Title:      Early Explorers in Australia
Author:     Ida Lee
* A Project Gutenberg of Australia eBook *
eBook No.:  0301141h.html
Language:   English
Date first posted: August 2003
Date most recently updated: January 2009

This eBook was produced by: Col Choat

Production notes:
Notes in the text are indicated by [*]. The note itself appears at
the end of the paragraph in which it is referenced.

Project Gutenberg of Australia eBooks are created from printed editions
which are in the public domain in Australia, unless a copyright notice
is included. We do NOT keep any eBooks in compliance with a particular
paper edition.

Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this
file.

This eBook is made available at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg of Australia License which may be viewed online at
http://gutenberg.net.au/licence.html

GO TO Project Gutenberg of Australia HOME PAGE

EARLY EXPLORERS IN AUSTRALIA

From the Log-Books and Journals

BY

IDA LEE (Mrs. CHARLES BRUCE MARRIOTT)

F.R.G.S., Hon. F.R.A.H.S.

AUTHOR OF "THE COMING OF THE BRITISH TO AUSTRALIA,"
"COMMODORE SIR JOHN HAYES, HIS VOYAGE AND LIFE,"
"THE LOG-BOOKS OF THE LADY NELSON,"
ETC.

WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

METHUEN & CO. LTD.
36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
LONDON

First Published in 1925.

WYTFLIET'S MAP OF THE TERRA AUSTRALIS

PREFACE

This volume deals with only a portion of the exploration of the Southern Continent and is not intended to be a complete history of Australian discovery. I have endeavoured, however, to relate in addition to the better-known discoveries, many important voyages and surveys which have been less frequently described and in many cases I have left the explorer to tell the story of his adventures in his own words.

Throughout the various chapters I have tried to trace the first arrival of English ships on the west coast, the trend of maritime exploration on the north and north-west coasts from the days of Dampier down to King, the surveys of Cook and of his successors on the east coast, the rediscovery of Moreton Bay, the finding of Port Phillip, and the circumnavigation and settlement of Tasmania.

The book also deals with certain inland discoveries from the time of the landing of Governor Phillip in New South Wales until Allan Cunningham had begun his exploration of Queensland. These include the expeditions of Caley, Evans, and all those who struck out westward across the Blue Mountains, and I have dealt with them as constituting a prelude to Cunninghain's journal, in order to show in whose footsteps Cunningham followed and to indicate the extent of the colony at the time of his arrival there.

Allan Cunningham was a Kew botanist who became also famous as an explorer. It would be difficult to say in which field of enterprise he won most renown. The collections of new plants and seeds that he sent and brought home from the most distant shores of Australasia were hardly surpassed by those made by Robert Brown, and with regard to Cunningham's explorations we find that historians to-day place him in the very front rank of discoverers of the Southern Continent.

It was not until after he had journeyed as botanist with Oxley's party into the interior of New South Wales in 1817, and had traversed bush and mountain and beheld the wide rivers winding inland that the desire to study anything beyond the flora of the country entered his mind. In his accounts of his journey with Oxley one can trace how he gradually came to listen to "the call of the wild," and by looking at the map of Australia of those early days it is possible to gauge to some extent the fascination that tempted him. He must have seen the great spaces left blank on that map, but whether mountains, plains, lakes, or rivers lay there none could tell, for the spaces were unexplored territory that no traveller had ever crossed. In the map they surround the small colony at Port Jackson, then ruled by Governor Macquarie, and spread over nearly the whole continent.

Even where fresh discoveries across the Blue Mountains had been made up to 1814 a single line suffices to show how far Europeans had been able to advance into the Unknown.

The days, then, which followed Cunningham's coming to the colony were glorious days, appealing to men of spirit and courage to blaze a road through country where no civilized man had yet been, and to learn whether it possessed the features of grass and water absolutely necessary if civilization was to be drawn from the small settlements near the coast into the heart of the continent.

How nobly Cunningham responded to the call is well known--perhaps by none better than by those who live in the townships along the route that he toiled so earnestly to discover, many of which are even now only just springing up. How, without neglecting the duties connected with his post as King's Botanist, he wrested from the land the knowledge of its mountain-passes, its fine rivers, its rich pastures, it has been my humble endeavour to make known afresh in the present volume, in which his journal, here first printed in full, is the special feature.

After a careful study of his letters, of his journal, and of his reports (extant in England) I have come to the conclusion that Cunningham himself would have preferred to be best remembered as a botanist. For this reason I decided to give some account of his botanical researches. Botany being an entirely new study to me, in dealing with the names of the plants and flowers of Australia mentioned by Cunningham. I have had the assistance of Mr. N. E. Brown, A.L.S., who has kindly given me most able help and advice.

Cunningham's manuscripts are to be found in the Libraries of the Botanical Departments of the Natural History Museum at South Kensington and at Kew, and I beg to thank the authorities of both Libraries for their courtesy in permitting me to transcribe them.

With regard to my own story of Cunningham's explorations I can only add that I had proposed writing of them in a different manner from that which I have adopted, but owing to illness continually hampering my efforts I have been unable to carry out my original intentions. I therefore trust that in due course an abler writer will deal with what I have omitted and do Cunningharn's memory the justice it so richly deserves.

To all who have helped me in various ways to complete this work I offer my sincere and grateful thanks; had it not been for their aid the book could not have been produced in its entirety. To the Librarians of the various English Libraries, of the Sydney Public Library, and of the Mitchell Library, Sydney, I wish to express my gratitude for their valuable assistance. To Mr. Henry Selkirk of the Royal Australian Historical Society I am greatly indebted for his examination of Allan Cunningham's journal and Field Books, preserved in Sydney, and for comparing Cunningham's maps there with those of modern geographers. I also wish to thank Mr. C. H. Bertie, F.R.A.H.S., for permitting me to reproduce the illustrations of Cook's Landing-place and of the brass tablet at Kurnell, previously published by him and I desire to acknowledge Mr. Kashnor's kindness in allowing me to reprint some rare charts in his collection of those made by Dalrymple which I had not met with elsewhere.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
I. DAMPIER, COOK, BANKS
II. COOK AT ENDEAVOUR RIVER
III. THE COMING OF PHILLIP
IV. MARITIME DISCOVERIES. PORT JACKSON
V. THE EXPLORATION OF THE INTERIOR
VI. ALLAN CUNNINGHAM
VII. CUNNINGHAM'S JOURNAL--OXLEY'S LAND JOURNEY
VIII. CUNNINGHAM'S JOURNAL--OXLEY'S LAND JOURNEY COMPLETED
IX. CUNNINGHAM'S JOURNAL--KING'S WEST COAST VOYAGE
X. CUNNINGHAM'S JOURNAL-"MERMAIDS" VOYAGE COMPLETED
XI. CUNNINGHAM'S JOURNAL--THE FIVE ISLANDS AND ILLAWARRA
XII. THE SECOND VOYAGE OF THE "MERMAID"
XIII. THE THIRD VOYAGE OF THE "MERMAID"
XIV. THE VOYAGE OF THE "BATHURST"
XV. CUNNINGHAM REACHES PANDORA'S PASS
XVI. MOUNT TOMAH; MORETON BAY AND THE BRISBANE RIVER. THROUGH PANDORA'S PASS
XVII. CUNNINGHAM'S NORTHERN JOURNEY
XVIII. FURTHER EXPLORATIONS IN QUEENSLAND
X1X. CUNNINGHAM'S LAST JOURNEYS
INDEX (not included in this ebook)
BOTANICAL REFERENCES (not included in this ebook)

MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

1. TERRA AUSTRALIS, PART OF WYTFLIET'S MAP (1597)
2. TRYAL ROCKS (FROM DALRYMPLE'S COLLECTION)
3. CAPTAIN DANIEL'S CHART OF THE ABROLHOS, 1681 (FROM DALRYMPLE'S COLLECTION)
4. CLOATES "ISLAND," BY P. P. KING
5. PLANTS FOUND IN NEW HOLLAND BY DAMPIER
6. PLANTS FOUND IN NEW HOLLAND BY DAMPIER
7. PLANTS FOUND IN NEW HOLLAND BY DAMPIER
8. JAMES COOK
9. KURNELL: COOK'S LANDING-PLACE
10. "RESOLVED TO DEFEND THEIR COASTS." DRAWN BY J. STEPHENSON
11. TABLET PLACED AT KURNELL (IN 1822) BY THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY
12. MATTHEW WEATHERHEAD'S CHART OF JERVIS BAY
13. EYE SKETCH FROM BASS'S ORIGINAL CHART
14. CHART SHOWING THE "HARBINGER'S" TRACK. DRAWN BY GOVERNOR KING
15. COLONE L PATERSON'S MAP OF THE COLONY
16. ARROWSMITH'S MAP OF NEW SOUTH WALES
17. EVANS'S ROUTE MAP
18. ALLAN CUNNINGHAM
19. A PRIMROSE FROM ENGLAND
20. JOHN OXLEY
21. FACSIMILE OF THE BARK
22. NATIVE BURIAL GROUND (OXLEY'S EXPLORATIONS)
23. CAPTAIN PHILLIP PARKER KING
24. PORT ESSINGTON
25. "MERMAID" BEACHED AT CAREENING BAY
26. HARTOG'S PLATE (FROM FREYCINET'S ATLAS)
27. CROSS'S MAP, SHOWING CUNNINGHAM'S JOURNEY IN 1823
28. MORETON BAY, SHOWING FLINDERS' DISCOVERIES IN THE "NORFOLK'S" VOYAGE
29. RED CLIFF REACH BRISBANE RIVER
30. CUNNINGHAM'S ROUTE IN 1825
31. CUNNINGHAM'S ROUTE MAP OF 1827
32. CUNNINGHAM's ROUTE FROM SEGENHOE TO THE DARLING DOWNS, SHOWN UPON A MODERN MAP
33. SKETCHES FROM CUNNINGHAM'S DIARY
34. BREMER RIVER
35. RICHARD CUNNINGHAM

Early Explorers in Australia

INTRODUCTION

From the earliest dawn of Australia's history the beautiful flora and singular fauna of the country have appealed to discoverers and naturalists. Yet the old Dutch voyagers who first came to the Great South Land collected few specimens of what they found there, and apparently no record exists of any of the country's natural productions having reached Europe until long after the names of Eendracht Land, Dedel's Land, and the Land of the Leeuwin were engraved upon the maps of the world.[*]

[* Heeres says: In 1605 Jansz surveyed the cast coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria as far as about 13°45'S. In the year 1616 the Dutch ship 'Eendracht,' commanded by Dirk Hartog, on her voyage from the Cape of Good Hope to Batavia...for the first time surveyed part of the west coast of Australia. As early as 1619 this coast was known by the name of Eendracht Land, and Dedel's Land (called after a sea captain named Jacob Dedel) was made in July, 1619, and appeared in the charts of 1627." The same writer observes: "Dedel's Land is bounded by the Land of the Leeuwin, surveyed in 1622. (See "Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia."--J. E. Heeres.)]

According to Labillardière, the first specimens of any kind to reach Holland from New Holland were two shells which had been given to Burgomaster Witsen of Amsterdam in 1698 by a sea captain in the service of the Dutch East India Company. This was William Vlamingh, who had visited Western Australia in the previous year; and, in a letter to Dr. Lister of the Royal Society Witsen says "he found them on the seaside, and I make bold to send you the draught of them, the shells themselves being twice as long and as broad as the draught." He adds the courteous message "I could not bestow them better than on one who hath the best knowledge of these and all other sea products." A description of the shells, with illustrations, was afterwards published in Lister's "Synopsis Conchyliorum "--one being the first nautilus,[*] the other then named the Concha persica clavicula radiata.

[* Nautilus pompilius.]

The Burgomaster's letter mentions other curiosities seen by Vlamingh in the new land, among them black swans, three of which were caught and taken to Batavia, but shortly afterwards died there; and on an island near the coast were "rats as great as cats which had a kind of bag or purse hanging from the throat downwards." On this account the Dutch gave the name of Rottennest[*] to the island and called the river where the swans were taken the Swan River.

[* Rats' Nest. The rats were a species of kangaroo rat.]

There were found also "many well-scented trees, and out of the wood is to be drawn oil smelling as the rose." A small bottle of it was distilled at Batavia and sent to the Directors of the Dutch East India Company at Amsterdam, which appear to prove that the eucalyptus first yielded its oil to the Dutch.

Soon after Witsen's letter had reached Dr. Lister, William Dampier brought home his collection of dried plants, including many gathered in Western Australia. Dampier had twice visited that country: he was there before Vlamingh, on his voyage with the buccaneers in the ship "Cygnet" of London under Captain Read, entering on January 5, 1688 what is now called Cygnet Bay, and he was there in 1699 in the "Roebuck," of which vessel he was in command;[*] and after Dampier's return from this voyage in 1702 more than ever before was known in England concerning the South Land.

[* After leaving Australia on his first voyage Dampier quarrelled with Captain Read and quitted the "Cygnet" at Nicobar. He made his way to Sumatra and reached England in 1691. Having been brought under the notice of King William III by the Earl of Pembroke, he was placed in command of Roebuck," an Admiralty ship, and sent on a second voyage of discovery.]

In the journal of his first voyage Dampier mentions New Holland several times before he is able to record that he has seen it. First of all, at the Ladrones he had been told by experienced seamen that ships bound to Java from the Cape of Good Hope often found themselves, and sometimes to their cost, on the shoals off New Holland; ships had been known to run aground there when their navigators thought that they were a great way from it, as to which Dampier remarks: "Hence possibly the Dutch call that part of the coast the Land of Indraught, as if it magnetically drew ships to it." In this, however, Dampier assigns a meaning of his own to the word Eendracht, which the Dutch had bestowed upon a part of Western Australia; for we know that the land was named in honour of the ship "Eendracht," the word itself meaning, in Dutch, "union" or "concord."

He mentions New Holland again after the ship had passed Timor, and, being uncertain as to what was the form or shape of the country he was about to land in, he describes it as "a part of Terra Australis Incognita." When he reached a shoal off the coast, he complained that it was laid down too far to the north-ward in the Dutch charts, and after the "Cygnet" rounded what is now known as Cape Lévêque and anchored a league to the eastward of its shores, on January 5, 1688, he gave this account of the country:

"New Holland is a very large tract of land. It is not yet determined whether it is an island or a continent, but I am certain that it joins neither to Asia, Africa, nor America."

Dampier wrote boldly; for, although early in the seventeenth century the Dutch had made discoveries on the north and west coasts, in 16o6 Torres had sailed through the strait now known by his name, in 1627 Peter Nuyts had crossed the Australian Bight to Nuyts' Archipelago off the south coast, and in 1642 Tasman had discovered the shores of both Tasmania and New Zealand, yet nothing was known of the eastern or south-eastern coasts, and a multitude of geographers still believed the old fables that Australia was included within the boundaries of the vast Terra Australis Incognita, the imaginary Antarctic continent supposed to cover the whole of the southern portion of both the eastern and western hemispheres--an idea founded on the ancient theory that a southern continent was needed to maintain the equilibrium of the globe.

In the western hemisphere the southern continent was believed to join Tierra del Fuego or Magellanica (South America), and in the eastern hemisphere it was thought to stretch as far north as New Guinea, while its southern boundary ran as far south as the Pole itself. So firmly was this idea fixed in the minds of the most learned men that it had become difficult to eradicate it, and we find this imaginary continent portrayed in maps of the world up to the time of Dampier's coming to Australia.[*]

[* P. du Val, in his World Map of 1674, in order to show the Dutch discoveries in Australia, makes a sharp break in the outline of the imaginary continent, but he still keeps New Zealand as one of its promontories--part of a territory whose coast-line ran southward till it almost reached the southern extremity of South America; and Tasmania was thought to be another part of it.]

Points of this vast land had been identified and named by European seamen and others, the most familiar names given tc the various parts being Beach or Locach and Maletur--names handed down since the time of Marco Polo--Terra di Vista, Brasiliae Regio, Psittacorum Regio, or the Land of Parrots, in the eastern, and, contiguous to Tierra del Fuego Regio Patalis and Regio Magellanica in the western hemisphere.

By far the oldest portion of the Terra Australis was the land of Beach or Cape Beach. It was the title given to a tract of country in Northern Australia in the neighbourhood of Arnhem Land, while the old name Regio Patalis (the region of Patala at the mouth of the Indus) was bestowed at different periods upon various parts of the vast continent; Terra di Vista was another ancient name for land in 42° S. lat., of which nothing was known except that "it was 450 leagues from the Cape of Good Hope." Buache, the French geographer, is best remembered for the memoir he published in 1763 (only five years before Cook sailed on his first voyage), in which he enumerates the names appearing on the maps of Terra Australis, or, as he calls it, Terra Antarctica. In writing of Terra di Vista, Buache points out that "on Mercator's Great Chart published in 1569 (and on Wytfliet's Of 1597) there is also marked in these latitudes the great Gulf of St. Sebastian[*] and an island called Cressalina," "of which," he adds, "there is a MS. map in the collection of the Marshal d'Estrèes"...Buache's memoir was regarded as an important work at the time of its publication, so much so that afterwards it was reprinted by Alexander Dalrymple, hydrographer at the Admiralty, who possessed a wonderful knowledge of old and rare charts, and who collected valuable information respecting the tracks of vessels which were the first to sail among the islands and shoals of the Pacific and especially among those around the Australian

[* Not to be confused with the channel of that name in Tierra del Fuego.]

To return to the Gulf of St. Sebastian. Although Buache did not himself give its position as being near or off Australia, he believed that it was not far from Terra di Vista. Now, how-ever, it is thought that in all probability what he referred to as Terra di Vista was a portion of Western Australia, since it was placed to the south of the Cape of Good Hope and no land exists in the position assigned to it upon the maps themselves.

Cook was aware of the importance attached by geographers to the rediscovery of the Gulf of St. Sebastian, and as the Dutch formerly had given orders to their seamen to look for Cape Beach, so in like manner Cook was instructed to search for this gulf. The "Resolution" and the "Adventure" both looked for it, and we even find Dr. Solander, on his return to England in 1774, mentioning it in a letter to a friend when thus describing Furneaux's homeward voyage:[*] "He [Furneaux] sailed directly south from New Zealand till he came into lat. 55° and between that and 6o° continued his course eastward...looking for St. Sebastian's Land and for Cape Circumcision, but arrived the 18th March last at the Cape of Good Hope without having seen an inch of new land...He has proved that there is no southern continent and that the French discoveries are small islands instead of continents; or perhaps, as my friend Omai calls ice, 'things that the sun drives away or causes to vanish.'"

[* Solander to Ellis, "Correspondence of Linnaeus," Vol. II, p. 17.]

On hearing that Cook did not find the Gulf of St. Sebastian, Dalrymple remarked that he should have looked for it in the eastern and not in the western hemisphere;[*] and possibly Dalrymple, although his theory regarding the existence of a huge southern continent was disproved, possessed evidence relating to the discovery of the gulf which has not been handed down to us. The remark at least raises a question as to where Dalrymple expected that Cook would find this gulf. We only know that upon some ancient maps, as for example on Wytfliet's of the continent of Terra Australis, 1597 (Map 1), there appears on its southern shores a wide opening (not unlike the real Spencer Gulf of early Australian maps) which bears the name of Golfo S. Sebastiano, and to the eastward of this is another river-like opening in front of which is an island called Cressalina. If we follow the coast-line of the continent round to the westward we come to another part of it named Psittacorum Regio, and this, in the opinion of competent authorities, was in fact Western Australia. Opposite Psittacorum Regio, or the Land of Parrots, and at a short distance from it, looms the Cape of Good Hope, but, judging from the position of Java Major to the northward and the Pacific Ocean to the eastward, the outlines of the Cape are even more out of their proper place on the map than are those of Western Australia.

[* Many believed that the gulf would be found in the western hemisphere, and Thomas Kitchin, the well-known geographer, in banishing the imaginary Terra Australis from his maps after Cook's return from his researches still retained a small portion of the land bearing the name of the Gulf of St. Sebastian, which he places to the south-east of the Falkland Islands--a little to the westward of where Ortelius had placed it on his map in 1587.]

In spite of the fact, too, that in this map the Gulf of St. Sebastian seems to have its origin a few miles from the South Pole, or that portions of Terra Australis are laid down within the limits of the Antarctic Circle, and that to the south-eastward the land shows no sign of ending, it seems to convey the impression of being an authentic discovery of Australia. Its eastern shores are bounded by the Pacific; New Guinea is shown as an island, and Beach on the north part is face to face with the island of Java Major. The text which was published with it gives this description: "The Australis Terra is the most southern of all lands. It is separated from New Guinea by a narrow strait. Its shores are little known, since after one voyage and another that route has been deserted and seldom is the country visited unless when sailors are driven there by storms. The Australis Terra begins 2 or 3 degrees from the Equator and is maintained...to be of so great an extent that if it were thoroughly explored it would be regarded as a fifth part of the world."

No great land south of the Equator excepting Australia answers to this description of Terra Australis, and, as Dalrymple believed the Gulf of St. Sebastian would be found in the eastern hemisphere, it would seem that he must have regarded the land on whose southern shores its name is inscribed, not as the huge imaginary continent supposed to spread over the southern portions of both hemispheres and to encircle the South Pole, but as a smaller continent confined within the limits of the eastern hemisphere, which could have been no other land than Australia.

