 Robert Towns was the first to take up this opportunity and brought in indentured Pacific Island labourers to work on his cotton plantation of Townsvale near Brisbane in 1863.Towns actively promoted this remedy to the labour shortage in rural Queensland in a pamphlet published in 1864.One of Towns' vessels, the "Don Juan" under the command of Captain Grueber and labour recruiter Ross Lewin, brought 73 South Sea Islanders to the port of Brisbane in August 1863.