Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/60

 34 ADELAIDE AND VICINITY The Founders the insijoction of Encounter Bay for some future occasion, and returned to Holdfast Bay a few days before Christmas anxious, because so many people were waiting, to finally fix the central site. " I felt convinced," he wrote, " I should not find anything more eligible than the neighborhood of Holdfast Bay." He almost immediately re-visited the River Torrens, and on December 29 decided that the capital should be built on its wooded banks, though in carrying out this decision he was destined to meet with considerable opposition. Two or three hundred people had now congregated at Holdfast Bay, and the camp comprised about 40 huts and tents scattered here and there without any regularity. As it was reckoned that Governor Hindmarsh would reach his destination any time in December, his arrival was just now eagerly expected. Colonel Light despatched the Cygnet, with Captain Lipson, the harbor-master, to Port Lincoln, there to await the arrival of H. M. S. Buffalo. Each day the people on the beach looked out over the Bay for the first glimpse of the sails of the man-of-war, and an amusing incident is told of the prevailing excitement : — " One Sunday morning, when Mr. Kingston was reading prayers with Mr. Gilbert for his clerk, a whisper went round that an English vessel was in sight. Those nearest the door began to quietly move out, followed by others, until at last the officiating minister was left alone with his assistant, when the former threw down the book, saying, 'Come, Gilbert, it's no use our staying here,' and the two went forth to join the throng." Meanwhile, the Buffalo was in sight of South Australian territory. She stood for Port Lincoln, and on December 24 sighted the Cygnet in Spalding Cove. Captain Lipson presented a letter from Colonel Light to the Governor, and after a rapid examination of the delightful scenery so charmingly portrayed by Westall, Captain Hindmarsh set sail for Holdfast Bay, the Cygnet acting as consort to the Buffalo. The early risers among the people at Holdfast Bay were greatly excited on the morning of December 28, to observe the sails of these two vessels cutting the horizon in the Gulf Soon all the people then in camp congregated on the beach and watched the ships anchor in the roadstead. At 2 o'clock the following, with their families, under the escort of a party of marines from the Buffalo, left the ship in three boats :— Captain Hindmarsh, the Governor; Mr. J. H. Fisher, Resident Commissioner; Mr. George Stevenson, the Governor's Private Secretary; Mr. Osmond Gilles, the Colonial Treasurer; and the Rev. C. B. Howard, the Colonial Chaplain. When the vice-regal party reached the beach a cordial welcome was offered them by the band of pioneers, headed by Messrs. Gouger. Colonial Secretary ; Brown, Emigration Agent ; Gilbert, Storekeeper ; Kingston, Deputy Surveyor; John Morphett, and Robert Thomas. The officials and principal people repaired to Mr. Gouger's tent, followed by nearly all the inhabitants, where certain necessary formalities were observed. The Governor read the orders in Council constituting South Australia a British Province, and