It is probable that Europeans visited this continent even before the Dutch discovered portions of it. Witness the Portu-guese word "Abrolhos" on early sea charts, the name Terra del Zur on many old maps, and the rock carvings, found by Sir George Grey in Western Australia, one figure among them being garbed as a priest. These carvings apparently were the work of shipwrecked people who took up their abode in caves. The countenance of one man engraved in the rock shows that they were Europeans: they do not appear to be connected with any Dutch visit, and it is thought that they were survivors either of a French or a Portuguese ship, long since lost on these shores, of which no traces have been found. There is the story too, that Spanish ringbolts have been discovered in Sydney Harbour, which, if really true, would prove that this side of the continent also was visited. While controversy usually attends the finding of any signs of the presence of Europeans on the mainland at an early date, the knowledge that more than one old map showing Terra Australis bear dates prior to the arrival of the Dutch is sufficient to justify the belief that Australia was discovered before the beginning of the seventeenth century.[*]

[* The wooden globe of Paris, one of the most famous geographical records extant, made about the year 1535, bears an outline of a continent in the far south, having inscribed upon it the legend: "Terra Australis recenter inventa, Anno 1499. Another inscription of a similar nature appears upon the map of Oroncé Finé (1531), only omitting the date of discovery. In a work by Francis Monarchus entitled "De Orbis Situ," a small map bears a similar notice, and in the text of the book the date of discovery is set down as 1526. Vopellio's map, 1556, adheres to 1499 as the correct date. From this time forward cosmographers of different periods seem to have had no doubts concerning the authentic discovery of the South Land, although they could not agree in their methods of delineating its outline.]

Other geographers award the honour of discovery to the Malays, who came to fish for trepang on the north and north-west coasts. Both Flinders and King when surveying those shores met with their proas, and it is said that they had fished there for centuries. And probably if one race of mankind outside its native inhabitants can claim to have had the earliest knowledge of Northern Australia, that race would be the Malays. They are said originally to have inhabited Palembang and the banks of the River Malayu in Sumatra and to have migrated thence about the end of the twelfth century to the south-east extremity of the opposite peninsula, where they built the ancient town of Singapore and afterwards that of Malacca (though the name Malaya was applied to the peninsula many ages before). Some of the Malays, especially the traders of Celebes, lost sight of their coasts and pushed out on the open seas, directing their course by the position of the stars and sometimes by the aid of a compass. (At what time they came into possession of this seaman's guide is conjectural, although it was thought to have been introduced from China.) A voyage as far southward as Melville Island or Admiralty Gulf would have been quite an easy matter for their fleets.

But turning from the mists of tradition to the clear light of written history, the fact that the Portuguese and Spanish first made charts of Australia carly in the sixteenth century would show that at that time they must have gained some definite knowledge of its coast-line. So jealously, however, did these two nations guard the secrets of their voyages and charts that no records of their discoveries have been handed down to us. It may be significant in this connexion that Wytfliet's map was dedicated to the King of Spain.

At the end of the sixteenth century a new maritime power sprang into being. Holland, having successfully waged her war of independence against Spain and wrested from Portugal her supremacy in the eastern seas, China as well as India and the Spice Islands became the scene of Dutch activity, and Dutch ships began to take the leading part in the maritime exploration of Southern Asia. These ships when bound for Bantam (the western portion of Java) must have sighted Australia, especially when stormy weather drove them to its shores. Their first knowledge of the southern continent is believed to have been acquired in 1595 in a voyage fitted out by some rich Dutch merchants, at the instigation of Cornelius Houtman, a merchant who had lived in Lisbon and had gathered from the Portuguese particulars concerning their discoveries. Being imprisoned for debt there, Houtman wrote home to the Dutch merchants, giving them much information regarding the East, and they obtained his release and sent him upon this voyage to the East Indies. On the way from Antongil (on the east side of Madagascar) to Java the compasses of the Dutch ships were subject to great variation, and by going too far north they failed to make certain sandbanks (probably the Abrolhos or those near Point Cloates) "marked on their Portuguese charts" which they should have sighted, and Wytfliet says that on this voyage much was learned of the Australis Terra. For fully sixty years the southern continent now became the goal of the Dutch navigators, and Dutch expeditions left Holland in quick succession with instruc-tions to investigate and report upon the South Land, to which they gave the name of New Holland. The stories of these voyages have their places in the Dutch archives and are well known to us. Of late years the records have been published and contain all that is known concerning the Dutch discoveries in New Holland.

About the year 1600, after the founding of the East India Company, we find English ships beginning to compete with the Dutch for a portion of their trade with the East. With the eastern monsoon the English sailed eastward principally by what the Dutch called their "new route," that is to say, round the Cape of Good Hope past the islands of St. Paul and Amsterdam, thence making the coast of New Holland.[*] Between New Holland and the south-eastern shores of Asia the Indian Ocean flows through many channels into the Pacific, and ships coming from the southward across the Equator to China and japan had to pass through some of these channels. "It soon became a recognized practice for British seamen destined for the straits between Java and Timor to secure the land-fall from New Holland."[**] Instead of coming there by accident or through being blown out of their course, we learn that now the ships made it "their principal care to fall in with New Holland."

[* Early Dutch navigators recommended seamen to make the South Land in 26° Or 27°. British ships usually made it in 22° or 23° S.]

[** "A New Directory for the East Indies," S. Dunn. 5th ed. London, 1780. P. 368.]

The earliest accounts in their captains' log-books and journals telling of how they first saw what is now a British possession are full of interest to-day and should have a place in every Australian history. There are not many records relating to these English voyages. Here and there a log-book of ancient date states the bare fact that the land was sighted, or an old directory quotes the remarks made by some captain--small scraps of intelligence, yet sufficient to prove that long before Cook discovered the east coast in the "Endeavour" British seamen had reached and taken their bearings from the west coast of New Holland.

One experienced commander[*] (the date of whose voyage is not stated), after giving 22° 31' S. as the latitude that ships should endeavour to make for, sounds a note of warning with regard to the perils around its shores. "I must observe," he writes, "that till under the lat. of 26° S. the coast of New Holland must be approached with caution as there is great danger, though there are many never-failing guides to warn you of your approach, such as great quantities of skuttle-bones, weeds and drifts, and near the Bank grampuses playing like seals and innumerable quantities of Tropick birds, but skuttle-fish and weeds are commonly the first marks. The land in lat. 22° S. and 23° S. is low, the soundings 130 fathoms mud about 14 leagues from the coast."

[* Remarks published by William Nichelson of H.M.S. "Elizabeth," 1758-64.]

One can picture, while the east coast remained all unknown the little stream of British ships making its way eastward to Western Australia, creeping along the reefs in the darkness past the low sandhills and grassy slopes in the neighbourhood of Point Cloates and North-West Cape, where now, from lighthouses of grey concrete, every five or seven seconds a flashing white light is thrown upon the seaman's path. The little stream of ships with the advancement of time has grown into a big river with many branches, which divide and penetrate every harbour of the continent.

The first English ship to reach Australian waters of whose coming a record survives was the ship "Trial"[*] She was wrecked in 1622 upon rocks which soon were placed on charts under the name of the Tryal Rocks, although for long they were thought to be of doubtful existence. Ten of the ship's passengers safely reached Batavia on July 5th; a second boat came there on the 8th with thirty-six survivors, and these informed the Dutch Governor (Koen) that they had abandoned their ship with ninety-seven people on board in lat. 20°10' S. They also stated that the "Tryal" had struck upon the reef during the night in fair weather. Both English and Dutch ships looked for the rocks, yet gradually people doubted their existence, because seamen who claimed to have sighted them placed them in entirely different latitudes. Dampier hoped to find them. The "Jane" frigate in 1705 searched for them in vain, although her com-mander guessed the truth concerning their situation. In his journal he wrote on June 27th of that year: "Hove to, according to custom, on account of the Tryal Rocks (if such exist), for although they are reported to extend 20 leagues in length I was informed by the Commodore of the Dutch ships ... that he never heard of these rocks being seen. If they exist they must lie much farther east than in the route toward Java Head."

[* The "Tryal" carried a letter from the Hague to Dutch authorities in the East giving particulars of the Treaty concluded in 1619 between the English and Dutch E.I. Companies.]

Many years after a Dutch sloop was again sent to explore them in consequence of their having been seen by the ship "Vaderland Getrouw" in 1718 in 20½° S. The sloop sighted and charted them and reported that they ranged from east to west forty miles, were in lat. 19°30' S. and were eighty leagues from New Holland. Captain Foss of the Danish ship "Fredensberg Castle" saw them in 1777, and geographers continued to place them on their maps, yet many sailors still refused to believe that they existed. At last the voyage of the ship "Greyhound," on her passage from China to Port Jackson as late as 1819, reopened the question by her commander declaring that he had met with a reef of rocks in lat. 19°59' S., long. 103°30' E., which were the long-lost Tryal Rocks.

In 1820, after a minute survey of the different situations where these rocks had been reported, Lieutenant Phillip Parker King in H.M.S. "Mermaid" came to the conclusion that the Monte Bello Islands exactly answered the description given by the Danish captain, and he states, "There remains no doubt in my mind but that Barrow Island (in 20°40' S., 115°27' E.) and Trimouille Island (of the French) and the numerous reefs around them are the identical Tryal Rocks." Since King's day naval surveyors have found the exact position of the rocks. "Admiralty Sailing Directions" (1917) state that "Tryal Rocks, awash at high water, are near the outer edge of the S.W. part of Monte Bello Islands reef and 5 miles N. of the north extreme of Barrow Island." King attributed the difficulty of identification to errors in longitude on the part of early navigators whose reckonings, as is well known, cannot be relied upon, owing to the fact that they had to depend upon their chronometers, which were liable to get out of order.

The second English ship to make the Australian coast of whose presence off the Abrolhos a record has been preserved was the "London" under Captain Daniel, who came there in June, 1681, according to Thornton, Horsburgh and Thomson (Dalrymple places the date as 1687), and therefore Daniel saw these shores before his countryman Dampier. Of his coming Captain Daniel wrote in his journal: "With the wind S.W. by W. steering by compass N.E. by E, at 10 a.m. the water was discoloured: a man at the foretop saw a breach rise ahead of us. We put our helm hard a starboard and stood away N.W. by W. and weathered the N.W. end of it about ½ a mile: at that distance the depth was 35 fms. white corally ground with some red mixed: next depth (about 2 hours after we tacked) was about 40 fms., the same ground, and at 9 p.m.having run off by log on a N.W. by W. course had no ground at 65 fms...The breach which we first saw happened to be the northernmost of all, there being several and by our computation are 20 miles in length. Within the breaches several small white sandy islands were seen with some bushes on them: a very heavy sea broke against the south part of these. When close to them the mainland was not seen."

Captain Daniel apparently saw Wallabi Group, the northern-most of the three groups of islands and rocks comprising the Abrolhos. He named it "Dangerous Rocks," He also may have given the name of Maiden's Isle to Rottnest Island, as it is so called in many old atlases. He made a chart of the Abrolhos which was published by Dalrymple, and, however imperfectly it may represent these shoals, it seems to have been the first attempt by an Englishman to chart the shores of Australia.

There is a curious silence among historians regarding Cloates Island, or Cloates Doubtful Island, off Western Australia, yet to sailors in olden days it was an island of mystery; and for English sea captains who made it their duty to fall in with New Holland it possessed a peculiar attraction. They looked for it and wrote about it in their log-books more than any other part of the continent, because for years people were wont to disbelieve in its existence too. Owing to the hidden trendings in the coast and the elbow that is formed in its outline where they first sighted land a difficult problem was presented to one sailor after another which none could solve.

Lieutenant King also found that Cloates Island did exist and was not an island or shoals like the Tryal Rocks and the Abrolhos, but actually formed a part of the mainland. Early explorers had passed along this portion of the coast, though none had named the point until in 1719 it was suddenly christened Cloates Island, and Cloates Island it remained until a hundred years later, when King proved it to be a peninsula. This supposed island was discovered by Captain Nash (possibly an Englishman), in com-mand of a Flemish ship, the "House of Austria," bound from Ostend to China. On seeing it he wrote in his journal: "Being clear weather brought to, sounded, and had no ground with 100 fms. though not above four miles off shore. The day before and several days after observed an incredible quantity of seaweed like that from the Gulf of Florida and small birds like lapwings both in size and flight. This island cannot be seen far even in clear weather and lies N.E. by E. and S.W. by S. about 32 leagues in length with terrible breakers from each end running about three miles into the sea." He gave the lat. as 22° S. and from it made 7°26' westing to Java Head. As he could find no account of this land in any of his books or charts Captain Nash named it Cloates or Cloot's Island in honour of a Flemish Baron, one of the owners of the ship.[*]

[* "A New Directory for the East Indies," S. Dunn. 5th ed. 1780.]

Other ships followed Captain Nash's route and saw Cloates Island, and reported having seen it. Captain Pelly of the ship "Prince of Wales" in 1739 at first sight thought the land like small islands, so very low that they could not be seen from the deck. A great smoke was rising only at five or six leagues distant. He "sounded and had no ground at 160 fms...raised the land and found it long and level about the height of the Lizard."...He believed "the land like islands joined to the rest." The last sentence seems to show that Pelly queried the report that the land was a single island, or else had seen other islands in the north-east.

Another East India Company's ship, the "Haeslingfield," sighted Cloates Island in 1743. On July 16th Captain Robert Haldane[*] records having seen weeds and common berries in the water in lat. 24°33' S.; "also next day but not so much as before." On the following day, Monday, July 18th, he writes: "Saw Cloot's Island. Lay to...Made sail...Kept a good look out all night, having been yesterday at noon only 75' to ye southward of Cloot's Island discovered by ye 'House of Austria,' an Ostend shipping, by our account not a great way from ye meridian in which they made it. At daylight saw it bearing S.E. ½ S. to E. by S. distant 6 leagues. Sounded, but had no ground with fms., nor have we seen any scuttle bones at all nor weeds since the 16th and 17th as they mention, and but 2 or 3 birds of a whitish colour and of size of a pigeon. It extends from N.N.E. to S. by W. about 9 or 10 leagues in length and rises gradually towards the middle; from the N.E. end of it runs a ledge of rocks upon which we saw breakers a great way out. By a very good observation I make it to lie in lat. 22°08' S. and 32°01' East from St. Paul's, which agrees pretty well with a journall of ye above mentioned ship by accident found on board.[**]...I am apt to believe that this island is laid down...in charts a good deal too much to westward." The last remark was true. "Doubtful" Island has always been placed too much to westward, and at some distance from the mainland.[***]

[* India Office Log-Book.]

[**] The curious fact of Captain Nash's journal being found on board the "Haeslingfield" is additional evidence that he was of English nationality.

Fifty-three years after the "Haeslingfield" had passed (in the year 1796) the master of the ship "Belvedere" reported having seen Cloates Island "on the lee bow bearing E. by N. 5 or 6 miles at 9; breakers off each end...10 a.m. a bluff point seen from the masthead." After steering ten miles, the observed lat., being 21°10' S.[*] "the body of Cloat's Island was seen half way up the mizen shrouds."

[*] Its true lat. 22°42' S., long. 113°'41' E.

But by this time geographers were inclined to be sceptical, and Horsburgh writes: "This evidently was not Cloates Island but some of the low islands in the bight to the east of North-West Cape." Joining the unbelievers, he adds: "Cloates Island very probably has no real existence."

Lieutenant King, however, who was sent by the Admiralty to explore the north-west coast, was not the man to pass over any reliable evidence concerning early discoveries in those regions and he determined to examine this coast. He came there first in 1818, and on February 10th saw the land and described its outer shore very much after the manner of early seamen: "The coast is tolerably elevated, may be seen at a distance of 6 or 7 leagues. The shore is fronted with rocks that extend 3 or 4 miles into the sea, on the extremity of which the surf breaks with a continued foam." On the 14th he rounded North-West Cape and entered the bight which he named Exmouth Gulf, and before dark his ship, the "Mermaid," had sailed twenty-five miles down the opening without seeing its termination. Exmouth Gulf is twenty-seven miles wide between Tubridgi Point and North-West Cape, and has been traced fifty miles into the land yet even to-day a great part of it is very imperfectly known. "The western side trended southwards, losing itself in distance and bore the appearance of being an island," King records after bringing the "Mermaid" to an anchorage in an inlet called Bay of Rest, or Jogodor. From here he continued his examination, but was forced to leave Exmouth Gulf without being positively certain whether the bay within it in which his ship had anchored was a part of an island or of the continent.[*]

[* Allan Cunningham, the botanist on board, had little doubt that it formed part of the mainland. (See his journal, February 16, 1818.)]

In October, 1820, during his third voyage to the north-west coast, King wrote: "The existence of Cloates Island, of which there are so many undeniable descriptions, was for a long time questioned by navigators. I think, however, that it does exist, and that it is no other than the mainland to the southward of North-West Cape." When he came to the curious arm or elbow in the coast-line which had caused sailors to mistake this peninsula for an island, he observed: "In the neighbourhood of the Bay of Rest (within the Gulf) the shore is more sinuous...here the Gulf is twelve miles across...the Gulf then shoalens and at fifteen miles farther terminates in an inlet...at the south end of the high land that forms the west side of the Gulf and which is doubtless the identical Cloates Island that has puzzled navigators for the last eighty years.[*] It perfectly answers the descriptions that have been given, and the only thing against it is the longitude, but this like that of the Tryal Rocks is not to be attended to."

[* King's "Intertropical Australia," Vol. 11, P. 365.]

It is evident that King was keenly interested in the history of Cloates Island and was determined to remove all doubts as to its identity. And after he had examined it he says: "The description of this island by Captain Nash of the ship 'House of Austria,' as well as that of the 'Haeslingfield' in 1743 and by Captain Pelly, accord exactly with the appearance of this promontory, nor is the longitude much in error when we consider the strength of the currents which set to the north-west during the easterly monsoon in the space between New Holland and Java."[*]

[* King's "Intertropical Australia," vol. 1, P. 443.]

Thus once and for all King cleared up the mystery which had for so long surrounded Cloates Island.

From these glimpses into the log-books of British seamen who sighted the west coast, we pass to the journal of William Dampier, the first Englishman of whose landing we have actual record.

CHAPTER 1

DAMPIER, BANKS, AND COOK

On the "Cygnet's" arrival off Cape Lévêque, Dampier recorded his first impressions of the country. "This part," he writes, "is all a low, even land with sandy banks against the sea...the points rocky and so are some of the islands in the bay...The soil is dry and sandy, destitute of water, except you make wells, yet producing divers sort of trees." He at once noticed a species of eucalyptus which grew most abundantly, calling them dragon trees, and describing them as "the largest of any there. They are about the bigness of our large apple trees...the rind is blackish...The leaves are of a dark colour. The gum distils out of the knots or cracks that are in the bodies of the trees. We compared it with some Gum-dragon or Dragon's Blood that was aboard and it was of the same."

On January 5, 1688, after the "Cygnet" had anchored, some natives were seen walking on the shore. A boat was sent off from the ship in the hope of being able to get water and provisions, but on seeing it approaching them the blacks quickly disappeared. For three days the buccaneers searched for their houses, but found none; then, anxious to be on friendly terms with the inhabitants, left toys in different places which it was thought they would visit. A little later, while searching for water among the islands, Dampier and his shipmates came upon a great many natives.

He describes these people as being "tall and thin, with long limbs...great heads, round foreheads, and great brows. Their eyelids always half closed to keep the flies out of their eyes, they were being so troublesome, no fanning will keep them from coming to one's face. They have great bottle noses, full lips, and wide mouths, and the two fore teeth of the upper jaw are wanting in all of them." He thought the colour of their skin was coal black and that "they have no sort of clothes. They have no houses but lie in the open air. Earth being their bed and Heaven their canopy." On looking around to see what they lived upon, he says: "Their only food is a small sort of fish which they get by making wares of stone across little coves,"[*] and adds: "Their chiefest dependence is what the sea leaves in their wares...be it night or day, rain or shine, they must attend to them or else they must fast, for the earth affords them no food at all." Some of them "had wooden swords; others a sort of lance; the sword is a piece of wood shaped somewhat like a cutlass." From which it appears that they carried boomerangs, of which Dampier has left us this impression. He imagined that the natives used stone hatchets as he saw no iron or other metal, and believed that they obtained their fire "by rubbing or twirling a hard piece of wood between the palms of their hands" against a softer piece "until it smokes and at last takes fire."

[* These stone weirs were afterwards seen by King on the north-west coast in 1818, by Roe at Oyster Harbour, West Australia, and by Oxley on the Lachlan River, New South Wales; and King remarks that by their being found on the south-east, south-west,and north-west coasts, he concluded "this expedient was a native practice throughout the continent."]

On one island (to the eastward of Cape Lévêque) the buccaneers discovered about forty inhabitants--men, women, and children--who, on seeing white men landing there were at first "much disordered" and "made a great noise," but when they saw no harm was intended they became more subdued. For a dwelling-place they possessed "only a fire with a few boughs before it--set up on the side the wind was." When they grew friendly the sailors tried to make them help to water the ship. They put clothes on some of them and led them to the wells (where water had been found) and placed a barrel of water on each man's shoulders to be taken to the boat, which was only waste of time, for the natives "stood like statues and grinned like so many monkeys"; and Dampier relates, "We were forced to carry the water ourselves but they very fairly put the clothes off and laid them down," no doubt highly pleased to be rid of them.

While one of the boats was seeking food in these islands (to which the name of Buccaneers' Archipelago has since been given) a number of natives were seen swimming from one island to another, and consequently it was believed that they had "no boats, canoes, or bark logs." The way in which these tribes propelled themselves through the water is described, however, by Allan Cunningham in a later chapter of this volume. Four natives were brought on board the "Cygnet," when they greedily devoured rice boiled with turtle and dugong which the English set before them.

