In January, 1836, Captain Smith, who was in charge of the whaling
station at Port Fairy, went with two men, named Wilson and Gibbs, in
a whale boat to the islands near Warrnambool, to look for seal. They
could find no seal, and then they went across the bay, and found the
mouth of the river Hopkins. In trying to land there, their boat
capsized in the surf, and Smith was drowned. The other two men
succeeded in reaching the shore naked, and they travelled back along
the coast to Port Fairy, carrying sticks on their shoulders to look
like guns, in order to frighten away the natives, who were very
numerous on that part of the coast. On this journey they found the
wreck of a vessel, supposed to be a Spanish one, which has since been
covered by the drifting sand. When Captain Mills was afterwards
harbour master at Belfast, he took the bearings of it, and reported
them to the Harbour Department in Melbourne. Vain search was made
for it many years afterwards in the hope that it was a Spanish
galleon laden with doubloons.

Davy was in the Sydney trade in the 'Elizabeth' until March, 1836; he
then left her and joined the cutter 'Sarah Ann', under J. B. Mills,
to go whaling at Port Fairy. In the month of May, Captain Mills was
short of boats, and went to the Hopkins to look for the boat lost by
Smith. He took with him two boats with all their whaling gear, in
case he should see a whale. David Fermaner was in one of the boats,
which carried a supply of provisions for the two crews; in the other
boat there was only what was styled a nosebag, or snack--a mouthful
for each man.

On arriving off the Hopkins, they found a nasty sea on, and Captain
Mills said it would be dangerous to attempt to land; but his brother
Charles said he would try, and in doing so his boat capsized in the