The boat, a vessel named the "Neptune", had 289 convicts on board, among whom was the famous Irish rebel John Mitchel and his colleagues. Sir Harry Smith had the support of the extremist settlers of the Eastern Cape, whose expansion onto Xhosa lands he had facilitated, but he could not govern without the consent of the powerful Cape Town elite, or his Legislative Council from which they had resigned en masse. Confronted with public resistance, he agreed not to allow the convicts to land when the "Neptune" arrived in Simon's Bay on 19 September 1849, but to keep them on board the ship until he received orders to send them elsewhere. When the home government became aware of the state of affairs, orders were sent directing the "Neptune" to proceed to Tasmania, and it did so after staying in Simon’s Bay for five months.