On one occasion some of the blacks who lived on the mainland came close to the ship, and standing on a high bank began to threaten the sailors by calling to them from their high position and wildly flourishing their spears and boomerangs; nor would t leave off until Captain Read ordered the drum to be beaten. Then they hastily took their departure, "crying 'Gurry, Gurry' deep in the throat." At spring tide the "Cygnet" was hauled into a small sandy cove as far as she could float. When the tide turned, the dry sand extended around the ship for nearly half a mile, and in his diary Dampier says: "All the neap tides we lay wholly aground for the sea did not come within 100 yards of where she lay"; which gave the men time to clean the bottom of the ship. Meanwhile, most of the sailors lived ashore in a tent and mended their sails, their constant food being manatee (dugong)[*] and turtle. On March 12th the "Cygnet" left the shores of New Holland, directing her course to the northward.

[* A full-sized dugong--popularly known as the sea-cow--ordinarily furnishes about a ton of good meat. Part of the flesh resembles beef and other portions would easily be mistaken for pork. Dugong feed on the seaweed growing in shallow waters round the coast.]

When he visited Australia for the second time as captain of the "Roebuck"--some eleven years afterwards--Dampier spent about three weeks on the west and north-west coasts discovering harbours, meeting natives, and sometimes landing upon its shores. It is said that he was "well acquainted with botany," and he thus describes the natural features of the coast at Shark Bay, which he entered on August 7, 1699, and anchored within it, at three different places: "The land is of indifferent height...There are many gentle risings neither steep nor high...but in this bay or sound...the land is low by the seaside, the mould is sand...producing a sort of sampier [samphire] which bears a white flower. Farther in, the mould is reddish...producing some grass, plants, and shrubs. The grass grows in great tufts as big as a bushel, here and there tufts being inter-mixed with heath...much of the kind...growing on our commons in England."

There were curious trees of different sorts, and the visitors thought the foliage of some even more curious; many grew to a height of five or six feet "before one comes to their branches, which are bushy"; the colour of their leaves was white on one side and green on the other. There was long grass growing there, but it was very thin. Some of the trees were sweet--scented and turned "reddish within the bark like Sassafras but redder...Most of these and the shrubs had either blossoms or berries on them. The blossoms...were of several colours as red, white, and yellow, but mostly blue, and these generally smelt very sweet and fragrant, as did also some of the rest; there were beside...plants, herbs and tall flowers and some very small flowers growing on the ground that were sweet and beautiful, for the most part unlike any I had seen elsewhere."

"Of large land fowl," Dampier saw "none but eagles, and five or six sorts of small birds...not bigger than larks, some no bigger than wrens, all singing with great variety of fine shrill notes," and the sailors caught sight of some of their young ones in their nests. There was an abundance of water-fowl in Shark Bay, among them duck--these also had young ones--gulls, and pelicans, and others of a kind never seen before. The land animals were "only a sort of raccoon...with very short fore legs," and he says they "go jumping" and were good meat, which would show that he met with a small species of kangaroo.

The lizards resembled other lizards excepting in three remarkable particulars: they had "a larger and uglier head and had no tail...instead...they had the stump of a tail which appeared like another head."[*] They were very slow in motion, and when "a man comes nigh them they will stand and hiss," and so hideous did they appear to him that he observes: "I did never see such ugly creatures anywhere." There were plenty of sea-fish and shell-fish: among the latter, oysters both of the pearl and the edible variety, and the shore was "lined thick with many sorts of very strange and beautiful shells, for variety of colour and shape most finely spotted with red, black, and yellow," such as he had not seen anywhere "but at this place," and he brought away what he could.

[* The stump-tailed lizard, Trachysaurus rugosus.]

There were a great many sharks in this bay, and these, he says, our men "eat very favourily." Inside a huge one that the sailors cut open was found part of a dugong. Being ignorant of the Malayan name of this herb-eating mammal, Dampier called it a "hippopotamus," and because the sharks were so numerous he named the indentation Shark Bay.

When his ship left there on August 14th he proceeded to follow the coast round to the north-east and passed through many islands of a pretty height, which, he thought, must stretch back "as far as to those of Shark Bay." He had a strong suspicion that these constituted an archipelago of islands.[*] and that possibly there was "a passage to the south of New Holland and New Guinea into the Great South Sea eastward."

[* The French Commander, L. de Freycinet called it Archipel de Dampier in 1803.]

He therefore determined to examine the islands, the largest of which were "mostly rocky and barren," the rocks being of a rusty yellow colour, and the "Roebuck" anchored on August 22nd on the inner side of an island the outside of which he describes as "a bluff point."[*] Here he landed with some of his men, who took shovels to dig for water, but none was found. He found that two or three sorts of shrubs grew there, "one just like rosemary and therefore I called this Rosemary Island." The rosemary shrub grew plentifully but "had no smell...Some other shrubs had blue and yellow flowers," and there were two sorts of grain like beans: "the one grew on bushes, the other on a sort of creeping vine that ran along the ground." Dampier says that this vine had thick, broad leaves, and the blossom resembled "a bean blossom but much larger and of a deep red colour looking very beautiful." It appears likely, although the description of the leaf is hardly a true one, that this last was Dampier's Glory Pea (Clianthus Dampieri, Cunn.), a specimen of which is contained in Dampier's Herbarium. His collection.[**] is still preserved at Oxford, and besides the Glory Pea there are in it the following plants that he brought from New Holland: Casuarina equisetifolia, Melalcuca gibbosa, Solanum orbiculatum, Tripolona Dampieri, Dammara alba, and Trachymene pusilla.

[* Writing of Dampier, Captain P. P. King says: "I take Malus Island to be that on which he landed and the bluff...is no other than our Courtenay Head." From the south-east "in the bearing Dampier saw it, Rosemary Island would appear to be joined to Malus Island, and hence his opinion that it was an island five or six leagues in length and one in breadth."]

[** Also called Sturt's Desert Pea. Drawings of seven plants seen by Dampier were engraved in Plukenet's "Almatheurn," 1769, while about eleven appear in the "History of Dampier's Voyage."]

Among the land birds the most noticeable were "white parrots, which flew a great many together," besides numberless sea-fowl. The "white parrots" were the slender-billed species of white cockatoo (Licmetis pastinator, Gould), now known as Dampier's Cockatoo. In August and September these birds still fly "a great many together" from the mainland over to Rosemary Island and the other islands of Dampier's Archipelago, where they breed in the holes of the rocks.

The anchorage at Rosemary Island proving unsatisfactory, and as he could find no water, Dampier stood away on August 23rd and steered to the north-east. In fine weather, with a clear sky, "there being not one cloud to be seen," the "Roebuck" coasted along the shores of the mainland, looking for an opening during the day but "edging away from it at night" for fear of shoals. At night when it was calm the sailors fished with hook and line and they then took many kinds of fish, including snapper, bream, and dog-fish, and also caught a monkfish, of which Dampier brought home a drawing. This appears in the story of his voyage.

On the 28th the "Roebuck" lost sight of the land and a great many water snakes now appeared in the water, and birds, chiefly boobies and noddies, hovered about the ship's track. At night a noddy was caught: the top of its head was coal black, the breast and under part of the wings white, and the back and upper parts faint black or smoke colour. It had feet just like a duck's feet and a deeply forked tail and very long wings.

On the 30th land was seen again and the ship anchored in the afternoon three and a half leagues off shore, coming into a bay which has since been named Roebuck Bay.[*] In the earlier part of the evening an eclipse of the moon was witnessed but not very clearly, for the horizon was hazy. The moon had been "half an hour above the horizon and at 2 hours 22 minutes after sunset the eclipse was quite gone."

[* The space between Cape and Point Gantheaume was named Roebuck Bay by Captain P. P. King, as "here Dampier had anchored in the 'Roebuck's voyage."]

Next day Dampier landed with a well-armed watering party, who "carried shovels and pickaxes to make wells. When they came near the shore they saw three tall, naked black men in a sandy bay who as the men rowed in disappeared." The boat, in charge of two seamen, was then sent off shore to wait while the rest of the party went in search of the natives, who at length were seen with eight or nine more standing on the top of a small hill a quarter of a mile away. On catching sight of the strangers coming their way they quickly dispersed. From this hill Dampier saw a low, open plain half a mile off with "several things like haycocks" dotted over it. He thought these objects were houses at first, but "found them to be so many rocks." He returned to the landing-place, where the men had begun to dig a well, when nine or ten natives made their appearance at a little distance away and began to threaten them. Dampier says, "At last one came towards us and...I went out to meet him making...signs of peace and friendship, but he ran away. I took two men in the afternoon along by the seaside purposely to catch one...of whom I might learn where they got their fresh water. There were 10 or 12 natives a little way off, who seeing us going away from the rest of our men followed us at a distance...There being a sand bank between us and them, we made a halt and hid ourselves in a bending of the sand bank. They...thought to seize us. So they dispersed themselves some going to the sea shore, and others beating about the sand hills...So a nimble young man that was with me...ran towards them...soon overtaking them, they faced about and fought him. He had a cutlass and they had wooden lances...being so many...they were too hard for him...I chased two more that were by the sea shore, but fearing how it might be with my young man I turned back quickly...to the top of a sand hill whenceIsaw him near me closely engaged with them. Upon seeing me one threw a lance at me that narrowly missed me.Idischarged my gun...but avoided shooting any of them till finding the young man in great danger...and myself in some, and that though the gun had a little frightened them at first they...soon learnt to despise it...crying 'pooh pooh pooh' and coming on afresh, I thought it high time to charge again and shoot one of them which I did. The rest seeing him fall made a stand again and my young man took the opportunity to disengage himself and come off to me. My other man also was with me...and I returned back with my men being very sorry for what had happened. They took up their wounded companion...and my young man who...had been struck through the cheek by one of their lances...was afraid it had been poisoned...but he soon recovered."

Among the New Hollanders there was one who by his appear-ance seemed the chief of them all and a kind of prince or captain among them. He was a young, brisk man, not very tall nor so "personable" as some of the others, but much more active and courageous, painted--as none of the rest were--with a circle of white paste or pigment about his eyes, a white streak down his nose from the forehead to the tip, and his breast and part of his arms white with the same paint, not for beauty or for ornament but to make himself look more terrible, his painting adding very much to his natural deformity. All these savages had "the same black skins and frizzled hair," the same blinking eyes, and had the same kind of flies teasing them as those seen by Dampier in his former voyage, when he came to the north-west coast and touched at a part which was "not above 40 or 50 leagues to the north-east of this."

Here too were many native fire-places with three or four boughs "stuck up to windward of them." Round these fire-places there were nearly always found heaps of shells, and consequently he surmised that these people lived on shell-fish, as did those met with in his first voyage. Their spears also were similar, but the natives seen in the "Cygnet's" voyage were on an island in the company of women and children, and it was imagined that for that reason they did not attempt to attack the white men, as these on the continent had done, where only men were congregated.

Although the watering party had dug down eight or nine feet they found no water, so on September 1st Dampier sent the boatswain of the "Roebuck" ashore to dig deeper. Next morning the men returned with "a rundlet of brackish water" which they had got at another place, but it was not fit to drink. However, he decided that "it would serve to boil oatmeal for burgoo, and the sailors subsequently brought aboard four hogs-heads of it." It was perceived that the tides ran very swiftly here, and at low water the shore was rocky; but at high water a boat could pass over the rocks.

No more was seen of the natives, though the smoke of their fires was observed two or three miles away. The land resembled the shores of Cygnet Bay. Dampier describes it as being "barri-caded with a chain of sandhills to the sea." The soil by the sea was dry and sandy, bearing shrubs and bushes. Some of these had "yellow flowers or blossoms, some blue and some white: most of them with a very fragrant smell. Some had fruit like peapods, in each of which there were just ten small peas...no more nor less." There were also here some of that sort of bean that Dampier had found at Rosemary Island and another "of red, hard pulse growing in cods also with little black eyes."[*]

[* Abrus precatorius.]

He says: "I know not their names but have seen them used in the East Indies for weighing gold and...at Guinea as I have heard the women make bracelets with them to wear about their arms. These grow on bushes; but here are also a fruit like beans growing on a creeping sort of shrublike vine."

The land farther in...was very plain and even, "partly savannah and partly woodland..." Here there were a great many rocks five or six feet high and "round at the top like a haycock," beyond them again, farther inland, small trees...twelve or fourteen feet high "with a head of small...boughs"; while by the sides of the creeks, and more especially near the sea, were a few small black mangroves. Dampier saw few animals, although his men described "two or three beasts like hungry wolves, lean like so many skeletons," which doubtless were dingoes, and some lizards were noticed as well as a "raccoon or two" and one small speckled snake. Among the birds there were crows or birds "closely resembling the English crow"; also plenty of turtle-doves" that were plump and fat and very good meat." A great many green turtle were seen, but none were caught, there being no place there to set a turtle net and no channel for them.

He here added to the collection of shells that he had gathered at Shark Bay, obtaining some that were strange to him, "chiefly a sort not large, and thick set all about with rays and spikes...in rows." But of his collection he afterwards "lost allexcept a few, and those not of the best." It is probable that some of these shells reached England as well as his herbarium although his ship sprung a leak on the homeward voyage and foundered at the Isle of Ascension in 1701.[*]

[* Ten weeks later three English men-of-war called there, and on board these ships Dampier and his men returned to England.]

After Dampier had finished writing the story of the "Roebuck's "voyage" he added some further particulars respecting the South Land which show us that he no longer believed in the existence of a great southern or Antarctic continent. He was satisfied that in his travels he had found a number of islands spread over the waters where the land of Terra Australis Incognita had been supposed to extend, and he observes, "'tis probably the same with New Holland."

On maps of the world the portions of New Holland discovered by the Dutch were now being methodically laid down and the vast imaginary continent left out. Gradually, in its true place in the eastern hemisphere, a vague outline of Australia appeared, but of so curious a shape (as for example in the world maps of Le Rouge and Robert Vaugondy) that it bore only a deformed likeness to the real island-continent. The east coast had never been seen, so an imaginary coast-line was given to it which, starting at the New Hebrides in the north, ran south-westerly without a break until it joined the southern extremity of Tasmania.

DISCOVERY OF THE EAST COAST--COOK'S VOYAGE--CAPE HOWE TO POINT DANGER

The day was now approaching when all doubt was to be dispelled and Australia was to take her place as a known continent.

In 1770 a little English ship, not at all majestic--like other British men-of-war--and bearing a name as humble and unpre-tentious as herself, discovered the east coast and gave to it its real form on the map of the world. A little bark[*] Of 370 tons, she flew the white ensign and bore herself steadily through heavy seas and stormy weather; yet it still seems wonderful that so small a ship should carry out a misson of which it has been said it was "to the English nation the most momentous voyage of discovery that has ever taken place."[**]

[* As the word was then written.]

[** Preface to Cook's Journal by Admiral Wharton. The Admiralty instruc-tions ordered Cook, who had received a lieutenant's commission, to proceed to Tahiti, and after the completion of the astronomical observations at that island, to continue the discoveries in the Pacific in which Byron and Wallis had been engaged. Tahiti had been recommended by Wallis, who had returned just before Cook sailed, as the point from which the transit of Venus should be observed.]

The seaman who commanded her was James Cook. Some-times we hear that Captain Cook has not been fully appreciated in his native land, but if this is so, at least let it be said that among his countrymen who travel farthest, more especially among those whose paths lie on the sea, there has been reserved for him within the great Empire of Britain a true measure of his worth. In the lands visited by him in the South Pacific his name and his doings live as those of no other navigator of any age or race. We will endeavour to re-state briefly how he discovered the east coast.[

Lieutenant james Cook, as he then ranked in the Royal Navy, "saw land" with "the first daylight" of Thursday, April 19, 1770. On seeing it Cook at once looked towards the south, where, according to his longitude compared with that of Tasman, he should have been able to see Tasmania. But all was clear in that quarter. He then perceived that the strange land trended north-east and south-west, which convinced him that he had reached the east coast of New Holland. And he began to doubt whether Australia and Tasmania were one country, as was then generally supposed.[

To those on board the "Endeavour" the face of the country appeared "green and woody" and its shore "a white sand." It would seem as though Nature herself had prepared a reception for the coming of the voyagers, as at noon all were called on deck "to see three waterspouts which made their appearance at the same time, in different places between us and the land...Two soon disappeared, but the third...lasted fully a quarter of an hour. It was a column which appeared of the thickness of a mast or...tree and reached down from a smoke-coloured cloud...to the surface of the sea; smaller ones seemed to attempt to form in its neighbourhood, one...close by it and became longer than the old one...They Joined together in an instant and gradually contracting into the cloud disappeared."[*]

[* "Journal of Sir J. Banks," edited by Sir J. Hooker.]

Immediately Cook saw the land he began to make a chart of its coast-line--a chart which may be called the foundation of Australia's charts, which the navigators who followed him have built upon and added to. He placed on it the first land seen, under the name of Point Hicks to honour the "Endeavour's "first lieutenant," who," he says, "discovered this land." Although Cook gave the name as Point Hicks there is no headland, but only an elevation in the coast-line at this place. The land, however, slopes away south-westward from where he saw it. and so no doubt was regarded by him to form a "point."[

Two headlands were next seen farther northward. The first rises to a round hillock like "the Ram Head" (Rame Head) going into Plymouth Sound, and was given that name; the second remarkable for the way in which the coast trends there, being north on the one side and south-west on the other, was called Cape Home. A small island lying off it is known as Gabo Island.[*]

[* Gabo is said to be the native rendering of Cape Howe.]

From Cape Home, Cook followed the coast northwards, and as he went along gave a quaint variety of names to its different features. On the 21st a fairly high mountain near the shore was called Mount Dromedary on account of its peculiar shape, and on the 22nd--a day on which the "Endeavour" stood closer in with the land--a remarkable peaked hill inland for a like reason received the name of the Pigeon House.[

The air was wonderfully clear. When they had passed Bateman Bay and Point Upright, with its perpendicular cliffs, those on board could plainly see five natives upon the beach, smoke from their fires having already been noticed. From the ship these people looked "enormously black," and the commander would have sent a boat ashore, but a large hollow sea "from the S.E. beating high upon the beach," prevented him. The land continued to form "alternately rocky points and sandy beaches," and "inland between Mount Dromedary and the Pigeon House are several pretty high mountains," writes Cook in his journal.[*] Of these hills all excepting two were covered with trees, and the trees had "all the appearance of being stout and lofty," he remarks, possibly imagining they would prove suitable for ship-spars. On April 23rd a cape was discovered and named in honour of St. George; and two leagues beyond it, on the 25th, Cook observed that a part of the shore seemed to form a bay.[**] To the north point, because of its curious shape, he gave the name of Long Nose; and eight leagues farther along the coast he called a headland Red Point, as it appeared to him to be of that colour. A little way inland north-west of this point was a round hill whose top "looked like the crown of a hatt."

[* Cook's journal, edited by Sir W. Wharton.]

[** Jervis Bay, afterwards so named by Lieutenant Bowen in honour of Earl St. Vincent.]

Before dark, smoke was constantly seen on shore and two or three native fires. On this night the "Endeavour" lay becalmed, drifting in before the sea until one o'clock a.m., when she got a land breeze. On the morning of the 26th, in clear, pleasant weather, she steered past some white cliffs which rose perpendicularly from the water.[

At noon the wind fell and Cook had to tack several times and stand on and off shore. This he continued to do until daylight on the 27th, after which he stood in for the land. Owing to the variable winds the ship lost much ground, so that at noon Red Point bore from here only three leagues to the southward.[

On the afternoon of this day[*] the pinnace and yawl were hoisted out to attempt a landing, but the pinnace leaked and had to be hoisted in again. Several natives were moving about the beach, and four were seen carrying a boat which it was thought they meant to launch and come off in to the vessel. As they did not come, Cook with Banks, Solander, and Tupia the Tahitian put off in the yawl and pulled towards the shore to where they could still see four or five natives. They, however, soon took to the woods. Three or four of their canoes lay on the beach and from the yawl looked like the small ones of the New Zealanders. Trees were seen here, but no underwood, the trees being a species of palm.[**] The surf was beating high upon the shore,[***] and as Cook saw that a landing could not be effected the yawl returned on board.

[* By civil reckoning this would be on the afternoon of the 27th, as Cook's journal was kept by ship time, i.e. the day begins at noon before the civil reckoning, in which the day commences at midnight. Cook, however, at this time had made no allowance for the loss of a day in sailing westward on his voyage from England.]

[** Livision a australis.]

[*** This was near Bulli.]

"At daylight in the morning," writes the commander on April 28th, "we discovered a bay,[*] which appeared to be tolerably well-sheltered from all winds." The "Endeavour" stood directly towards it. Smoke was rising on shore, and through the glasses ten natives could be distinguished at a barren spot, where they had gathered round a fire. When they saw the ship they left the fire and retired to a little eminence to watch her coming. A little later two canoes were seen to draw into the land with two men in each, who, after hauling up the boats, joined their fellows on the hill. Meanwhile, Mr. Robert Molineux, the master, had been sent in the pinnace to sound the entrance, and he now came alongshore beneath where they stood. They then retired higher up the hill, excepting at least one man, who hid among the rocks and was not seen to leave the beach.

[* Botany Bay.]

The boat from the "Endeavour" continued to skirt the shore, and some of the natives followed her as she turned into a cove a little within the harbour. There the natives came down to the water's edge and by signs and words, which were not understood, invited Molineux and his men to land.[*] These natives were armed with spears and boomerangs. During this time a few others who had not followed the pinnace, but had remained on the shore opposite the ship, began to call in a threatening way and to brandish their weapons menacingly. The blades of the wooden ones, "in shape resembling a scimitar" (familiar to us as the boomerang), gleamed in the clear light, so that some on board the ship thought they "looked whitish" and "some thought shining," possibly because the wood had been so highly polished.[**]

[* Banks's journal.]

