namely, the son of the Marine Sergeant Thorne above referred to, Mr. Frank Pitt of Hobart Town, and Mr. James Hobbs of Melbourne, whose portrait is given in this collection. At the age of eighty-six this gentleman lives to recall the incidents of life in the tents of Collins's Camp at the Heads, and subsequently in the turf-built huts of Hobart Town. The son of a Naval officer who was killed at the taking of Egypt, his mother, on the advice of Lord Hobart, emigrated with Collins. Mr. Hobbs, who had previously been in the Navy, joined as midshipman the King's ship then stationed at Sydney, and his recollections of facts connected with the conduct of Governor Bligh on board the Porpoise have become historical.[1] As a colonist, Mr. Hobbs had his share of the hardships of the early days. He did good service as an explorer, and his feats against the bushrangers lie buried in old Van Diemen's Land newspapers. He has lived to see the country pronounced by Collins uninhabitable become the most remarkable of England's colonies; and a handful of his countrymen, on the sea-board of a continent, spread and grow into seven great centres of civilization. In the space of the life of a man now moving in our midst, the thing has been done, and the predictions of poets, philosophers, and statesmen verified in the Australasia of to-day.
Melbourne, 28th October 1878.
- ↑ Chronicle of Port Phillip: by Henry F. Gurner. Melbourne: Robertson. 1876.
