CROWN LANDS UNDER PHILLIP. 131 came. According to Collins, they had actually '^ engaged ^^^ to take their passage" in the Bellona, "but it was said they had been diverted from their purpose by some mis- representations which had been made to them respecting this country." * In January, 1792, Mr. G. Matcham, writing from Lower Grosvenor-place, offered to send out one or more families as settlers, and his younger son, with a capital of £3,000 or capttaUflti £4,000, provided that he could obtain " such an extent of country as to make it an object of attention " to him. He suggested that the area should be '^ t^n or twenty thousand acres — ^two or three hundred acres between Rose Hill and Sydney Cove, or on the opposite shore between Rose Hill and the mouth of the harbour (where, I understand, there are no settlers), and the remainder in a direct line towards Broken Bay."t It is clear that this gentleman contemplated a free grant of land, for he commenced this letter with the remark that he had been induced to write it by ^^ the proposals made to free settlers in New South Wales." In a letter written some months afterwards he intimated that " twelve thousand acres are the least that can make it an object to me," and he offered to pay a quit-rent, or to pur- chase the land. A few months later, Mr. W. Richards, Propoeai _ to contract junr., who had made several contracts with the Government forBtores. for the conveyance of convicts to New South Wales, sub- mitted proposals for supplying the settlement with stores. While the matter was before the Treasury, he wrote to Sir Joseph Banks, intimating that if his terms were agreed to, and he was allowed to open a store at Port Jackson, and also to take up land, he would become a settler. J He pressed the subject on the attention of Banks, but nothing seems to have come of either Richards' s proposals or those submitted by Matcham. • Collina, vol. i, p. 263. t Historical Becords, toI. i, part 2, p. 69l« J lb., pp. 626-627.
