to the Spanish colonies on the coast of Chile to buy provisions and bring them back to Sydney. It has been suspected Bass may also have planned to engage in contraband trade in Chile. Spain reserved the import of goods into her colonies for Spanish ships and Spanish merchants but the colonists needed more than they could supply and shortages and heavy taxation caused high prices, encouraging an extensive illegal trade with foreign vessels. Port Jackson was described by some 19th-century historians as a base for such smuggling Britain's strained relationship with Spain at that time meant British authorities were unconcerned. Bass still had much of the general cargo he had brought to Sydney in 1801 and he may well have been tempted to take some to Chile. Two of his last letters have hints at a venture which he could not name but in any case he set off in 1803, with a diplomatic letter from Governor King attesting his bona-fides and that his sole purpose if he were on the West coast of South America would be in procuring provisions. As many months passed with no word of his arrival, Governor King and Bass's friends in Sydney were forced to accept that he had met some misfortune. In England in January 1806, Bass was listed by the Admiralty as lost at sea and later that year Elizabeth was granted an annuity from the widows' fund, backdated to when Bass's half-pay had ended in June 1803. Bass had made the usual contributions to the fund from his salary. Speculation on Bass's fate A good deal of speculation has taken place about Bass's fate. One story, attributed to William Campbell of the brig Harrington, has it that Bass was captured by the Spanish in Chile and sent to the silver mines. The Harrington was engaged in smuggling and returned to Sydney some three months after Bass's departure. However, this story dates from 1811 in a report by William Fitzmaurice. There are good records of Campbell in 1803, and then in 1805 when he captured a Spanish ship, but Bass is not mentioned at those times. Three months is also too short a time for Bass to reach Chile and then the Harrington to get back to Sydney. Another factor against the South American story is that all British prisoners held by the Spanish in Chile and Peru were freed in