[** Banks's journal.]

Two natives painted with white pigment are described by Banks as being particularly noticeable: their faces only dusted over with it, their bodies adorned with broad stroke drawn over their breasts and backs, resembling soldiers' cross belts, while their legs and thighs also had broad white stroke drawn round them. The two black men talked very earnestly together, when they were not shouting defiance and brandishing their crooked weapons.[*]

[* Banks's journal.]

The ship reached the entrance of the bay at noon, the beginning of a new day--April 29th--by ship time. Under the south head[*] of the bay four canoes were seen, each containing a man who held in his hand a fishgig with which he struck at the fish The natives in these canoes ventured to the very edge of the surf, and so intently were they occupied that they scarcely lifted their eyes to glance at the "Endeavour" sailing past. Standing in with a southerly wind and clear weather, shortly afterwards Cook came to an anchorage under the south shore of the bay--about two miles within the entrance--opposite a small native village consisting of six or eight houses.

[* The outer heads of the bay are Cape Solander (south-west) and Cape Bank (north-east)]

Presently an old woman came out of a wood, followed by three young children; she carried an armful of firewood and each child also had gathered a little bundle. As she went towards one of the houses the woman often looked at the ship, but her face showed neither fear nor surprise at what she saw. She began to kindle a fire, and then four canoes came in from fishing. The men landed, and, hauling in their canoes, prepared their meal to all appearance quite unmoved at the presence of the strangers who were now little more than half a mile from them.

In the afternoon Cook manned the ship's boat, and at 3 p.m., with Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, and Tupia, proceeded to the south shore of the bay, where, abreast the ship, men, women, and children were seen standing. When the boats approached the shore, the natives all made off, excepting two men, who seemed determined to oppose the landing. These men were each armed with a bundle of spears and carried wommeras[*] (throwing sticks), and they called out loudly to the British in harsh, strident voices something which even Tupia failed to understand. The commander ordered the boats' crews to lie on their oars so that he might speak to the natives, and some beads and nails were thrown to them. But all to no purpose. As they saw the boats pull inshore again they began to shout and wave their spears, as though resolved to defend their coasts to the uttermost. Seeing that the two men were determined to resist him, Cook ordered a shot to be fired between them. At this the younger of the two dropped his bundle of spears, which he immediately snatched up again, and they retired to a spot where some more spears were lying.

[** The throwing stick was first observed at this time.]

Then the elder man picked up a stone and threw it at the boats, which caused the commander to fire a second time. The native was struck on the legs with the shot, yet the only effect it had was to make him go and fetch a shield which he brought from a house a hundred yards off. At this time the British stepped upon a rock. They had no sooner done so than the natives, Cook says, "throwed two darts at us; this obliged me to fire a third shot, soon after which they both made off."

Thus the British first landed on the East Coast!

The present name of the locality where Cook landed is Kurnell. It was known to the natives as Kundel. Cook himself at first christened the bay in which he anchored Stingray Bay. But before he left there he saw fit to change its name. In his journal Cook writes:

"During our stay in this harbour I caused the English colours to be displayed ashore every day, and an inscription to be cut upon one of the trees near the watering place, setting forth the ship's name, date, etc."

Yet another link was to connect the "Endeavour" with this new land, for on the night of April 30th--by civil reckoning--Cook lost one of his ship's company. A seaman named Forby Sutherland died, whom they buried next morning on shore at a spot near the watering-place. Then for the first time an Englishman was laid to rest in Australian soil. This, Cook tells us, "occasioned my calling the south point of the bay Point Sutherland." It was also the place where he first landed, which is now marked by a memorial, the point being known as Inscription Point.

The Philosophical Society, a hundred years ago, placed a brass plate at Kurnell to commemorate the discovery of Australia's eastern shores; and Barron Field, the friend of Charles Lamb, wrote these lines in honour of the occasion:

Here fix the tablet. This must be the place
Where our Columbus of the South did land;
He saw the Indian village on the sand,
And on this rock first met the simple race
Of Austral Indians, who presum'd to face
With lance and spear his musket. Close at hand
Is the clear stream, from whence his vent'rous band
Refresh'd their ship, and thence a little space
Lies Sutherland, their shipmate; for the sound
Of Christian burial better did proclaim
Possession than the flag of England's name.
These were the Commelinae[*] Banks first found;
But where's the tree with the ship's wood-carv'd frame?
Fix, then, the Ephesian brass; 'tis classic ground."

[* A genus of herbaceous plants called in honour of Commelin, a Dutch botanist.]

When Cook and his party had disembarked at this point they found a few small huts made of bark in which four or five little children were hiding, to whom beads and other presents were given. A number of spears lay about the huts and these the visitors took away. The spears varied in length from six to fifteen feet. One sort had four prongs, which were headed with very sharp fish bones besmeared with a green-coloured gum. These were regarded as poisonous. The canoes, lying upon the beach, Cook thought were "the worst" he had ever seen. They were from twelve to fourteen feet long, made of one piece of bark drawn or tied up at each end and kept open by means of pieces of stick-by way of thwarts."

After the first sharp encounter with the natives the visitors frequently saw them while the ship remained in the bay. They appeared to possess darker skins than any previously met with on the voyage. "Their beards were thick and bushy," and the hair of their heads as well, yet "by no means woolly." To Banks these men looked "of a common size, lean and seemed active and nimble; their voices coarse and strong." On the first night from the "Endeavour" many moving lights were noticed at different parts of the bay, and Banks conjectured that the natives were spearing fish in the darkness, after the manner of many other South Sea Islanders. He had already seen seaweed stuck in the prongs of some of the fishgigs found in the huts.

The country within the vicinity of the harbour was explored thoroughly by the British seamen. On the 30th a watering party had been sent to the south point to dig holes in the sand; from these, and with water obtained from a small stream afterwards discovered, the ship was sufficiently supplied, and the wooding parties found there an abundance of wood.

Cook made an excursion into the inland country on May 1st, and says that it was "diversified with woods, lawns, and marshes. The woods free from underwood...and the trees at such a distance from one another that the whole country, or at least great part of it, might be cultivated without being obliged to cut down a single tree." He perceived "the soil everywhere, except in the marshes, to be a light white sand," producing "a quantity of good grass which grows in little tufts about as big as one can hold in one's hand and pretty close together."

He came upon native huts and impressions in the grass where the blacks had been sleeping, and a glimpse was caught of a single native-the others having apparently fled. Just before starting on this expedition Cook had visited some native habitations near the watering-place and had placed several articles in them, such as cloth, looking glasses, combs, beads, and nails, as presents for their owners, and some were now left in these newly discovered.

Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, who went with Cook's party, collected specimens of flowering and other plants growing there. Every one of these seemed new and most of them were in full bloom. The leaves of the trees turned edgeways towards the branches and resembled those described by Dampier. Some of the plants were of uncommon shades of colour and resembled heaths; others of strange form grew wild; with many species of long, graceful rushes and grasses, green moss and ferns--chiefly of the kind known as maidenhair--flourishing in such profusion that a few days later Cook changed the name of Stingray Bay, which he had given to this portion of the Australian coast, and wrote in his journal: "The great quantity of plants Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander found in this place occasioned my giving it the name of Botany Bay."

Curious animals ran about the woods. Between the trees Dr. Solander had a glimpse of a small one "something like a rabbit; Mr. Banks's greyhound "just got sight of him," and lamed himself on a tree stump trying to chase it, while traces were found of a larger one which was certainly the kangaroo. There were also "footprints of an animal clawed like a dog or wolf" and of another whose feet were like those of a polecat.[*] Here and there trees had been cut down with a blunt instrument, others were barked, and in many of the palms steps three or four feet apart (not five as Tasman had seen farther southward) were cut to enable the natives to climb them.

[* Banks's Journal.]

Of two sorts of gum found in this excursion "one sort," says Cook, "is like Gum Dragon, and is the same, I suppose, Tasman took for Gum Lac; it is extracted from the largest tree in the woods." In mentioning the timber trees Banks refers to one species which he saw--possibly the identical tree that Cook describes--yielding gum much like Sanguis draconis; these descriptions being apparently the first references to the Eucalyptus or gum tree of this part of Australia. Other trees bearing a fruit of the Jambosa[*] kind, in colour and shape resembling cherries, of which the men ate plentifully, are mentioned later by Banks as growing on the shores of the harbour. At a later date Cook again refers to the timber trees. He says: "Although wood is here in great plenty yet there is very little variety: the biggest trees are as large or larger than our oaks in England, grow a good deal like them and yield a reddish gum," in which description we recognize yet another species of our old friend the Eucalyptus. He continues: "The wood itself is heavy, hard, and black, like Lignum Vitae. Another sort grows tall and straight something like pines--the wood of this is hard and ponderous...something of the nature of America live oak." He also remarks: "There are a few sorts of shrubs and several palm trees and mangroves about the head of the harbour." Of the country at this part he says it is "woody, low, and flat," and he thought the soil "in general sandy."

[* The Malay apple.]

In the woods he saw a variety of very beautiful birds, such as cockatoos, loriquets, parrots, etc., and crows which he thought "exactly like those we have in England." Like every English explorer in every age, Cook found a resemblance in something in the new land to one of its kind "at home." "As in England" and "like those we have in England" are phrases that seem to ring through the stories of British discoverers, as if they had found pleasure in making the comparison.

On the afternoon of Wednesday, May 2nd, Cook went on shore to the watering-place and caught sight of seventeen or eighteen natives. In the forenoon Mr. Gore, the second lieutenant, had been dredging for oysters and had met some of them, who followed him and his companion at a distance of ten or twenty yards. Whenever Mr. Gore turned and faced them, they stood still; but though they were all armed they never offered to attack him. A short time afterwards the same natives were met by Dr. Monkhouse and his companions, who made a "sham retreat." They had no sooner done so than the natives threw their spears after them. Cook wished to speak with the blacks, and he, Solander, and Tupia tried to come up with them, but he could not by words or by signs prevail upon them to wait for him to approach them.

On the 3rd, accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, Cook made a short excursion along the sea coast to the southward. On entering the bush they met three natives, who ran away, as did some others seen later, much to Cook's disappointment. Next morning he went in the pinnace with Solander and Monkhouse to the head of Botany Bay, and on the way they caught sight of ten or twelve natives fishing, each in his own small canoe, who, on seeing them, at once drew into shoal water. At the first place at which they landed some others took to their canoes before the Englishmen could get near them. After this Cook continued his journey by boat and went almost to the head of the bay, where he landed and travelled inland for some distance.

The country looked much like that near the coast but the soil was better, a deep black mould replacing the sand in many places and it was thought capable of producing grain.[*] Besides timber there was "as fine meadow as ever was seen," and Cook also notes that the stone there was of sandstone character, "and very proper for building "--a suggestion of its future usefulness which time has verified.

[* Don Luis Née (botanist to the Spanish expedition under Malaspina), who visited Sydney in 1793, wrote of this part of the country much as Cook did, although many have wondered whether "meadows" ever existed there. Née says of his excursion.. "I saw a few places suitable for agriculture: among them some patches of black earth...and a plain of half a league whichIthink would yield wheat or barley because...it bears Melaleuca and rushes, which show there is some humidity in the soil. It was composed of vegetable mould."]

On this morning Banks, who did not accompany Cook, devoted his time to drying and preparing his botanical specimens on shore, spreading them in the sun, turning them, and sometimes turning the paper in which the plants were placed inside out. By this means all the specimens were brought on board in good condition at night. While he was thus engaged eleven canoes with a black fellow in each came towards him, who, however, paid no attention to him but proceeded to fish. Opposite to their fishing ground some of the "Endeavour's" people were occupied in shooting. One black fellow, prompted perhaps by curiosity, hauled up his canoe and went towards them. He stayed about a quarter of an hour, then went off in his boat. Banks believed that he had been stealthily watching the strangers from behind the trees, although when questioned no one appeared to have seen him. When the evening grew too damp for him to continue his work any longer, Banks sent his plants and books on board and went on a shooting excursion, intending to get some specimens of birds for his collection. He put up a large number of quail much resembling English ones, of which he could have shot a great many more had he not wanted birds of different varieties.

On the 4th Mr. Gore determined to try his hand at spearing fish.[*] He had observed quantities of large sting-ray following the flowing tide into the shallows and met with instant success, striking several when they were in not more than two or three feet of water. One, after it was cleaned, weighed 239 lbs. On disturbing the natives at their fires the British often found fresh mussels broiling upon the coals, and at one place heaps of very large oyster shells lay scattered around. The seine was hauled at different parts of the bay; and in a cove on the north side on April 30th the catch weighed about 300 lbs. On May 5th on the north shore the sailors took a number of leather-jackets, a fish with a tough skin, in which the scales are embedded.

[* Banks's journal.]

Numbers of water-fowl sought their food in the sand and mud. Most of these were unknown to the visitors. Especially noticeable was one sort, black and white and as large as a goose but most like a pelican. This, according to a note of Admiral Wharton, was probably the black and white, or palmated, goose, now extinct there.

On the flats and mudbanks there were many kinds of shellfish, apparently the chief support of the natives, since, so far as could be observed, they did not eat the sting-ray. At the same time, says Cook, "they catch other sorts of fish, which we found roasting on their fires, some of which they strike with their gigs." Possibly he was referring to snapper.

At first the commander had intended to leave the harbour on Friday, May 4th, but as the wind would not permit him to sail, he gave orders for parties to go out in different directions to try to find the natives and speak with them. A midshipman succeeded in meeting with two very old Australians, man and woman, both grey headed, with whom were two small children, all being naked. They were sitting under a tree close to the water side watching some other natives gathering shellfish into their canoes. The midshipman went up to the old people and gave them a parrot that he had just shot, but they would not touch it. Neither would they say one word, and appeared to be too frightened to speak. Being alone the midshipman was afraid to stay long with them lest the other natives should discover him. The man had bushy hair and his beard was long and rough. The woman's hair was cropped short. On this day Dr. Monklhouse narrowly escaped a spear thrown by a native from a tree.

On Sunday, May 6th, Cook took his departure from the bay. Of his going he writes: "Having seen everything this place afforded, we at daylight weighed with a light breeze at N.W. and put to sea, and the wind soon after coming to the southward we steered alongshore N.N.E., and at noon we were by observation in the latitude Of 33°50' S., about two or three miles from the land and abreast of a bay, wherein there appeared to be safe anchorage, which I called Port Jackson."[*] This entry tells us that as Cook's ship drew level with the heads of Port Jackson lie had a glimpse of the harbour within. Had he looked farther into this "bay" he would have seen how widely it extended and at the same time would have robbed Captain Phillip of the credit of discovering it eighteen years later.

[* In honour of Mr. George Jackson, afterwards Sir George Duckett.]

But Cook did not enter there. And this Mother of Harbours, whose waters gleam in a hundred coves, was destined to remain unseen. Her rocky, moss-grown points, her miniature islands, and her sandy beaches all lay undisturbed as the great seaman passed on his way. Yet the name of Port Jackson still is linked with that of Cook, for in after years from there, through the heads which he had seen, came Flinders and King in the discovery ships "Norfolk" (1799), "Investigator" and "Lady Nelson" (1802), "Mermaid" (1819-20), and "Bathurst" (1821) to finish his work--the immense work which Cook had already begun--the charting of the East Coast.

That others on board the "Endeavour" could see something more than a plain coast-line at this time is apparent from thee remarks in Banks's journal. He writes: "The land we sailed past during the whole forenoon appeared broken and likely for harbours." The "Endeavour" continued on her way northward, keeping near the coast, and at sunset passed more broken land that formed a bay which Cook named Broken Bay.[*] All night he steered at a distance of about three leagues off shore, and next day saw high land projecting in three bluff points which he called Cape Three Points. The wind now dropped, and on the 8th at noon "our situation," he tells us, "was nearly the same as yesterday, having not advanced one step farther to the northward."

[* It is said that this "broken land like a bay" was that in the vicinity of Narrabeen Lagoon. "Historical Records of New South Wales."]

While standing off shore on the evening of the 9th a charming sea scene was witnessed by those in the "Endeavour" of which Parkinson has left a description. "We saw two of the most beautiful rainbows my eyes ever beheld; the colours were strong, clear, and lively. Those of the inner one were so bright as to reflect its shadow on the water." At midnight Cook stood in for the land again until eight next morning and had so little wind that the vessel could hardly fetch Cape Three Points. At noon on the 10th "a small round rock or island lying close under the land" was noticed bearing south-west three or four leagues. This was Nobby Head at the entrance to the port which came to be known afterwards as Newcastle on account of the abundance of coal in its vicinity.

On the 11th, at 4 p.m., the "Endeavour" passed a low rocky point only a mile distant, "with an inlet on its north side that appeared to me from the mast-head to be sheltered from all winds," remarks Cook, who named the headland and the inlet Point and Port Stephens respectively. The next morning at eight he saw "a high point...which made in two hillocks" and called it Cape Hawke in honour of Admiral Hawke, then First Lord of the Admiralty.

On the afternoon of the 12th the "Endeavour" ran along the shore and those on board could see the smoke of native fires a little way inland. Several had been seen the day before, but on this day Cook noticed one upon the top of a hill, and writes:

"It was the first we have seen upon elevated ground since we have been upon the coast." On this day "three remarkable hills," large and high and " contiguous to each other," bore north-north-west, and because they were so alike they were named The Three Brothers.[*] On Sunday, May 13th, while standing northward after having tacked several times, Cook observed "a point or headland on which were fires that caused a great quantity of smoke, which occasioned my giving it the name of Smoky Cape."

[* At the back of Kempsey.]

Of the aspect of the country he says: "The land hath increased in height insomuch that...it may be called a hilly country; it is diversified with an agreeable variety of hills, ridges, and valleys and large plains all clothed with wood. Near the shore the land is in general low and sandy except the points which are rocky, while over many are pretty high hills which at first rising out of the water appear like an island."

Fresh gales with rain and hail swept over the ship as she passed outside some small rocky islands that were first seen on the 15th, and called the Solitary Islands. On that morning as they steered close in to the land again, natives could be seen on shore through the glasses. According to one historian,[*] each of these natives was loaded with a bundle which looked like palm leaves. A high point bearing north-west-by-west was named Cape Byron after the " Dolphin's " captain (in her first voyage to the Pacific), while to the north-west of it again "a remarkable sharp-peaked mountain" was sighted.

[* Pinkerton: "Cook's First Voyage." See also Cunningham's journal.]

At sunset breakers were discovered on the larboard bow, only five miles from the land. The commander therefore hauled the ship off it, and brought her to. She lay with her head eastward till ten o'clock, when, the soundings having increased, he wore ship and "lay her with her head in shore" until 5 a.m. on the 16th, when he made sail. By daylight breakers were again seen between the ship and the shore and were stretching from a point--under which lay a small island--"eastward for a distance of two leagues."[*] The point off which these shoals lay was called by Cook Point Danger[**] and the curious mountain seen the day before was then given the name of Mount Warning.

[* Danger Reefs, three rocky patches which extend three miles east from Cook Island.]

[** Point Danger is the north head of the Tweed River.]

POINT DANGER TO COOKTOWN

On Thursday, May 17th, another point of land was discovered and christened Point Lookout. On the north side of it there was a wide, open bay, which Cook named Morton's Bay, in honour of James Earl of Morton, who was then President of the Royal Society. The name, however, is now spelled Moreton Bay.[*]

[* King says: "At first Moreton Bay was called Glass House Bay, but as Cook had bestowed the name of Moreton Bay upon the strait [Rous Channel] to the south of Moreton Island, this name became generally accepted." Oxley made the discovery that Point Lookout was situated on Stradbroke Island.]

The land at the head of the bay appeared so low that he writes: "I could but just see it from the topmast-head." Nor could he see the river which fell into the bay on its western side, on whose banks now stands the town of Brisbane--the capital of Queensland.

Nevertheless, Cook gives us the information that some on board were of the opinion that there was a river in the vicinity as the water looked so pale. Banks clearly was one of these, for he Writes on that day: "The sea here suddenly changed from its usual transparency to a dirty clay colour as if charged with freshes, from whence I was led to conclude that the bottom of the bay might open into a large river."

In marking the situation of Moreton Bay, Cook observes:[*] "This place may always be found by Three Hills which lay to the northward of it. These hills were not far apart and were a little island and their singular form of elevation...which resembles a glass-house occasioned my giving them that name. The northernmost of the three is the highest and largest."

[* Matthew Flinders examined Moreton Bay in 1799, but Oxley discovered that Moreton Bay extended as far south as 28°, where it communicated with the sea.]

At noon a low bluff point which formed the southern point of an open sandy bay from here bore north-west,[*] distant three leagues. Cook steered alongshore and saw at daylight on the 18th a point which bore south-west of him. He had seen it before but now named it Double Island Point, on account of its figure, because "it looks like two small islands lying under the land." The shores of the mainland within it were moderately high, but appeared more barren than any yet seen and more sandy. Banks saw the sand lying there in great patches of many acres which had only lately moved, for "trees in the middle of them were quite green."[**] Here the coast trended to the north-west and formed a large open bay, which was named Wide Bay.

[* "The Bay is Laguna Bay, and the point is called Low Bluff."--Wharton.]

[** Probably a species of Acacia. Cunningham saw one variety growing in "glittering red sand" in Exmouth Gulf.]

