These islands, Melville and Bathurst,
are separated from each other by a narrow strait that Captain King, the
discoverer, mistook for a river. On Melville Island a favourable site
with abundance of fresh water was found, and the usual routine of taking
possession and forming an encampment gone through, and for a time things
seemed to prosper; the soil of the island is good, and tropical fruits
would flourish with little trouble; but hostilities commenced with the
blacks, sickness broke out, and in 1829 it was determined to abandon the
settlement, and since that date no attempt has been made to colonise this
island, although it is now stocked with the increase of the buffaloes
left behind by the TAMAR'S people.
Fort Wellington, in Raffles Bay, founded in 1826, fared no better,
although controlled during its last year by the gifted and unfortunate
Captain Barker. A blight of stagnation seemed in those days to hang over
all attempts at settlement in the tropical regions, and in three years'
time Fort Wellington was abandoned, and with it the northern coast.
Once more we must turn our attention to the southern watershed of the
Darling, and the additional links of discovery in the great network of
its tributaries.
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