated the natives to take vengeance on the innocent as well as on the guilty." Lt. Kent, the second in command, prevailed upon a sealer at Kangaroo Island to go with him and a native woman to inquire concerning Barker's fate. She was told that he had been speared and thrown into the sea.

Numerous attempts to form settlements during the governments of Brisbane and Darling evinced the desire of English Ministers to exclude foreign nations and furnish fresh outlets for British enterprise. There is documentary evidence to show that to the promptness of Lord Liverpool's Administration it was due that only the flag of England was permitted to float over Australian soil. The traditions of Pitt, who first erected it there, still prevailed in Lord Liverpool's Cabinet, which comprised the great Peel and the brilliant Canning. What Governor King implored the Addington Ministry to do in order to extinguish French pretensions in 1802, while Lord Liverpool (then Lord Hawkesbury) was Foreign Secretary, the same nobleman while Prime Minister sanctioned in 1826, when those pretensions were believed to be recrudescent.^[1]

Early in 1826 Lord Bathurst wrote to Governor Darling. Establishments at Western Port and Shark Bay were contemplated. These, with the post at Melville Island, were to secure the whole territory from the intruding French, who were sending out discovery ships. Darling pointed out that as the western boundary of his government was the