King also made an eye-sketch of the land, for he saw that
Grant's chart was imperfect. For that reason he sent Ensign Barrallier,
of the New South Wales Corps, who was a competent surveyor, in the brig,
and it is, chiefly, to Barrallier we are indebted for our earliest and
most authentic charts of the places which the Lady Nelson visited in the
second voyage.
Grant, however, had to contend with many difficulties in both voyages.
First and foremost he had to face the risk and dangers of an entirely new
coast, and this without a companion ship. King was aware of this for he
wrote to Banks: "It is my intention to despatch the Lady Nelson to
complete the orders she first sailed with. I also hope to spare a vessel
to go with her which will make up for a very great defect which is the
utter impossibility of her ever being able to beat off a lee shore." It
is, therefore, well to remember that although Grant did not enter Port
Phillip he was the first to see the indentation in the coast within which
Port Phillip lay hidden.
Grant had been instructed by the Admiralty to join H.M.S. Supply at
Sydney. On his arrival he found this ship laid up as a hulk and unfit for
sea. He says that he felt completely adrift until Governor King invited
him to continue in his position as commander of the Lady Nelson but, in
the colonial service and on less pay. As there was no one in the colony
then fitted for the post, and as he did not wish the service to suffer
from delay, he accepted the offer. Matters being thus arranged he was
re-appointed to the Lady Nelson, his new commission dating from January
1st, 1801.
On January 11th Captain Black, from the Cape, arrived in Sydney in the
Harbinger, having followed the Lady Nelson through Bass Strait. On his
way through the strait Black met with an island which he named King
Island in honour of the Governor. Mr. Reid, of the Martha, however, had
first discovered it in 1799.
The Margaret, Captain Buyers, from England, was the third vessel to sail
through Bass Strait, arriving in Sydney on February 7th, 1801. Buyers
fell in with the Australian coast about Cape Bridgewater eastward of
where the Lady Nelson had made it and westward of the point reached by
the Harbinger.
Governor King allowed Grant the use of Garden Island in Sydney Harbour
for the purpose of raising vegetables for his crew, an article of diet of
importance to them; and here in "the shell of a tolerable house" was
installed Dr. Brandt, who, with his dog and baboon, had joined the Lady
Nelson at the Cape of Good Hope.
