put into her, and despatched after Mons'r Baudin. The instruction
I gave the midshipman who commanded her was to examine Storm Bay
Passage and leave His Majesty's colours flying there with a guard,
and that it was my intention to send an establishment there by the
_Porpoise_. This order, you will observe, was a blind, and as such
was to be communicated to Mons'r Baudin, as my only object was to
make him acquainted with the reports I had heard, and to assure
him and his masters that the King's claim would not be so easily
given up. The midshipman in the _Cumberland_ had other private
orders not to go to Storm Bay Passage, but to follow the French
ships as far as King's Island, and that he was to make the
pretext of an easterly wind forcing him into the straits, and as
he was enjoined to survey King's Island and Port Phillip, that
service he should perform before he went to Storm Bay Passage.

"This had the desired effect. He overtook _Geographe_ and
_Naturaliste_ at King's Island the day the _Naturaliste_ parted
company with the _Geographe_ on the former returning to France,
and as an officer of the colony was going passenger in her, the
mid. was instructed to give him privately a packet for the
Admiralty and Lord Hobart, in which, I believe, was one for you.
These letters contained the particulars. The mid. was received by
Mons'r Baudin with much kindness. In the latter's answer to me he
felt himself rather hurt at the idea that 'had such an intention
on his part existed, that he should conceal it.' However, he put
it on the most amicable footing, altho' the mid. planted His
Majesty's colours close to their tents, and kept them flying
during the time the French ships stayed there."

Notwithstanding their first little differences, King and Baudin parted the