On Sunday, 20th, a number of natives assembled on a black bluff or point of land, and it was evident that they had come to watch the ship go past, which to them must have been indeed a strange sight. Cook accordingly called the point Indian Head. Curiously enough, nearly thirty-two years later twenty-five natives gathered on the same spot to watch Flinders sail by in command of the two ships "Investigator" and "Lady Nelson." The blacks who watched the "Endeavour" had possibly in some way warned their neighbours of the ship's approach, as natives were now observed in other places on shore, and Cook records that there were "smokes in the day and fires in the night."

At daylight the northernmost land loomed high and ended in a point, from which a reef was discovered running northward as far as eye could see. Breakers were plainly seen soon afterwards "a long way upon our lee bow, which seemed to stretch quite home to the land." The point of land, on account of its having two very large patches of sand upon it, was named Sandy Cape.[*] Cook now fell in with one of the dangerous shoals that surround the reef here, and possibly this is the reason why Flinders, who followed him in 1802, found the trend of the land different from that laid down in Cook's chart. Or perhaps Cook's ship may have claimed his whole attention. On the 21st the "Endeavour" crept along the east side of the shoal until, judging that there was enough water to allow her to get across it, the commander ordered a boat to be lowered, and sent it ahead to sound; a passage over the shoal was thus found, and eventually the ship passed over the tail. Cook named the shoal Weak Sea Spit, because there was smooth water within it, whereas upon te whole coast to the southward he had always had a high sea or swell from the south-east.

[* Sandy Cape is the northern point of Great Sandy Island...a channel called Great Sandy Strait separates the latter from the mainland and opens at its northern end into Hervey Bay; within its entrance is Wide Bay Harbour--"Admiralty Sailing Directions."]

"For these few days past we have seen at times a sort of sea sea-fowl which we have nowhere seen before," Cook writes; "they are of the sort called boobies...Last night a small flock of these birds passed the ship and went away to the N.W. and this morning from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after, flights of them were continually coming from N.N.W. and flying to S.S.E., and not one was seen to fly in any other direction. From this, we did suppose there was a river or inlet of shallow water to the southward of us, and that, not very far to the northward, lay some islands where they retired to at night." Captain Flinders thought that probably the birds Cook saw retired for the night to Bunker Group in 23°54' S. and 152°25' E. and that they went to Hervey Bay during the day.

On the 22nd the shore inland appeared thickly clothed with wood, and through the glasses trees were seen resembling palm-nut trees, Pandanus tectorius according to Banks, who in giving their botanical name states that the species had not been met with since the "Endeavour" left the islands within the tropics. In the evening Cook anchored about thirty miles south-east from the south head of Bustard Bay. On this night he saw a watersnake; and two or three evenings previously one had lain under the ship's stern for some time. Banks also saw two swim past the ship, "beautifully spotted and in all respects like land-snakes except that they had broad, flat tails, which probably serve them instead of fins in swimming."[*]

[* Evidently the deadly species known as the yellow-bellied sea-snake, which has a broad, flat, spotted tail, and is blackish-brown on the back and yellow beneath. "It is unique in that its keeled tail does the dual work of propeller and rudder." It is the commonest Australian sea-snake and very venomous, "Outdoor Australia," "Sydney Mail."]

The "Endeavour" now came abreast of a large open bay where Cook anchored on May 23rd at 8 p.m., and next morning went ashore accompanied by Banks and several officers. The party landed on the south point of the bay, where there was a channel which led to a lagoon. The commander sounded and surveyed the channel, and, after the boat had gone about a mile, met with a little shoal which he was able to pass over. A small stream of fresh water was discovered, and then he made an excursion into the woods; he also wished to row up the lagoon, but was stopped everywhere by the shallows.

However, he was able to inspect a native camping ground on the west side of this lagoon and found ten small fires close together with cockle shells lying around them, and saw (as Dampier had seen in the north-west) at the side of the fire a piece of bark about a foot and a half high propped up to keep the wind off; some other pieces lay strewn around which Cook concluded were coverings used by the natives at night and that many of them slept in the open. There were trees here of the same kind as had been seen in Botany Harbour; one grew like birch but he found its bark entirely different from birch bark. Unfortunately he was unable to see what the wood of this tree was like, having brought no axe with him. Around the outskirts of the lagoon he noticed the true mangrove, such as grew in the West Indies and which had already been met with on this voyage; and there was a sort of palm, similar to those noticed in low sandy places in the South Sea Islands. "All or most of the land and water fowl seen at Botany Harbour," he says, "were found here, besides bustards such as we have in England, which occasioned my giving the place the name of Bustard Bay." Some black and white duck were here also and plenty of small oysters, sticking to the rocks, stones, and mangroves; and on the mudbanks under the mangrove trees Banks observed a large proportion of small pearl oysters, and he wondered whether the sea might abound with full-grown ones, for if so, he thought, a pearl fishery must turn out to immense advantage."

In the branches of mangroves on the sides of the lagoon they found a number of nests of ants, of which one species was quite green. The ants when disturbed came out in large numbers and "revenged themselves upon their disturbers, biting more sharply than any I have felt in Europe," according to Banks, who describes them in his journal. "The mangroves had another trap...This was a small kind of caterpillar, green and beset with many hairs...which sat together upon the leaves...like soldiers drawn up, 20 or 30 perhaps on one leaf. If these wrathful militia were touched...they did not fail to make the person offending sensible of their anger, every hair...stinging as much as nettles do, with a more acute though less lasting smart." Banks saw upon the sides of the hills many trees yielding gum. They differed from those seen on May 1st in having longer leaves, like those of the weeping willow; these trees were of a different species of Eucalyptus from the trees seen farther to the southward, and he also for the first time saw "the plant (Xanthorrhcea) yielding the yellow gum," of which there were vast numbers.

While engaged in fishing, two days later, he relates how some crabs took our baits and sometimes suffered themselves to be hauled into the ship." One sort (Cancer pelagicus?, Linn.) was ornamented "with the finest ultramarine blue conceivable, with which all his claws and every joint were deeply tinged. The under part was of a lovely white, shining as if glazed and perfectly resembling the white of old china."

On Thursday, 24th, at 4 a.m., the "Endeavour " weighed with a gentle breeze and made sail out of Bustard Bay. She soon met with breakers, while land "making like islands" bore north-west-by-north. At nine on the morning of the 25th the ship drew level with the northernmost point of the mainland, which looked white and barren; and as it lay directly under the Tropic of Capricorn was named Cape Capricorn.[*] On the west side of the cape there appeared to be a lagoon, and " on the two spits that form the entrance " were a great number of pelicans, at least so I call them," adds Cook, fearless of all criticism.

[* The eastern point of Curtis Island.]

He believed that the northernmost land he then saw formed an island, and was correct in this conjecture. It was afterwards named Hummocky Island by Matthew Flinders, who learned its true dimensions. Next morning the ship passed what looked like the mouth of a river, and shortly afterwards a similar indentation was noticed. Far away inland the smoke of native fires could be seen rising; and again, in the afternoon, Cook was convinced that there was either a river, lagoon, or inlet close at hand.[*]

[* The Fitzroy River empties itself into the south-western part of Keppel Bay. Keppel Bay is situated between Cape Capricorn and Keppel Isles.]

The "Endeavour" now was steering directly between the coast and the Great Barrier Reef. Her course was becoming more and more dangerous. Cook did not even know that this great reef existed, but he saw the increasing number of shoals and was warned that he must exercise great care. Over and over again his fine seamanship extricated his ship from the perils lining her path. Besides the shoals, spurs of rock and numbers of islands lie off the coast, and on Sunday, 27th, while the "Endeavour" was standing through the channel between Great Keppel Island and the mainland, the master, who was sounding with two boats, found in many places only two and a half fathoms of water. When he brought back his report the ship had already anchored, and the wind veering, she sailed back three or four miles, but again had to come to an anchorage, where she remained until a passage for her could be found by the boats. At length she passed out between Great Keppel and North Keppel Islands.

Having left the Keppel Islands behind Cook next saw Cape Manifold, and he says he so named it because of the number of high hills over it. It lies north-west distant seventeen leagues from Cape Capricorn, and "between them the shore forms a large bay which I called Keppel's Bay."

On the 28th he came close in with Cape Townshend, which he named and which he describes as being "more barren than woody." The "Endeavour" then met with the many islands which lie scattered up and down the coast to the northward, forming a part of the Northumberland Islands. A large inlet--known to us as Shoalwater Bay--was seen to trend to the south-east.[*] A little later the ship ran into shoal water. With a boat taking soundings ahead, the "Endeavour" followed west-by-north, leaving many islets, rocks, and shoals between her and the mainland. Just before noon the boat made the signal for meeting with another shoal, upon which Cook immediately let go an anchor and brought the ship up "with all sails standing." A strong tide was running, and he thought that this tide "carried us so quickly upon the shoal."

[* The entrance to Shoalwater Bay lies between Cape Townshend and Pier Head. The bay itself extends thirty-five miles to the south-east in the direction of Cape Manifold and divides into several branches.]

The ship was then on what is known as "the Donovan Shoal" in Broad Sound Channel. Fortunately no harm came to her and at three o'clock she made sail again, but at six o'clock on the same day (the 29th) anchored once more two miles off the mainland and still in sight of a number of islands. At five next morning the master was sent with two boats to sound the entrance of an inlet, which bore west, about one league distant. He soon made a signal for an anchorage and the vessel stood within the inlet, which was believed to be the mouth of a river, but which in reality was a strait leading into Broad Sound, which Cook was to name later. A search for water was made, and because he found none Cook named the place Thirsty Sound.[*] Here on May 30th he went on shore with a party, and immediately proceeded to mount "a pretty high hill before sunrise in order to get a view of the coast and the islands." Cook called the hill, which is situated at the north-west entrance of Thirsty Sound, the Pier Head. He then started to survey the inlet and got about eight leagues up it when he discovered that it formed a large lake which communicated with the sea. He saw two natives, but of these he only had a glimpse at some distance. The party got no fresh water or refreshment of any kind, and although they saw turtle, "caught none nor no sort of fish or wild fowl only a few landbirds."

[* Thirsty ound is the narrow strait separating Quail and Long Islands from the mainland--"Admiralty Sailing Directions."]

The earth here looked a hard red clay; the trees were of different kinds and all the uplands clear of underwood; the lowlands were overrun with mangroves. Oysters were to be had, but Cook thought they were so small as not to be worth picking off the rocks.

For Banks, however, the place seems to have had attractions, in spite of a troublesome grass which it was impossible to avoid, and which he thus describes: "Its sharp seeds were bearded backwards, and whenever they stuck into our clothes were by these beards pushed forward till they got into the flesh...This grass, with the mosquitoes that were likewise innumerable, made walking almost intolerable." He continues: "We were not, however, to be repulsed, but proceeded into the country. The gum trees were like those in the last bay, both in leaf and in producing a very small proportion of gum; on the branches of them and of other trees were large ants' nests made of clay as big as a bushel. The ants...were small...In another species of tree (Xanthoxyloides mite) a small...black ant had bored all the twigs and lived in quantities in the hollow part where the pith should be: the tree nevertheless flourishing and bearing leaves upon those branches as freely and well as upon others that were sound. Insects in general were plentiful, butterflies especially...On the leaves of the gum tree we found a pupa or chrysalis which shone as brightly as if it had been silvered over with the most burnished silver...It was brought on board and the next day came out into a butterfly of a velvet black changeable to blue."

On the 31st the "Endeavour's" course took her between the Duke Islands (the largest group of the Northumberland Islands) and the reefs and islands lying north-west of Thirsty Sound. Here once more she got into shoal water, and, on June 1st, the anchor had to be let go. The boats having sounded about the shoal again the vessel set sail and finally came to an anchorage under the lee of three islands lying off the northern approach to an inlet which Cook named Broad Sound.[*] A bluff, rocky headland forming its north-west entrance he called Cape Palmerston, and a pretty high promontory seen at noon on

[* These were the Bedwell Islands--Wharton.]

Saturday, June 2nd, Cape Hillsborough. The shores of the mainland were clothed with wood, and as the ship steered between the mainland and another group of islands, mountains and hills, plains and valleys came into view. The islands belonged to the straggling group stretching for sixty miles along the Queensland coast which Cook named the Cumberland Islands in honour of Henry Frederick Duke of Cumberland.

On Sunday, June 3rd, Cook discovered a passage thirty miles long between the mainland and some islands lying off the coast.[*] In passing through it Cook writes: "This passage I have named Whit Sunday's Passage as it was discovered on the day the Church commemorates that Festival." He thought the whole of it was "one continued safe harbour" with small bays and coves on each side "where ships might lay as it were in a basin," but he did not wait to examine it as he was unwilling to lose the benefit of the moonlight. The land on both sides formed hills and valleys, "diversified with woods and lawns that looked green and pleasant." A small island in the passage is called Pentecost Island. On a sandy beach upon one of the islands two natives were seen and "a canoe with an outrigger larger and differently built to any we have seen upon the coast."

[* The east side of this channel is formed by the northern portion of the Cumberland Islands from Shaw Island to Hayman Island.]

As the "Endeavour"--under easy sail, and having gentle breezes and clear weather--skirted this portion of Queensland's shores, numberless capes and bays received their names. Each day saw new designations selected by Cook as most suitable take their places on his chart, among which were Cape Conway and Repulse Bay (so named because he was forced to haul the ship away from it) on June 3rd; Cape Gloucester and Edgecumbe Bay on the 4th; Cape Upstart and Cleveland Bay on the 5th and 6th respectively; while on the 7th a group of islands named the Palm Islands was charted. On one of the islets of this group next day a quantity of smoke on shore made it apparent that large native fires were burning; and men, women, and children gathered together upon the small islet could be made out through the glasses, gazing at the ship. Thinking that he could see coco-nut trees, the fruit of which, he says, would have been very acceptable, the commander sent Lieutenant Hicks to try and obtain some, and Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander went with the party. They were disappointed, and Cook wrote in his journal: "They met with nothing worth observing." Natives were heard there, but not seen, and the trees turned out to be not coco-nut but cabbage palms.

A point now received the name of Point Hillock on account of its shape.[*] Between it and a cape to the southward which had been called Cape Cleveland, the shore formed a large bay, that was christened Halifax Bay. It was sheltered from all winds by the islands lying close to it. Having passed Point Hillock in following the land, the vessel met with another point which Cook named Cape Sandwich. From it the coast ran first west and then north and formed a fine large bay to which was given the name of Rockingham Bay. Cook thought this bay well sheltered and affording good anchorage, but he says that having met with so little encouragement by going ashore, he would not wait to land, and, instead, he continued to range along the coast until he fell in with what he calls "a parcel of small islands" known to us as the Family Islands. Through these he found a channel a mile wide, between the three outermost and those nearer the shore, and went through it.

[* It is near the southern extremity of Hinchinbrook Island which Cook regarded as part of the main.]

On one of the islands nearest to the ship a group of natives had collected who watched the vessel very attentively. They were very dark in colour, quite naked, and had short hair. This day's sail brought the "Endeavour" to that part of the coast where the Great Barrier Reef draws in closer to the mainland and consequently the dangers in her track were multiplied.

On the 9th she came abreast of some tolerably high land, the point of which was named Cape Grafton, and on the 10th Cook anchored in a bay lying three miles to the westward of it, a low, green, woody isle in the offing being called by him Green Island. Here he went on shore to look for water, accompanied by Banks and Solander. The bottom of the bay being low mangrove land, they rowed out towards the head of the cape and found two small streams, but on account of the surf and the rocks it was thought that it would be an unsuitable place to water the ship. The country round was steep and rocky and was left unexplored.

At midnight on June 10th, with showers of rain falling, but having little wind, Cook weighed once more, and stood to the north-west. A little later, in order to pass outside a low island lying about two leagues from the mainland, he hauled off to the northward; it was one of the Low Isles, being partly under water. Another island,[*] seven miles distant, was seen at noon, and at this time Cape Grafton bore S. 29° E. distant forty miles. Between it and the northernmost land in sight a large but not very deep bay indented the shore; Cook called it Trinity Bay, in honour of the day on which it was discovered, and to the north point of it he gave the name of Cape Tribulation, "because," he says, "here began all our troubles."

[* Called Snapper Island by Lieutenant Jeffreys in 1815.]

The following evening (June 11th) there being a fine breeze and clear moonlight the ship, while standing off the land, suddenly shoaled her water from twelve, ten, and eight fathoms with great rapidity. Cook gave orders to anchor, and then, as the lead before ten o'clock gave twenty fathoms, he imagined there could be no danger in standing on once more. But again the water suddenly shoaled, and a few minutes before eleven the Endeavour" struck a reef and stuck fast.

Sails were hurriedly taken in and the boats were hoisted out in order to sound the depth of water round the ship and if possible to ascertain her position. A little later it was found that she had been carried over a ledge of the rock upon which she had struck and lay in a hollow within it.

The coral rock was situated in lat. 15°47' S., long. 145°35' E., being only six or seven leagues from the shores of the mainland. It is now known as Endeavour Reef.[*] Cook's coolness and promptitude at this period kept his men together. There was no excitement; every order was quickly carried out. The pumps were set to work to keep the leak in check, and heavy articles, chiefly guns, and all kinds of ballast were thrown overboard.

[* Endeavour Reef is 41 miles long, E. and W., and half a mile broad. A fringe of sunken coral extends right round the reef.--"Admiralty Sailing Directions."]

The water being deepest astern Cook had the stream anchor carried out from the starboard quarter and hove a great strain upon it to try to get the vessel off the rock at high water, but without success, and she beat so violently against it that the men could scarcely keep their feet. Their position grew more and more perilous. By the light of the moon they could see the ship's sheathing boards floating thickly around her. About midnight part of her false keel came away, and as she settled down at ebb tide, a rock under her starboard was plainly heard grating against her timbers, so that it was expected that at any moment she might go to pieces. The best chance of saving her lay in continuing to lighten the ship. Stores, guns, casks, iron and stone ballast and other things were therefore thrown overboard after the rest. Fortunately the sea was smooth and the weather fine, and on the 12th the sailors carried out two bower anchors, one on the starboard quarter, the other right astern, and "got blocks and tackles upon the cable and hove taut." It was seen that as the tide rose the leak let in water fast, and three pumps hard at work could only just keep the "Endeavour" clear.

At night the ship righted, but as she did so the water gained more and more on the pumps, and as Cook expresses it, "threatened immediate destruction." However, he resolved "to risk all and heave her off," and about twenty minutes past ten o'clock, after having been twenty-three hours on the reef, she floated and was hove into deep water, having at this time three feet nine inches of water in the hold.

In this hazardous situation all hands turned resolutely to the pumps, although for some time every one believed the task to be hopeless. Then it was discovered that a mistake had been made by a seaman in taking the depth of water which had greatly exaggerated the rapidity with which the leak had gained on the pumps. When this became known it acted on the men like a charm. They redoubled their vigour, so much so that next morning the pumps had actually gained on the leak. The commander bestowed great praise on the men for their conduct at this time, and he writes: "In justice to the ship's company, I must say that no men ever behaved better."

Cook now stood in for the land, and he writes: "The leak decreaseth, but for fear it should break out again we got the sail ready for fothering."The plan of fothering the ship was executed by Mr. Monkhouse, one of the midshipmen who had once seen a ship brought by this means from Virginia to London. He took an old studding-sail and "mixed some oakum and wool, chopping it small, and placing it in handfuls on the sail, where it was stitched down firmly. After being thus prepared the sail was hauled under the ship and kept extended till the suction carried the oakum and wool into the leak." This plan succeeded so well that soon afterwards one pump sufficed to keep the water under.

At six in the evening the "Endeavour" anchored about five leagues distant from the Australian coast and one from the shoal. The leak was still making about fifteen inches of water an hour. Early next morning (the 14th) Cook weighed and edged in for the land. At this time he says that he passed close outside two small low islands and named them Hope Islands, for he remarks, "We were always in hopes of being able to reach these islands." They are, however, merely sand cays, very low and covered with bushes that lie midway between Cape Tribulation and Endeavour River. The spirit shown by the officers and crew throughout this trying period was worthy of the highest traditions of the Royal Navy, but one realizes that all the care and responsibility rested upon the shoulders of the commander, and his troubles do not seem to have been nearly over. Shortly after noon he sent the master with two boats to sound ahead of the ship and to look out for harbour within the mainland, as it was now very necessary to find a place where the "Endeavour" in her disabled condition might take refuge and have her defects repaired. At three o'clock in the afternoon an opening was seen that had the appearance of leading into a harbour. The ship stood off and on while the boats examined it, but it was found that there was not sufficient depth of water for her to anchor.

On Cook's chart the name of Weary Bay was given to this opening. By that time the sun was setting, and as there were many shoals around her the "Endeavour" again anchored, being then about two miles from the Queensland coast, which now trended from north-east to south-by-east. At eight o'clock at night, to Cook's relief, one of the mates returned in the pinnace and reported that he had found a good harbour two leagues away. This indentation is now known to us as Cooktown, being so called in remembrance of Cook's sojourn there. The great seaman himself bestowed upon the river at whose entrance it lies the name of Endeavour River.

At six o'clock next morning Cook weighed and stood in towards this harbour, but to avoid shoals that were visible he sent two boats ahead to lead the way, and after they had passed the shoals the boats were ordered to examine the channel leading into the inlet. However, the wind rose and it was thought safest to anchor, the ship then being one mile from the shore. Signalling to the boats to come on board, Cook went himself and buoyed the channel, which was found to be narrow. The harbour itself though small appeared to be a most convenient one.

