Australia in early 1836: On 22 February, just days after the Letters Patent had been adopted, the ship John Pirie set sail with 24 passengers on board; The ship Duke of York set sail with 42 passengers on 24 February. On 30 March the ship Lady Mary Pelham departed London with 29 passengers. The fourth ship was the Emma, which left London with 22 passengers on 21 April. All four ships of the South Australia Company arrived at Nepean Bay on Kangaroo Island: the Duke of York on 27 July, Lady Mary Pelham on 30 July, John Pirie on 16 August and Emma on 5 October. More ships left in the coming months, making a total of at least nine, which for convenience can be regarded as the First Fleet of South Australia. Apart from the last one, HMS Buffalo, all went to Nepean Bay first. A settlement was started at Kingscote, at Reeves Point on Kangaroo Island (now a heritage-listed site, as the earliest formal European settlement in South Australia), on 27 July 1836, but this was soon abandoned in favour of a settlement on the mainland. Some of the original ships sailed on to Holdfast Bay in November and December, with Gouger, now Colonial Secretary and Chief Magistrate, arriving on the on 8 November 1836. The settlers set up camp, to be joined by the Buffalo on 28 December. The foundation of South Australia is usually considered to be Governor Hindmarsh's Proclamation of South Australia at Glenelg on 28 December 1836. Colonel Light was given two months to locate the most advantageous location for the main colony. He was required to find a site with a harbour, arable land, fresh water, ready internal and external communications, building materials and drainage. Light rejected potential locations for the new main settlement, including Kangaroo Island, Port Lincoln and Encounter Bay. Light decided that the Adelaide plains were the best location for settlement. The River Torrens was discovered to the south and Light and his team set about determining the city's precise location and layout. The survey was completed on 11 March 1837. Light's poorly paid and ill-equipped surveying team were expected to begin another massive task of surveying at least of rural land. Light, despite slowly succumbing to tuberculosis, managed to survey (or ) by June 1838. Settlement growth The settlement grew steadily. In 1836 the South Australian Company imported pure