interest in the South Pacific alarmed the colonists in Sydney. An expedition in 1802 to survey Van Diemen's Land by French explorers Nicolas Baudin and Louis de Freycinet aboard , , and , stopped in the Derwent River to make observations of the indigenous Tasmanians, and the native flora and fauna. With Bass and Flinders' confirmation in 1798 that Van Diemen's Land was an island, the British claim to the east coast of Australia was not legally valid for Van Diemen's Land. Baudin's presence there caused alarm at the prospect of the French establishing a rival colony, and the Governor of New South Wales, Philip Gidley King dispatched a request to the Colonial Office in London for permission to establish a new settlement there. Whilst King awaited news from London regarding Van Diemen's Land, separate news arrived that the short lived peace with France had been broken by the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars. King decided he could not afford to await word from London and risk France establishing a naval base on Van Diemen's Land. Acting on his own initiative, he dispatched an expedition under the command of a young 23-year-old Lieutenant John Bowen to establish a colony there. Bowen was in command of the whaler . Accompanying him were 21 male and three female convicts, guarded by a company of soldiers of the New South Wales Corps, as well as a small number of free settlers. The supply ship, the arrived on 8 September 1803, and 'Albion arrived on 13 September 1803, thereby creating a presence in Van Diemen's Land for the British. At the same time David Collins had been dispatched from London in response to King's initial request, and departed from England in April 1803, in command of with orders to establish a colony at Port Phillip. Collins had been a member of the First Fleet which had founded Sydney 15 years earlier, and the Colonial Office felt this experience would be invaluable in the creation of a second settlement. Collins arrived in Port Phillip Bay in October 1803. After establishing a short lived settlement at Sullivan Bay, near the current site of Sorrento, he wrote to Governor King, expressing his dissatisfaction with the location, and seeking permission to relocate the settlement to the Derwent River. Realising the fledgling settlement at Risdon Cove would be well reinforced by Collins' arrival, King agreed to the proposal. Collins