It continued to blow fresh this day and the "Endeavour" was forced to remain at anchor on the 15th and 16th, but an attempt to run into the inlet was made on the 17th which nearly proved unsuccessful, as twice she ran ashore. On Monday, the 18th, she was floated and warped in, being finally moored alongside a steep beach on the south side of the river, where, on the same morning a stage was erected from the ship to the shore.

CHAPTER II

COOK AT ENDEAVOUR RIVER

Once the ship was moored safely tents were pitched for the sick men, among whom were Mr. Green, the astronomer, and Tupia, both showing symptoms of scurvy.

Dr. Solander and Mr. Banks had already commenced plant-gathering. On the 18th, whilst roaming in search of specimens in the inland country, the latter saw boughs of trees stuck in the ground by the natives to form the frames of their gunyas, but none of the inhabitants were actually seen.

On the afternoon of the 19th, having given instructions for the sick men to be brought on shore and the stores and ballast landed, Cook made his way to the top of one of the highest hills overlooking the harbour to take a view of his surroundings. Whenever it was possible he made a practice of doing this. The country did not appear to possess many attractions; the low land near the river was overgrown with mangroves and at every tide was covered with salt water; the high land looked stony and barren.

Next morning the guns left on board were mounted on the quarter deck for protection and a forge set up on shore so that the armourers could commence to repair the ship. The powder, as well as most of the coals left in the hold, were landed on the 22nd. Cook then cast loose the "Endeavour's" moorings and warped her to a spot higher up the harbour which he had fixed upon as suitable for carrying out the work. Her bow was hauled in to the beach, and her stern kept afloat, so that when the tide went out the extent of her injuries could be ascertained.

The leak was found to be "at her floor heads a little before the starboard fore chains." On the following day Mr. Banks saw it and thus described it: "In the middle was a hole large enough to have sunk a ship with twice our pumps, but here Providence had most visibly worked in our favour, for it was in great measure plugged up by a stone as big as a man's fist. Round the edges of this stone (which was a piece of coral rock) had all the water come in...and here we found the wool and oakum or fothering which had relieved us in so unexpected a manner." He continues: "The effect of this coral rock...is difficult to describe...It had cut through the plank and deep into one of her timbers, smoothing the gashes...so that the whole might easily be imagined to have been cut with an axe."

Each day the carpenters worked while the tide would permit them, and after he had seen their task begun Cook was able to survey more of the country. He had noticed a number of pigeons flying round the camp, so on the 23rd he sent men across the river to try to kill some, when one of the shooting party caught sight of a strange animal, "something less than a greyhound, it was of a mouse colour, very slender made and swift of foot," this being the first description of the kangaroo given to Cook, and, indeed, the first information he obtained of its existence, although the animal seen by Pelsart, Dampier, and Vlamingh and one of the smaller species from the Aru Islands which had been made known in 1711 are said to have been the first kangaroos heard of in Europe. Next day Cook saw one for himself, only a little way from the ship, and he says: "I should have taken it for a wild dog, but for its walking and like a hare or deer...the length running in which it jumped of the grass prevented my seeing its legs."

Banks, who spent his time in penetrating inland, heard many different accounts of it, and at once designated it "the animal of the country," as indeed it was and is, though rather too rapidly decreasing. Later, too, he tells us that it was called by the natives kangaroo, spelling the word thus, and not, as it is spelled in Cook's journal, "kanguru." Banks tells of another remarkable animal that had been seen by one of the seamen (an Irishman surely!), who, having seen a flying fox, gave this description of it: "About as large and much like a one-gallon cagg;[*] as black as the devil and had two horns on its head; it went but slowly but I dared not touch it."

[* Bank's journal.]

To his dismay, on the 26th Banks found that most of his plants on board which had been stowed in the bread-room were under water. The mischief being done he began at once to try to restore them. Many were saved by his energy, but some he could not revive. In his excursions into the bush he met with nests of ants which he likens to the white ant of the East Indies, but harmless; and he describes their nests as pyramidal in shape and varying from a few inches to six feet in height. He thought that they resembled Druid monuments in England, while Solander compared them to runic stones at Upsala in Sweden.

The botanists made baskets to hold their specimens, and the plants remained fresh in these baskets for days. During the stay of the "Endeavour" in the South Seas the men had learned how to weave them by watching the islanders at work. At first specimens were dried by laying them in the sand; later it was found that they would dry better in paper books, although one person was kept entirely employed in attending to them and exposing the quires to the sun's heat.

The coco palm did not grow at Endeavour River. Mr. Gore picked up, upon the beach, the husk of a coco-nut, which had evidently been swept there by the waves from some island to windward.[*] He also penetrated four or five miles into the country, where he saw marks of men's feet and tracks of animals, though he met with neither man nor beast. Some others from the ship, in their rambles on the north side of Endeavour River, reached a spot where there were fires burning which the natives had only just left. In these expeditions some wild yams were found growing in a swampy place, and their tops proved so good that on the 29th Cook sent a party to gather a quantity for the ship's company. He tells how, on the night of this day, "Mr. Green and I observed an emersion of Jupiter's first satellite, which took place at 2 hours 58 minutes 53 seconds in the a.m.; the same emersion happened at Greenwich...on the 30th at 5 hrs 17 minutes 43 seconds a.m."; and he adds: "The difference is 14 hours 18 minutes 50 seconds equal to 214°42'30" of Long.--which this place is W. of Greenwich."[**]

[* King says Cook imagined that it came from "Terra del Esperitu."]

[** The true longitude is 214°45'.]

On Saturday, June 30th, while some midshipmen were making a plan of the harbour, the commander ascended a hill now called Grassy Hill, which stands close to the south point of the inlet, "to take a view of the sea." Its shores were lined with shoals, and Cook was perplexed and anxious as to what route he should take when he resumed his voyage. The heads of many rocks only just showed above the water. "The only hopes I have of getting clear of them," he says, " is to the northward, where there seems to be a passage."

Fortunately the sailors were greatly refreshed during their stay in this harbour; and on July 2nd a good catch of fish supplied 2½ lbs. for each man. Next day at low water Cook had a number of empty casks, lashed together, placed under the ship's bows and the stream anchor laid out in hopes of being able to float her. He was now impatient to put to sea, and when the master, who had been sent out on the previous day in the pinnace to look for a safe route, reported at noon that he had found a passage for the ship, Cook decided to leave at the first opportunity.

During his investigations the master had landed on a dry reef, and finding some very large cockles (Chima gigas) brought back a boatload chiefly of the cockles, "one alone being more than two men could eat." Mr. Molineux also entered an indentation of the mainland three leagues to the northward of Endeavour River, where he disturbed some natives, as he thought, at supper. They quickly disappeared leaving behind them "some fresh sea eggs" and a fire brightly burning, but there was no hut near. Cook thought at this time that the natives had no boats large enough to convey them out to the shoals, but he found out afterwards that they were in the habit of visiting the islands between the Great Barrier Reef and the mainland.

At high water on Wednesday, 4th, the ship was again floated, and on the 5th was beached on the sandbank on the south side of the river. At this spot a monument was erected in memory of the event by the inhabitants of Cooktown.[*]

[* A column of granite now adorns the principal street of Cooktown and bears the inscription: "In Memoriam Captain Cook who landed here June 17, 1770.--Post cineres gloria venit."

The "Endeavour," however, still made water and three people went down to examine her. It was found that the main plank was chafed and that she had lost three streaks of sheathing, but the master "was positive that she had received no material damage," and the carpenter was of the same opinion, so that Cook resolved to spend no more time in trying to repair her where she lay.

She was refloated at high water and moored alongside the beach where her stores were deposited. In the morning these were got in readiness to be taken on board, and eight tons of water were also obtained from springs not far off.

In the meantime further delays kept Cook longer here. Banks went over to the opposite shores of the harbour on several occasions. As he was crossing on the 4th shoals of garfish leapt out of the water, and some falling into his small boat were caught. He crossed the river again next day and saw "innumerable fruits" on a sandy beach apparently washed there by the waves. Most curious coco-nuts were among them, all incrusted--many of them covered with barnacles--"a sure sign that they have come far by sea, probably" (Banks adds) "from Terra del Espiritu Santo" (the New Hebrides).

On the 6th what may be called the first inland expedition on the east coast set out from the camp. Lieutenant Gore, Mr. Banks, and three men went in a small boat to survey the country higher up the river intending to be away for some days. After having passed through "groves of mangroves" they came to country similar to that they had left behind, and as they proceeded up the stream, which gradually contracted, only a few mangroves were to be seen and the banks were steep, being covered with trees of a beautiful verdure called in the West Indies mohoe or bark tree (Hibiscus tiliaceus). Farther in the land was low and thickly covered with long grass. In the course of the day Tupia saw an animal like a wolf, which, of course, was a dingo; and three kangaroos and a bat as large as a partridge were also seen, but none was caught.

The party camped at a spot close to the river bank and made their fire. Here mosquitoes spoilt their enjoyment, and, as Banks says, spared no pains to molest them as much as was in their power. "They followed us," he writes, "into the very smoke, nay! almost into the fire, which, hot as the climate was, we could better bear the heat of than their intolerable stings." And adds further: "between the hardness of our bed, the heat of the fire, and the stings of these indefatigable insects, the night was not spent so agreeably but day was earnestly wished for by all of us. At last it came, and with its first dawn we set out in search of game."

On this day four of the "animals of the country" were sighted; two were chased by Banks's greyhound, though the kangaroos got away owing to the length and thickness of the grass, which stopped the greyhound running, while they bounded over the top of it. Banks then saw that instead of going on all fours they went only on their hind legs as the smaller jerboa does.

The men saw a tree burning, but on reaching the spot no natives could be seen. An old tree of touchwood had evidently been recently fired by them. Their huts were found, and near them were lying twigs of trees, broken but not yet withered, with which, possibly, children had been playing. Footsteps fresh on the sands below high water proved that natives had gone that way. Their oven showed that food had lately been cooked in it, while some shells of a kind of clam and the roots of a wild yam, which had been baked, were lying close by.

At the close of the day the visitors stopped at a sandbank where under the shade of a bush they hoped to be free from their tormentors of the previous night. They made their beds of plantain leaves, spreading them on the sand, and they proved as soft as a mattress, and with cloaks for bed-clothes and grass for a pillow the men had a good night's rest, possibly due to the fact that the mosquitoes did not trouble them. On the 8th, at daylight, they returned to the ship. On their passage down the river several flocks of whistling duck flew past, some of which were shot, and once an alligator about seven feet long was seen crawling out from under the mangroves and making its way down into the water.

On the 10th of July four black fellows appeared on the north side of the river opposite the "Endeavour." They had a canoe (with an outrigger) in which two of them embarked, and, coming to within the distance of long musket shot, stopped and began talking loudly. The British called to them and beckoned them to come closer. They soon did so, and drew in until they were quite alongside the ship, though they often held up their spears as if to show that they were on guard. Cloth, nails, and other articles were given them, which they took without showing the least sign of satisfaction. At last by accident a small fish was thrown into the canoe, when they expressed the utmost joy and instantly made signs that they would fetch their two comrades, which they soon did, and all four landed at the camp, each man carrying two spears and a throwing-stick with him. Tupia, who was on shore, went towards them where they stood in a row as if about to throw their spears, and he made signs that they should come forward without their arms. They then laid them down, and, sitting on the ground beside him, received various presents of beads and cloth given them. They soon became friendly and only grew alarmed when anyone attempted to go between them and their arms. "At dinner we made signs to them to come and eat with us," says Banks, "but they refused. We left them, and going into their canoe they paddled back to where they had come from."

Again on the 11th they visited the British camp and Banks tells us that in addition to two of the visitors of the previous day there now came two new natives, "whom our old acquaintances introduced by their names, one of which was Yaparico." Although not noticed before, it was now seen that the four natives had the septurm of the nose pierced, having a large hole through it, into which one of them had stuck the bone of a bird as thick as a man's finger and about four or six inches long. "An ornament no doubt, though to us it appeared rather an uncouth one," remarks Banks. The black fellows presented their white friends with a fish, but did not stay long, as on perceiving that some of the officers were examining their boat "they went directly to it and pushing it off went away without saying a word."

On the 12th they came again. On this occasion Tupia received them in his tent, which pleased the early Queenslanders so much that three of them stayed with him while the fourth went with the canoe to fetch two others, and on their return the new-comers were introduced as before to the English by name, "which they always made a point of doing," says Banks. Although they remained there the best part of the morning not once during that time would they venture farther than twenty yards from their canoe.

When they had paid their first visit they had allowed the sailors to decorate them with medals, which were tied by a ribbon round their necks. These ribbons were now covered with smoke, and, remembering the night of torment he had lately himself endured, Banks remarks, "I suppose they lay much in the smoke to keep off the mosquitoes."

Cook tells a similar story of his meeting with these natives on the 10th, so that this really was the first visit of the Queensland blacks to the ship's people. He noticed their small wooden canoe with outriggers at a sandy point on the north side of the harbour, where they were employed in striking fish. Some on board wished to go over to them. "But," says Cook, "this I would not suffer, and let them alone without seeming to take any notice of them." In describing them he says: "One of these men was above middle age, the other three were young: none were above 5½ feet high and all had small limbs. They were naked, their skins the colour of wood soot: their hair black, lank and cropt short, and neither woolly nor frizzled, nor did they want any of their fore teeth," as did those seen by Dampier. He continues: "Some part of their bodies had been painted with red and, one of them had his upper lip and breast painted with streaks of white called 'carbanda.' Their features were far from being disagreeable, their voices were soft and tunable, and they could easily repeat any word after us. But no one, not even Tupia, could understand a word they said."

Mr. Gore, who seems to have been energetic both on land and sea, on the 14th killed a kangaroo. "To compare it to any European animal," says Banks, "would be impossible, as it has not the least resemblance to any I have seen."

The kangaroo was cooked and eaten and its flesh was, as one might suppose, excellent. In his journal Cook writes: "It was a small one, weighing 28 lbs.," after being cleaned; and he continues: "It was hare lipt and the head and ears were most like a hare's of any animal I know...The forelegs were 8 inches long and the hind 22 inches"; and he thought the forelegs "only designed for scratching in the ground. The skin is covered with a short, hairy fur of a dark mouse or grey colour." A much greater delicacy for the men were the turtle there, which were frequently caught, and were in great numbers. Indeed, on the 9th Mr. Molineux caught three on a reef without the harbour which was called Turtle Bank;[*] they weighed 791 lbs., and on that day, says Cook, all hands feasted on turtle for the first time. These were mostly green turtle, and, when killed, were found to be full of turtle grass, which Banks identified as a kind of conferva.

[* Turtle Reef.]

Although her departure was delayed, the ship was ready to leave on the 16th. Up to the time of sailing the botanists remained busily engaged in examining specimens and in completing their collections so as to take away as many different species as possible. Tupia encountered blacks on the north side of Endeavour River on the 17th, who, Banks relates, "gave him a kind of longish root about as thick as a man's finger and of very good taste." Probably this was dingowa, or fern root, much eaten by the natives.

Banks also records that at this time the natives soon had become quite familiar and lost all fear of white men. On the 18th one gave an exhibition of his powers in throwing the spear. The weapon shot through the air so steadily and swiftly that Banks was amazed at its flight, "never being above four feet from the ground and stuck deep in at a distance of 50 paces. After this display the blacks went on board, and, he says, "soon became our very good friends."

Leaving them, Cook and Banks crossed the river and walked northwards to a high hill about six miles from the ship. On ascending it they viewed the sea coast, and Cook writes: "It afforded us a melancholy prospect of the difficulties we are to encounter." From here too in every direction the sea looked covered with shoals.

On the morning of the 19th ten or eleven natives came to the "Endeavour" from the opposite side of the river, six or seven of their companions including some women remaining behind. All these blacks were naked. Those who came on board made known by signs that they wanted some of the turtle that were on the deck, several having been placed there for the voyage. On their requests being refused one angry and disappointed man was seen, energetically aided by his companions, trying to haul two turtle to the gangway in order to put them over the side of the vessel. When they were prevented doing this the black fellows revenged themselves by throwing overboard everything within their reach. Bread was offered to them but they rejected it scornfully, and soon afterwards took their departure.

The commander, with Mr. Banks and five or six others, followed them on shore. Immediately the blacks landed, one of the party ran to a patch of dry grass, tore up a handful, and lighted it at a fire that the seamen had made there. He then started to set fire to the grass in several places, making a circle round the camp, with the result that in a few minutes the whole of the surroundings were in a blaze.

Banks, who was setting out to gather plants, suddenly saw one of the tents erected for his use in imminent danger of being burnt, so leaping into a boat he promptly brought some sailors from the ship who hauled it down in time to save it from the flames. The forge was destroyed, however, and one of the litter of pigs was scorched to death. Not content with starting fires at this point the blacks ran to another place where the men had been washing linen, and where the linen with the fishing net lay on the ground to dry. Determined to save the seine if he could, Cook followed the natives, but in spite of his efforts to prevent them they again set fire to the grass and it was soon blazing furiously. Finding persuasion useless, Cook at last fired a musket at one of the ringleaders who was starting new fires forty yards away; on the shot striking him he ran to his companions and they all disappeared into the woods. The second fire was extinguished, but the first one rapidly increased and burned fiercely. At this time the natives were not far away, for their voices could be heard in the distance, so Cook and Banks with some others went to look for them and soon met several. Seeing that they carried spears the white party picked up a few that they had left behind and closely pursued the black men. But the Australian native is fleet of foot and after Cook had chased them for about half a mile he was compelled to halt at the foot of a tree, whence he called to the natives to stop, and presently they did so, and he writes: "After some little unintelligible conversation had passed, they laid down their darts and came to us in a very friendly manner." The borrowed spears were then returned to their rightful owners which, he says, reconciled everything."

There were four strange black fellows now with the natives, who had never been seen before, and each one was introduced by name to the British with the usual ceremony. The man who had been hit had gone away, but it was evident that he had not been badly hurt. When eventually Cook's party made their way back to the ship the natives accompanied them until they came abreast the "Endeavour." Here they remained in conversation for a short time. They then went away and set the bush on fire at about two miles distant.

On Friday, 20th, the ship was brought to a new berth and let swing with the tide. The master, who had been sent in the pinnace to inspect the coast higher up, returned during the night, and stated that he could find no safe passage to the northward. However, being ready for sea, Cook went next day and buoyed the bar, but the wind continuing unfavourable he was forced to remain longer at his anchorage.

While thus delayed, his people saw more of the natives. On the 23rd some sailors, sent into the country for a supply of green food, lost one of their party in the bush. This man suddenly came upon four blackfellows seated round a fire. They were engaged in broiling a bird, and he also perceived part of a kangaroo hanging on a tree near. Being unarmed he had the presence of mind not to run away from the blacks, but went and sat down among them. At first being afraid of their numbers he offered them his knife in order to conciliate them. The natives took it, handed it round from one to the other to examine, then returned it again to him. When they had felt his hands, his body, and the texture of his clothes they allowed him to depart peaceably, and on seeing that he did not know his way directed him back to the "Endeavour."

On Friday, August 3rd, Cook unmoored and began to warp out of the harbour. Soon a breeze arising he was compelled to remain within the bar for the night. At seven o'clock next morning he put to sea.

COOKTOWN TO POSSESSION ISLAND

On leaving Endeavour River, Cook steered east-by-north and sent the pinnace before him to lead the way. He had ordered the yawl to pick up a net that had been left on the Turtle Bank, but the wind freshening the "Endeavour" got out of the harbour before her. Wishing to view the shoals at low water from the masthead before venturing among them, Cook came to an anchorage shortly after noon. The northernmost point of the mainland then in sight, to which he gave the name of Cape Bedford, bore north-west distant three and a half leagues, while the Turtle Reef lay but a mile to the eastward. He informs us on the 4th that he had not then decided whether to beat back to the southward "round all the shoals" or to seek a passage to the eastward or northward, "all of which appeared to be equally difficult and dangerous." Nor did he know the extent of the Barrier Reef, which rose to the eastward like a wall of coral rock between him and the South Pacific. On the 5th the boats were ordered to Turtle Reef for turtle and shell-fish, and in their absence Cook surveyed the shoals. Beyond the nearest shoal he saw many more stretching into distance, although to the north-east the sea looked fairly clear and he finally resolved to go in that direction. The fishing boats returned with a turtle, a sting-ray, and a quantity of clams, which afforded each man one and a half pounds of fish, and during the night the sailors caught some sharks.

Fresh gales blew next morning and prevented the vessel sailing until 2 p.m. on August 6th, when the weather had moderated. Leaving Turtle Reef, Cook stood to the north-east, having shoals ahead and on both bows, and at 4.30 the pinnace made the signal for shoal water. After tacking Cook soon anchored as night was approaching and he hoped to proceed at daylight. But a strong gale from the south-east blew next day and the ship was compelled to strike her yards.

Around her on all sides there were shoals. With his officers, on the 7th, Cook looked in vain from the masthead for a passage between them. Breakers were visible everywhere: "All the way from the south round by east to N.W. extending out to sea as far as we could see," and he adds: "It did not appear one continued shoal but several detached from each other."

