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Rh, without spending time in search of a more desirable situation.

Various reasons, which it is now needless to mention, have been assigned for this supposed precipitancy. Suffice it to say, the settlement was formed on the 18th of June, and named, in honour of the day. Fort Wellington.

Having been favoured, by the courtesy of the Colonial Government, with an inspection of all the official documents, relative to Melville Island and Raffles Bay, I have availed myself of this privilege on several occasions, and am thereby enabled to present the reader with the following extracts from the diary of Captain Smyth, the first Commandant of Raffles Bay; and, as they afford a concise account of events which occurred in the formation of the settlement, they will, I have no doubt, be considered very interesting.