Page:The State and Position of Western Australia.djvu/110

 being an old vessel, is supposed to have foundered at sea, as H. M. S. Hyacinth, dispatched in the subsequent year in search of her by Admiral Sir John Gore, could find no trace of the wreck. The gentlemen on board were preceding others interested in the adventure, in order to prepare the way, by selecting the most eligible sites for their future operations. Ten overseers, with five mechanics attached to each, and engaged for five years, were said to be on board, for the purpose of erecting buildings on the respective allotments of the members of the company; and while these improvements were carrying on, the vessel was to return to India for the families of the shareholders. The colony was meant to be the permanent residence of their families, but the gentlemen were to remain only during the summer months. It appears that the company intended having two or three trading vessels, to keep up a regular communication, and also one for whaling during the season. Messrs. J. Pattle and C. and G. Becher, in their petition to the Admiral for search to be made for the Mercury, state, that she sailed in October for Western Australia, “provided with an extensive establishment of men and means, for the purpose of obtaining land, and ultimately effecting colonization at that interesting settlement;” and they go on to say that, as the average passage from Calcutta to King George’s Sound was a month, and the Mercury had not reached the colony in March 1834, they feared she bad been wrecked on the Keeling or Coco Islands. While the writer deeply sympathizes with the relatives and friends of the unfortunate sufferers, he is happy to find that a strong attachment to the colony, “England’s youngest child,” is still maintained at Calcutta, and that Messrs. Pattle and Mangles, of the Civil Service, Colonels Becher and Frith, and Captain Lowes, were, according to the latest accounts, distinguished for the deep interest they were taking in its welfare. A