The surf broke highest on the easternmost side, and after finally reviewing the situation he observes: "I saw that we were surrounded on every side with danger insomuch that I was quite at a loss which way to steer...for to beat back to the S.E. the way we came as the Master would have me do would be an endless piece of work." At last he determined to seek a passage along the (Queensland) coast and to follow it northward. Gales continued to blow, and not until the 10th at 7 a.m. was the "Endeavour" able to weigh her anchor. She then stood in towards the mainland and at nine drew abreast three small islands covered with mangroves (now called the Three Isles), which lie eight miles from Cape Bedford. Cook directed his course between the islands and the mainland and next saw a point in the coast bearing north-north-west at a distance of two leagues. To the north-east of it appeared three more islands,[*] which were high, having small ones near. The ship continued her course between the islands and the shore and at noon was four leagues from the former and two from the latter. Cook thought that he was now clear of danger and that the open sea was before him, but he was soon to find that he had been deceived, so he named this headland Cape Flattery, writing of it: "It is a high promontory making in two hills next the sea and a third behind with low sandy land on each side."

[* The Direction Islands.]

On the 11th a petty officer at the masthead cried out that there was "land ahead extending round to the islands without," and that there was a reef between the ship and these islands. On hearing this Cook himself went to the masthead and saw the reef plainly, but he thought that the officer was mistaken in thinking the land was mainland, for to Cook it appeared to be islands. However, as others on board were also of the petty officer's opinion, he signalled for the boat to come on board, and stood in for the Australian coast and anchored under a point of the mainland about a mile from the shore. He then landed and went to the highest point he could find where he obtained a view of the coast. This, he could see, trended away north-west-by-west for eight or ten leagues. He also saw nine or ten small low islands...and some large shoals between the mainland and the three high islands, without which again were islands which the petty officer had mistaken for the mainland.

Cook called the point of the mainland from which he obtained this good view Point Lookout. He saw there the footsteps of natives in the sand and the smoke of their fires up in the country. The sea coast north of Cape Bedford was low and chequered with white sand and green bushes for ten or twelve miles inland, and there was high land beyond. To the north of Point Lookout the shores appeared shoal and flat, which, he adds, "is no good sign of meeting with a channel as we have hitherto done." He returned on board the "Endeavour" at evening and decided then to visit one of the high islands next morning. He therefore set out in the pinnace in company with Mr. Banks for the northernmost and largest of the three,[*] and Mr. Molineux at the same time, by his orders, took the yawl to leeward to sound between some low islands and the main.

[* Lizard Island.]

When he had arrived at the island and climbed to the top of the highest hill[*] Cook discovered to his dismay that a reef extended for two or three leagues outside the island and ran north-west and south-east out of sight. This was in fact a portion of the main Barrier Reef. The waves rose high upon it, yet breaks were seen and the water within it looked deep. Cook stayed on the hill until sunset trying to get a better view of the shoals, but the weather continued hazy, and he determined to spend the night there, hoping that the morning would be clear. In this, however, he was disappointed, for next day the atmosphere was even more hazy. At three in the morning he sent one of the mates away in the pinnace to sound the depth of water between the island they were on and the reef, and also to examine one of the breaks in the reef.

[* The summit which is a bare, domed-shaped hill, is 1,179 feet in height and from its height and conspicuous appearance forms a good mark from seaward and from the channels inside--"Admiralty Sailing Directions."]

Cook named this island, which was about eight miles in circuit, Lizard Island, and he says that he gave it this name because the only land animals that he saw were lizards. It was high, rocky, and barren, excepting on the north side, where there were sandy bays and low lands covered with thin long grass.

The remains of some old native huts and heaps of old fish shells showed that the Australian natives came over from the mainland. The islands to the southward were both smaller and there seemed a clear passage between them and Cape Flattery. In the afternoon of the 13th Cook left Lizard Island and went back to his ship, touching at a low sandy island on his way, which he named Eagle Island.

Of his visit to Lizard Island Banks writes: "We ascended the hill and from the top saw plainly the grand reef still extending itself parallel with the shore...Through it were several channels exactly similar to those we had seen in the islands. Through one of these we determined to go. To ascertain, however, the practicability of it we resolved to stay upon the island all night...We slept under the shade of a bush that grew upon the beach very comfortably."

On the following day he continues: "Great part of yesterday and all this morning till the boat returned I employed in searching the island. On it I found some few plants which I had not before seen...There was one small tract of woodland which abounded very much with large lizards, some of which I took. Distant as this isle was from the main, the Indians had been here in their poor embarkations....We saw seven or eight frames of their huts...All the houses were built upon the tops of eminences exposed entirely to the S.E., contrary to those of the main, which are commonly placed under some bushes or hillside to break the wind. The officer who went in the boat returned with an account that the sea broke vastly high upon the reef and the swell was so great in the opening that he could not go into it to sound. [But he found that the depth of water within the reef varied from 15 to 28 fathoms.] On our return we went ashore on a low island, where we shot many birds: on it was the nest of an eagle, the young ones of which we killed, and another, I knew not of what bird, built on the ground of an enormous magnitude; it was in circumference 26 feet and in height 2 feet 8 inches built of sticks...[*] The Indians had been here likewise." This was the island which had been named Eagle Island by Cook.

[* Tallegalla lathami, Gould, i.e. North Queensland scrub hen. It really was a small nest of the kind. A common height is 5 or 6 feet and 20 yards round the base.]

On his return on board the commander found that the master had made his examination of the low islands.[*] He had spent the night on one and had found there piles of turtle shells and some of the fins with meat on them left on the trees were so fresh that he and the boat's crew ate of them, and it was evident that the natives had lately feasted there. He also saw two spots lately dug up about seven feet long and shaped like a grave, which he thought were native tombs. On receiving an unfavourable report from the master with regard to the soundings inside the low islands, and comparing it with his own observations, Cook clearly perceived that it would be courting danger to try to keep any longer near the mainland, and after consulting with his officers he resolved to quit its shores.

[* Turtle Group.]

Accordingly, at daylight on the 13th he weighed anchor and stood to the north-east. By 2 p.m. he had arrived at one of the openings in the main reef, the outermost reef seen from Lizard Island. The master went in the pinnace to examine the channel and soon made the signal to the ship to follow and she passed safely through it. This channel through the Barrier Reef is known as Cook's Passage.

In giving further information concerning his track Cook says he called the three high islands the Islands of Direction, as "by their means a safe passage may be found even by strangers in within the main reef and quite into the main." Lizard Island, he adds, "affords snug anchorage under the N.W. side of it, fresh water, and wood for fuel.'' Not only on this island, but also on Eagle Island and other places, were found bamboos, coco-nuts, and seeds of various plants-which were not the produce of the country.

After the "Endeavour" had passed through Cook's Passage she had no ground with one hundred fathoms of line, and a large sea came rolling in from the south-east. The sight pleased Cook greatly, "after having been entangled among islands or shoals more or less ever since May 26th, in which time we have sailed above 360 leagues by the lead without ever having a leadsman out of the chains when the ship was under sail, a circumstance that perhaps never happened to any ship before."

But the big swell of the South Pacific soon made it apparent to him that his ship had received damage on Endeavour Reef of which he had not been aware, or had not noticed, while sailing in the smooth waters within the Barrier, for "she now made as much water as one pump kept constantly at work would free." By noon on the 14th the vessel was out of sight of land, and on the following day orders were given at six in the evening to shorten sail and bring her to for the night. Next morning Cook made sail and steered west in order to make the land, "being fearful of overshooting the passage, supposing there to be one between this land and New Guinea," which shows that if he had heard of the discoveries of Torres he had forgotten them. As a matter of fact, neither Cook nor Bligh nor any Australian discoverer seems to have reaped any benefit from the experiences of that navigator.

On Thursday, 16th, a little after noon, land was seen from the masthead bearing west-south-west. It was high land, and at 2 p.m. more was seen to the north-west, "making in hills like islands," which was thought to be part of the coast (of Australia). An hour afterwards a reef, yet another part of the Great Barrier Reef, was discovered lying between the ship and the mainland. It extended to the southward and was thought to terminate to the northward abreast the ship; but the supposed termination was soon proved to be merely an opening, for the reef itself was shortly afterwards observed extending farther to the northward, out of sight. "The ship's sails had scarcely been trimmed before the wind came to E. by N., which," writes Cook, "made our weathering the reef very doubtful, the northern point of which still bore N. by W. distant about two leagues."

The "Endeavour," however, continued to steer northward in hopes of being able to clear the reef, care being taken that she should not run too far on one course. To prevent this at midnight she tacked and stood to the south-south-east. It then fell calm, and on sounding no bottom could be obtained with 140 fathoms of line. A little after four o'clock a roar of surf was clearly heard, foretelling that danger was near, and at daylight breakers, white with foam, could be distinguished not a mile away, towards which, to the horror of those on board, the heavy sea was fast hurrying the ship. There was not a breath of wind and no possibility of being able to anchor, and Cook says: "In this distressed situation we had nothing but Providence and the. small assistance the boats could give us to trust to." The pinnace was then under repair; but the yawl was put in the water and the long-boat hoisted out, both being sent ahead to tow, and with the result that at last they got the ship's head round to the northward.

By this time it was six o'clock and they were not more than eighty or one hundred yards from the breakers. A big sea now lashed the ship's side and curved when next it rose in such a lofty breaker that "only a dismal valley, the breadth of one wave, lay between the 'Endeavour' and destruction."

Meanwhile the pinnace had been hastily repaired, and it too was hoisted out and sent ahead to tow, although it seemed then as if nothing could save the ship. Yet all on board remained quite calm and every man did his utmost to avert disaster, and Cook writes: "All the dangers we had escaped were little in comparison of being thrown on this reef where the ship must be dashed to pieces in a moment. A reef," he adds, "such as...is scarcely known in Europe. It is a wall of coral rock rising almost perpendicular out of the unfathomable ocean, always overflown at high water and dry in places at low water."

And just when, to those on board, all seemed lost, "a small air of wind" sprang up--so small that at any other time it would have scarcely been noticed, and, with its aid and the help of the boats, the "Endeavour" was seen to move slantingly away from the reef. In less than ten minutes the hopes of the men were again dashed down, as a calm set in, while they were still not above 200 yards from the breakers. Yet once more the little breeze returned, and at this time a small opening was perceived in the reef about a quarter of a mile away. One of the mates was sent to examine it and he found that its breadth was not more than the length of the ship, but that within there was smooth water. Through this opening Cook decided to take the "Endeavour," though it was doubtful whether he would be able to reach it at all. He, however, brought her opposite to it, and to his surprise saw the ebb rushing out through the gap as though it were a mill stream, and this carried the ship back a quarter of a mile away from the breakers. By noon she was one and a half or two miles from them; yet even then she could not have hoped to get clear if a breeze had sprung up. As Cook says: "We were embayed by the reef, the ship in spite of our exertions, driving before the sea into the bight"; and he adds: "The only hopes we had was another opening we saw about a mile to the westward of us which I sent Lieutenant Hicks to examine."

While Mr. Hicks was inspecting this second opening the ship struggled with the tide, sometimes in her efforts gaining a little and at others losing way. At two o'clock on the afternoon of the 17th the first lieutenant returned with a favourable report of the opening and it was resolved to try to get through it, as this seemed to be the only means by which the ship could be saved.

A light breeze sprang up from the east-north-east, and with the help of all the boats and a flood tide the "Endeavour" entered the opening. The tide, whose waters ran like a mill-race, hurried her through with a force that kept her straight and prevented her driving to either side of the narrow channel. Once through, she came to an anchorage safely within the reef about eight or nine leagues from the mainland. Cook named the channel Providential Channel, because it had so proved for the ship in the hour of her danger; and in recalling the satisfaction that he had felt but a few days before when he had found himself without the reef, he says: "That joy was nothing compared to what I now felt at being safe at anchor within it."

For the rest of the day the "Endeavour" remained at this anchorage in full view of the mainland coast. Giving his impressions of the land, Cook writes: "On the mainland within us was a pretty high promontory which I called Cape Weymouth and on the N.W. side of this cape is a bay which I called Weymouth Bay," this being in honour of Lord Weymouth. On going to the masthead he saw that a great part of the reef was dry and that there was another opening in it to the south-east (possibly that now known as the Hibernia's Entrance).

Next morning the "Endeavour" got under way and stood to the north-west; it was now deemed advisable to keep within the Barrier Reef, of whose extent and vast length Cook at this time had gained important knowledge. Whilst pursuing his course within the Barrier he perceived that the main or outer reef still extended to the north-east, and he now met with a shoal and with the islands which lie between the reef and the Australian mainland. At half-past six next evening he anchored three miles from the northernmost of some small islands bearing west ½ south, which he named Forbes's Islands. The coast here formed a moderately high point called by Cook Bolt Head. Beyond it were low and sandy beaches. At 6 a.m., when the ship was got under sail and stood in for an island lying off the coast, her course was interrupted by shoals, but at length she found a channel to it. The mainland here within the islands formed a point which was named Cape Grenville, between which and Bolt Head was a bay which was called Temple Bay. Nine leagues east ½ north from Cape Grenville were some high islands, and these were named Sir Charles Hardy's Isles, while those off the cape were called the Cockburn Isles.

Cook now steered a course along the Queensland shores which was afterwards, for a time at least, followed by Bligh, who served under him as master of the "Resolution." It was nineteen years later that Bligh entered through an opening now called Bligh Boat Entrance in the Great Barrier Reef in the "Bounty's" boat and ran along the shores that Cook's ship had coasted, steering a course among the same islands. Writing on August 20th Cook says: "At 4, we discovered some low islands and rocks bearing W.N.W. which we stood directly in for. At half past six we anchored on the north-east side of the northernmost in 16 fms. distant one mile from the island. This island lay N.W. 4 leagues from Cape Grenville. On the isles we saw a good many birds which occasioned my calling them Bird Isles."Bligh also came to the Bird Islands with his half-starved men, and he tells us that he anchored on "the north-westernmost of four small keys," naming it Lagoon Island. "Before and at sunset," continues Cook, "we could see the mainland which appeared very low and sandy...and some shoals, keys and low sandy isles away to the N.E. At 6 a.m. we got again under sail and stood N.N.W. for some low islands." The shoals and keys are now called the Boydong Cays. "After weathering a shoal on our larboard bow, having at the same time others to east of us...and having weathered the shoal to leeward and seeing some shoals spit off from them and rocks on the starboard bow," Cook says that, being afraid to go to windward of the islands, he brought to. He then made signal to the pinnace to rejoin the ship, and sent her to leeward "to keep along the edge of the shoal off the south side of the southernmost island." As soon as the pinnace had got a proper distance he wore and stood after her.

Writing of this island, which is only a small spot of land with some trees upon it. Cook says: "We saw many huts and habitations of the natives which we supposed come over from the main to these islands (from which they are distant about 5 leagues) to catch turtle at the time when these animals come ashore to lay eggs." Having taken the yawl in tow, the "Endeavour" stood after the pinnace to "two other low islands having two shoals, and one between us and the main."[*]

[* Possibly these were Halfway Islets and East Islet.]

"At noon," writes Cook, "we were about 4 leagues from the mainland extending N. as far as N.W. by N. all low, flat, and sandy "--the distance covered in the twenty-four hours being forty miles. At 1 p.m. on the 21st, finding that he could not go to windward of the two islands without getting too far from the main, Cook bore up and ran to leeward, where he found a fair open passage. He was now steering parallel with the mainland, "having a small island between us and it and some low sandy isles, and shoals without us."[*] At four o'clock the "Endeavour" had lost sight of the islands, nor were any more seen before sunset, the farthest part of the mainland then in sight bearing north-north-west ½ west. At this time Cook was almost abreast of Sharp Peak at the southern entrance of Escape River. **2] Soon afterwards he anchored for the night in thirteen fathoms soft ground about five leagues off shore.

[* On this day Cook passed between Cairncross and Sandy Islets. See P. G, King's comments on Cook's Log.]

[** So named by King in 1819.]

At daylight once more, with the yawl ahead sounding, the "Endeavour" got under way. She steered north-north-west, and as no danger was visible the yawl was taken in tow and the ship made all sail until eight o'clock, when Cook discovered shoals ahead on the larboard bow. He then came to the conclusion from what he saw that the northernmost land, which he had considered was a part of the continent, was an island or islands between which and the main there appeared to be a good passage. The islands, one of which is remarkable for its flat top, are known to us as Mount Adolphus Islands. Cook now had the satisfaction of finding a good channel between the Mount Adolphus Islands and the coast; he kept the long-boat rigged continually between the ship and the mainland, as he says, "although there appeared nothing in the passage, there was a strong flood." It may be noted as justifying Cook's precautions that the Quetta Rock is in this channel. By noon he had got through and the nearest land to the southward lay only three or four miles distant. Soon afterwards he discovered that this was the northernmost point of the continent whose eastern coast he had so thoroughly explored, and he writes in his journal: "The point of the main...which is the northern promontory of this country, I have named York Cape in honour of his late Royal Highness the Duke of York. It lies in the long. of 218°24' W., the north point in the lat. Of 10°37' S., and the east point in W10°41'S."

At this time he caught sight of islands lying a good distance off north-by-west to west-north-west, and behind them yet another chain of islands. The land below the east point of York Cape looked low and flat and seemed barren as far inland as the eye could reach. The land on the northern part of York Cape was rather more hilly and the valleys appeared well clothed with wood.[*] To the southward of the cape the shore was seen to form a large open bay which Cook named Newcastle Bay. (It was "the large and fair inlet" in 11° S. of Bligh.) From Adolphus Channel Cook steered three or four miles to westward round York Cape and discovered some islands which were "detached by several channels from the mainland. He recalled the boats and gave instructions to them to lead through the channel next the main, and soon afterwards the "Endeavour" made sail and followed them. Rocks and shoals were found in this channel, so Cook made the signal to the boats to lead through "the next channel to the northward between the islands which they accordingly did; we following with the ship and had not less than 5 fms. and this in the narrowest part...which was about 1 mile and a half broad from island to island."

[* Cape York, the extreme north point of Eastern Australia, is covered with dense scrub along a series of hills called the Carnegic Range; the hill next the cape being Mount Bremer, 372 feet. The Cape itself is a long, low shelf of rock tapering to the edge of the water.]

At four o'clock the "Endeavour" anchored. The mainland (Cape York Peninsula) then extended south-west (S. 48° W.), while the southernmost point of the island on the north-west side of the passage bore S. 76° W. "Between these two points,"writes Cook, "we could see no land, so we were in great hopes we had at last found out a passage into the Indian seas, but in order to be better informed I landed with a party of men, accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, upon the island which lies at the S.E. point of the passage. Before and after we anchored we saw a number of people upon this island armed in the same manner as all others we have seen except one man who had a bow and bundle of arrows, the first we have seen on this coast." The man who was differently armed from his companions probably came from one of the islands in Torres Strait, where the inhabitants use bows and arrows.

Cook was to learn later that he was not the first to discover "a passage into Indian seas," for in 1606 Torres had "found a great land in 11°30' S. and sailing on met with a great reef with a channel, many islands and a mainland," this, of course, being Torres Strait and the Barrier Reef. In the preface to Cook's second voyage, however, we find that Cook gives due credit to Torres for the discovery of the strait.

The natives seen by Cook's party at this island-which was afterwards called Possession Island-were not ferocious, although the commander writes: "from the appearance of the people we expected they would have opposed our landing, but as we approached the shore they all made off and left us in peaceable possession of as much of the island as served our purpose."

After landing, according to his usual custom, Cook went up on the highest hill. Of it he says: "It was of no great height, yet no less than twice or thrice the height of the ship's masthead, but I could see no land between S.W. and W.S.W. so that I did not doubt there was a passage." This passage was, as we know, Endeavour Strait, through which Cook passed safely into Torres Strait and thence made his way to Timor.

In his journal he continues: "Having satisfied myself of this great probability of a passage through which I intend going with my ship, and therefore may land no more upon this Eastern coast of New Holland; and on the West [coast] I can make no new discovery, the honour of which belongs to the Dutch navigators. But the Eastern from the latitude of 38° S. down to this place I am confident was never seen or visited by any European before us. And notwithstanding I had in the name of His Majesty taken possession of several places upon this coastInow once more hoisted English colours and in the name of His Majesty King George the III took possession of the whole eastern coast from the above latitude down to this place by the name of New South Wales,[*] together with all the bays, harbours, rivers, and islands situated upon the said coast, after which we fired 3 volleys of small arms which were answered by the like number from the ship."

[* According to the Admiralty copy of Cook's journal.]

Possession Island (Coolbee), on which Cook planted the flag of Britain, thus taking possession of the whole of the east coast of Australia from 38° S., is two and three-quarter miles in length by one and a quarter wide. From the top of the cairn of stones upon which Cook planted his flagstaff there is a magnificent view of numberless islands in Torres Strait.

Taking leave of Cook and the "Endeavour"[*] at the entrance of Endeavour Strait and turning again to the scene of his labours on the east coast we realize the far-reaching effects of his voyage. In these days it is easy to look back and survey the bountiful harvest that has sprung up where he first sowed the seed and to mark how capably his countrymen continued his work of discovery in that southern field of exploration. It is a more difficult task to grasp how the settlement of Australia, tardily undertaken by the British authorities, came successfully to be carried out. Where Cook saw empty bays and harbours fringed with only trees and scrub now rise cities and towns of recognized and growing importance, overlooking waters teeming with busy ships. Arid coasts and barren bushland developed into a fertile soil. A self-supporting colony grew up on the shores of Port Jackson, whence the English colours were carried to lands and islands yet more distant, until at last the whole of Australia became a valuable British possession.

[* The "Endeavour" was sold by the Admiralty for £645 in 1775, and again became a collier, having been originally built as one. Two different accounts are given of her end. One says that she was sold to the French and when England and France were at war, took refuge at Newport, U.S.A., where she eventually was broken up. The other account states that she never left the Thames.]

AUSTRALIAN BOTANY--BANKS TO BROWN

The publication of the results of the botany of Cook's first voyage was long retarded, and illustrations of the Australian plants collected by Banks and Solander in H.M.S. "Endeavour" in 1770 were not published until 1905. Then a large work was printed by order of the trustees of the British Museum showing the original collection, "with determinations in accordance with the nomenclature at present adopted."

In this work are engravings of the collections of those early voyagers, who seem to have gathered an extraordinary number of specimens during their stay on the east coast--the Australian plants alone representing a total of 331. Among them are many beautiful acacias, banksias, goodenias, correas, xanthorrhaeas, and orchids, with which we are now familiar. The Eucalyptus alba and terminalis are included, being the first of their species to be brought home.

Following the landing of the British, the native shrubs, ferns, and palms which grew around Sydney soon became known and were more sought after in England than even those of the Cape. Writing at that period, Labillardière, the French botanist, states that the old adage semper aliquid novi ex Africa was forgotten in the more striking novelties brought from Australia. These new plants greatly puzzled the botanists who first saw them and imagined that they resembled known species from which they proved to be entirely different. Among the earliest specimens to arrive home were Casuarina torulosa and C. stricta, Eucalyptus obliqua and Leptospermum lanigerum--the genus Eucalyptus being established by L'Heritier, a Frenchman who had visited England in 1786-87 and studied the Kew collections. He founded the genus on Eucalyptus obliqua, a species which had been already named Aromadendrum by Dr. Anderson,[*] who was on board H.M.S. Adventure " in Tasmania, and the tree was first brought home in that ship in 1774. The earliest illustrations published of these plants were drawn either from garden or dried specimens, but a little later Dr. White's book appeared containing drawings of birds and animals from life and also of flowers in their wild state.

[* The first writer to call attention to Anderson's plants (apart from Dryander's reference to his MSS.) was Robert Brown. Four genera named by Anderson were Aromadendrum, Collema, Euphocarpus, Ramsaia; respectively Eucalyptus, Goodenia, Correa, and Bauera.--Banks.]

This work, as well as the new varieties sent home by Governor Phillip and his successors, particularly those of Hunter, Paterson, and King, brought the knowledge of Australian flora and also of the fauna into very great prominence. Colonel Paterson was a well-known zoologist and botanist and while he was ever seeking fresh plants to despatch to England, his wife, Elizabeth Paterson, besides showing the keenest interest in his work, made collections of beautiful shells gathered when residing in Norfolk Island, Tasmania, and Sydney. In one of his letters (preserved at Kew) her husband wrote "she has made this her hobby"; and Mrs. Macarthur, wife of Captain John Macarthur, also studied both botany and astronomy in those early days.

Specimens of plants and papers of seeds were brought to England by the botanists of the different expeditions which touched at more distant parts of the continent. Among these collectors were David Nelson, botanist on board the ill-fated "Bounty" which visited Tasmania in 1789; Labillardière, who accompanied the French expedition under d'Entrecasteaux in 1791-93, twice visiting Tasmania; and Archibald Menzies, surgeon of the "Discovery," Vancouver's ship, which anchored along with the "Chatham" in King George's Sound in 1791. In 1795 Cavanilles published descriptions from dried specimens communicated by Don Luis Née and Tadeo Haeneke, botanists accompanying the Spanish expedition under Malaspina, who touched at Sydney in 1793. The first book dealing exclusively with the plants of Australia (here we again quote Labillardière) was Smith's "Specimens of the Botany of New Holland " published in 1793, the second being that of Labillardière himself giving a description of the plants of Tasmania (then known as Van Diemen's Land) and of Western Australia. Labillardière points out that his own work contains descriptions of plants which had been already described by Nelson in 1789.

Among Australian flowers the most notable was the waratah whose vivid carmine colour made it distinguishable upon the most inaccessible mountains. Smith says: "By common consent it is called by that name by both Europeans and natives," and he adds: "It is a favourite with the latter on account of the rich honeyed juice which they sip from its flowers."The illustration of the waratah that appears in his book was made from a coloured drawing--transmitted from Sydney--compared with the dried specimens of the flower which had been sent home by Dr. Mite.

Following in the footsteps of Banks, Anderson, Nelson, and Labillardière there voyaged to the southern continent a botanist the results of whose work surpassed those of all who had preceded him there, both in regard to the number of plants despatched home as in novelty of species. This was Robert Brown, who accompanied Captain Matthew Flinders as botanist on board H.M.S. "Investigator." Brown not only was with Flinders in his exploration of the more distant coasts, but also strove to make himself acquainted with the flora of every known part of New South Wales and Tasmania. The full set of Brown's collection is in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington; it is perhaps the most important of all Australian collections. Indefatigable as he was, Brown left the continent before its great inland territory had been discovered and while there yet remained a vast region still awaiting the explorer and the botanist.

CHAPTER III

THE COMING OF PHILLIP, FOUNDER OF BRITAIN'S FIRST AUSTRALIAN COLONY

"Its acquisition will compensate England for the loss of North America."--Francisco Nunez de San Clemente. [Add. MSS. 19, 264, British Museum, New Holland. Translation from Spanish.]

The story of the founding of the first colony hardly comes within the limits of our subject, for the explorer's theme is discovery; but some reference to the work of the first Governors cannot well be omitted from this book, so we will deal with it as briefly as its importance and its interest will permit.

In January, 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip, hastening before the rest of his fleet to choose a place for his settlement, reached the shores of New South Wales. Accompanying him on board H.M. armed tender "Supply" were a few officers and the most capable engineers and workmen his fleet could command. They had rounded the southern shores of Tasmania and now followed in Cook's track along the east coast. Phillip had been set a great task, for the British Government had ordered him to form a penal settlement at this great distance from home; his voyage had been very long and hazardous, and he had almost accomplished it. Yet even on the very threshold of the country that he had been sent to colonize his courage might well have failed him when he beheld the vast, bare, uncultivated land which Cook had discovered.

Its unending coast-line trended strangely;[*] sometimes disclosing features singularly stern and hard, as at Cape Dromedary, Point Upright, and Longnose, at others softening into low white sandhills and spreading in wide beaches of sand where an occasional cabbage-palm was visible; while higher up in the background a line of blue haze veiled the distant horizon. Between the line of blue haze and the shore were forests of eucalyptus trees whose leaves of olive green, and the smoke rising from native fires, did not escape the notice of those on board the "Supply."

[* Phillip saw more of the coast than Hunter did in this voyage, and he wrote from Sydney in 1790: "From what I saw when I came on the coast between this harbour [Port Jackson] and South Cape I make no doubt several good harbours will be found."--"Historical Records of New South Wales," Vol. I, Part ii, P. 358.]

As from the deck Phillip watched his ship draw nearer in to the shore he must have realized that at the end of his journey his work was only just beginning. Beyond wood and water and the native plants seen by the "Endeavour's" people none could tell what the country might possess. Before him stretched the Unknown. Behind him in the fleet were, in all, 1,163 persons, the majority of whom were prisoners. The most urgent problem confronting him, therefore, was how to supply the immediate needs of so many people in this strange land. This alone may well have caused him anxiety.

Since the "Endeavour" had traced her lonely course along that distant coast no ship had visited the south-eastern part of Australia, and the natives had probably forgotten all about Cook's visit until, early on the morning of January 18, 1788, the "Supply" arrived.

Phillip was greatly disappointed with what he saw of Botany Bay. The green meadows described by Banks were found to be barren swamps and sterile sands, doubtless owing to a drought that had befallen the country; and the bay itself, although extensive, was exposed to the full sweep of the easterly winds, which blew violently and rolled a heavy sea against the shore.

On entering the bay the "Supply" was compelled to anchor a little distance from land. Some forty natives fishing near the south shore, being greatly alarmed at the vessel's appearance, hastily dragged their canoes out of the water, placed them on their backs, and ran off with them into the bush. Meanwhile the women saw to the safety of their children and the fishing-tackle. A few of the more courageous men remained behind and ventured to the water's edge, brandishing their spears and boomerangs and shouting "Warra, Warra!--Go away, Go away!" exactly as these people had done eighteen years before when they had watched the arrival of Captain Cook.

On the north side of the bay only six or seven natives were observed, so it was at this point that, during the day, Phillip, with Lieutenant H. L. Ball, the "Supply's" commander, Lieutenant King of the "Sirius," and Lieutenant William Dawes of the Royal Marines prepared to land. In consequence of the hostility of a small band of blacks who kept up a continuous attack with stones, Captain Phillip, to avoid a quarrel, ordered the sailors to row along shore until the boat came to a spot where he thought he might find water. The search was unsuccessful, and about sunset the party re-embarked and rowed back to the part of the beach opposite which the "Supply" had anchored.

Several natives armed with spears and waddies had collected there, and were gazing intently at the vessel. Phillip beckoned to them and made signs that he wanted water, but they apparently were lost in amazement. Growing impatient at last Phillip, handing his musket to the man nearest him, sprang out of the boat, and walked towards the black men, holding out presents to show his friendly intentions. Seeing that the Governor frequently waved his hand to his own party to retire, at last one of the oldest blacks came forward, and, giving his spear to a younger man, advanced alone. When the natives understood what he wanted they laid down their arms and led the Governor and his party to a rivulet of fresh water. These natives seemed quite peaceable; but, on Phillip's return to the beach, others gathered there who resented the landing, and, in order to reach the boat, it became necessary to fire off a gun to disperse them.

On the following day, January 19th, three transports arrived and reported that the hay for the cattle on board was almost exhausted. A party was consequently sent to cut grass, and Captain Phillip made a tour of the south side of the bay. In this expedition he again saw the inhabitants, and again advanced alone to meet them. A green branch was used by both parties as a sign of friendship, and the blacks threw down their spears to show that they were amicably disposed. Meanwhile the sailors gave them presents of coloured flannel, red baize, and beads, with which they adorned themselves. They were excellent mimics and could imitate the marines to perfection. The sound of the fife delighted them, but the beating of the drum sent them running into the bush, and they would not return until it ceased. The headgear of the strangers also pleased them, and several hats were stolen off their owners' heads, and whenever an Englishman took off his hat they gave shouts of approval.

"Heavy in clouds came on the day" (January 20th) of Captain Hunter's arrival in H.M.S. "Sirius" with the remainder of the transports. "To us," wrote Captain Tench, "it was a great and important day and I hope will mark the foundation...of an Empire."

The harbour being considered too exposed, the Governor decided to look for a more convenient landing-place, and set out on January 21st, accompanied by Hunter and two other officers, in three open boats to examine the coast to the northward, intending to reach "what Captain Cook had called Broken Bay.[*] Another opening, marked Port Jackson on his chart, however, first attracted notice, and Phillip ordered his seamen to explore the inlet within. At first sight it presented a rather unpromising appearance, having "high, rugged, and perpendicular cliffs" guarding the entrance on either side.

[* Hunter's Journal.]

In passing between the heads the boats were greeted with wild cries from the natives on the rocks above. Others were observed in the coves, who, on seeing the strangers, left the shore and joined those higher up in evident alarm. The black men followed in the wake of the visitors for some distance, keeping close to the edge of the cliffs, but the long, heavy swell of the ocean gradually sank, and the shouts of the natives grew fainter as early in the afternoon the boats ran into smooth water, and the seamen saw stretching in front of them a wide and picturesque harbour with bays and coves and rocky points, many being covered with green foliage down to the water's edge. On the hills inland tall trees grew, with olive-green leaves resembling those seen upon the coast to the southward.

Captain Phillip was struck with the beauty of the scene, and when he found a safe cove possessing both wood and water chose this as the site of his settlement. The cove was given the name of Sydney in honour of Thomas Townshend, Lord Sydney, then Home Secretary in Pitt's Government. Two days were spent in surveying the various coves, and during that time the inhabitants became well disposed toward the white people, and a chief who went with Phillip to inspect his camp gave evidence of intelligence and courage. At another point a party of natives waded into the water to receive the gifts offered them and showed such manly trustfulness in the British sailors that the Governor afterwards gave the spot the name of Manly Cove.

On the 23rd Phillip rejoined his people and directions were given to the fleet to prepare to proceed to Port Jackson. Leaving orders with Hunter to follow him next day, the Governor on the 25th sailed in the "Supply" back to this harbour. We find one of the most interesting descriptions of subsequent events and of the landing at Sydney in the journal of Daniel Southwell, midshipman in H.M.S. "Sirius." He writes:

About January 24th, to our great surprise, we saw two strange sail in the offing...a current set them bodily to the southward and, together with a contrary wind...kept them from coming in until the 26th...They proved the 'Boussole' and 'Astrolabe,' Monsieur de la Perouse."

The French ships had last left Samoa, where at the island of Maouna they had lost l'Angle the "Astrolabe's" commander, with several other officers and seamen, and two long boats, in an attack made by the natives while searching for water. La Pe~rouse had sailed to New South Wales guided by Cook's chart, and had anchored off Norfolk Island, but could not land on account of the surf.

On first seeing the British ships, on January 24th--when he tried in vain to speak to them--La Pe~rouse wrote: "We saw this day a sight entirely new to us--a British fleet lying at anchor, the colours and pendants of the ships...plainly distinguishable. Europeans are all fellow-countrymen at such a distance from home, and we felt the greatest impatience to get to an anchorage, but the next day was so hazy and our ships sailed too badly to overcome both the force of wind and currents, so we did not get in until the 26th at nine in the morning."

As soon as the French ships had anchored, the first lieutenant and a midshipman from H.M.S. "Sirius" went on board the "Boussole" bearing a message from Captain Hunter, offering in the name of the Governor all the services in his power, but regretting his inability to furnish provisions, ammunition, or sails, since his convoy was on the point of departure. Clonard, second in command, was at once despatched to tender the thanks of the French commodore to Captain Hunter--who was already apeak with his topsails hoisted--and to intimate that the wants of the French did not extend beyond wood and water, of which they should find plenty in the bay. The first lieutenant did not inform La Pe~rouse whither the convoy was bound, but several launches and small boats were under sail, and it was conjectured that the distance must indeed be short to render it unnecessary to hoist them into the ships. An English sailor, less cautious than the rest, informed the crew of the "Boussole" that they were only bound to Port Jackson, a few miles away, where ships could anchor "within pistol shot of the land in water as smooth as a basin."

After thus exchanging greetings with the French, Hunter's fleet left for Sydney. Mr. Southwell continues: "We weighed for Port Jackson and came to there the same evening in as snug a place as London River. Nothing could be more picturesque than the appearance of the country while running up this extraordinary harbour. The land on all sides...is covered with trees...Towards the water's edge craggy rocks and wonderful declivities are everywhere to be seen. A number of small islands are interspersed...some lying in the middle of the stream...and although extremely rocky are covered with trees, most of which are evergreen. The white sides of the eminences with very little help from fancy have at a distance the appearance of grand seats and superb palaces...The natives too formed a part in the landscape, for some had posted themselves on the overhanging cliffs and brandished their lances...We ran two leagues...and came to a place called Sydney Cove."

On this evening, January 26th, the people were assembled at a point where the "Supply's" passengers who had arrived with the Governor had first landed in the morning. Here a flagstaff was erected and a Union Jack displayed while the marines fired volleys, between which the healths of His Majesty and the Royal Family with success to the new Colony were cordially drunk.

Not all the ships came into Sydney Cove that evening; some had to anchor out in the stream.[*] On the following day (.January 27th), however, the remainder of the fleet drew closer inshore and the landing began. The first undertaking was to clear the ground and erect houses, the framework of which had been brought from England. Meanwhile the settlers encamped in tents and under the trees, "in a country resembling the woody parts of a deer park," and, at first, there was a good deal of confusion mingled with amusement at the novel experiences. In one place were "a party cutting down wood, another setting up a forge, a third dragging a load of provisions; here stood an officer pitching his tent with his troops parading on one side of him and a cook's fire blazing furiously on the other," every one animated with a desire to do his utmost in helping to found the settlement.

[* See log-books of the transports.]

On Sunday, February 3rd, Divine Service was held under the shade of a large tree (it was a very hot day), at which the Rev. Richard Johnson, chaplain to the new colony, officiated.

The plan of the town," says Southwell, "is laying out, in which I believe Mr. Dawes is particularly engaged. Whether a name is decided I cannot tell, but have heard Albion mentioned." This name we know was not finally adopted, and a note in the MS. says that Sydney was the title decided upon by the Governor for the town as well as for the cove upon which he had first bestowed it.

In the meantime La Pe~rouse was busily careening his ships at Botany Bay. At first few visits were exchanged. But there were on board the "Boussole" and "Astrolabe" some of the first scientists of France, and soon a pleasant friendship sprang up between the representatives of the two nations. During their stay the French officers pitched their tents on shore, set up a small observatory, and put together the frames of two large boats which they had brought from France. Round their camp a stockade, guarded by two small guns, was thrown up as a protection against the attacks of the natives.

At this time La Perouse and his officers penned the letters to their friends in France which were fated to be the last received from those on board the ships. Perhaps not without a shade of disappointment La Pe~rouse wrote of his arrival: "We were preceded by the English only five days. To the most distinguished politeness they have added every other service in their power, and it was with regret we watched them depart for Port Jackson...Our boats are already on the stocks; by the end of the month I expect they will be launched. We are only 10 miles distant from the English by land and consequently have frequent intercourse with them." One realizes too the note of sadness in another letter when, possibly with l'Angle's fate in his mind, La Pe~rouse wrote: "I have arrived here without a sick man on board either of the ships; I have formed here a new kind of entrenchment with palisades so as to build our boats in security; this precaution was necessary against the Indians of New Holland who... threw spears at us after receiving our presents and experiencing our kindness. My opinion of uncivilized races has long been formed and this voyage will confirm it. I have been too often in danger not to know them."

Among the first visitors to the " Boussole " and the " Astrolabe" were Lieutenant King and Lieutenant Dawes, who came round in the cutter from Sydney on February 1st, in the morning. They dined with the commodore and after inspecting the scientific collections in the ships were entertained at the camp on shore. On February 8th another party of naval officers came overland from Sydney to visit the French. At the same time Clonard went to Port Jackson, taking with him correspondence to be forwarded to the French Ambassador in London. Quite a little entente cordiale resulted from these visits, but soon afterwards a gloom fell over the French encampment when on February 17th Pere Receveur, one of the chaplains, died from the effects of wounds he had received at the hands of the Samoans. He was buried close to the observatory at the foot of a large tree, on which were nailed two pieces of board with an inscription bearing his name and the date of his death. Two days later Captain Phillip sent two horses over to the French camp to conduct La Pe~rouse and his suite to Sydney. This is the only instance mentioned of the French commodore visiting the Governor, but it is probable that he came to the settlement more than once.

On March 11th the "Boussole" and the "Astrolabe" weighed anchor and sailed to the northwards. For forty years no news of them reached Europe; then wreckage was found at Vanikoro and information afterwards obtained which left no doubt that both vessels had been lost there and that many of the Frenchmen in endeavouring to escape from the waves were killed by the natives.

To return to the settlement at Sydney. The Governor's canvas house had been erected on the east side of the cove: the military had encamped at the head and most of the prisoners were placed on the west side. As winter approached barracks for the soldiers were begun. Capital bricks were made at somewhat less than a league from the camp, and this spot, though rather a scanty village, "became a pleasant walk." Gardening, farming, and cultivation of the soil occupied the attention of every one. A wharf for the convenience of landing stores was constructed; the long-boats were employed in bringing cabbage-trees from the lower parts of the harbour, where they grew in abundance, and they were found fit for use in erecting temporary huts, the posts and planks being made of the pine of the country, the sides and ends fitted with lengths of cabbage trees plastered with clay, and the roofs generally being thatched with grass.

Presently Sydney took shape. According to a description of it handed down to us by one who lived there in November, 1788, the town at first did not present an attractive picture. "We have now two streets," says the writer, "if four rows of the most miserable huts you can possibly conceive deserve that name. Windows they have none, as from the Governor's house, now nearly finished, no glass could be spared, so that lattices of twigs are made by our people to supply their places. At the extremity of the lines, where since our arrival the dead are buried, there is a place called the church yard."

The curious contrast between the "miserable huts" constructed by the settlers and the "superb palaces" of Nature's making seen by Southwell must have lent the Sydney of those early days a very strange appearance. But only for a time were the huts seen there. As the population increased the streets were lengthened and more substantially built houses with pretty gardens supplanted the huts. The new homes, set amid the exquisite surroundings of harbour scenery on the one side and the wildernesses of bushland on the other, soon gave to Sydney that charm which ever since has distinguished it.[*]

[* Half a century later Captain Lort Stokes thus wrote of the town: "A noble city has sprung up as if by magic which will ever serve as a monument of English enterprise."--"Stokes' Voyage," Vol. 1, P. 244.]

If at first the town was small, the dimensions of the colony placed under Phillip's control were enormous. He was instructed to administer territory defined as including "all the east coast of Australia from Cape York to South Cape (at the southern extremity of Tasmania), its western boundary being constituted by the 135th degree of east longitude." The Governor's commission read publicly when he landed had proclaimed him ruler of this immense region, embracing as it did nearly half the continent under the name of New South Wales.

The only portions seen or surveyed up to the time of Phillip's coming were the places Torres and the Dutch had sighted in the north; the shores of the east coast traced by Cook, and, in addition to Tasman's discoveries in Tasmania, Marion Bay, where du Fresne had anchored; Adventure Bay and the islands, and parts of the Tasmanian coast-line, which had been charted by Furneaux and Cook, so that there was a great field ripe for discovery. As soon as he had seen the work of building a town started and, when the land was cleared, the planting of wheat, barley, and rice which had been brought from Rio and the Cape, Phillip led his people forth on their path of exploration.

In 1788 he defined the boundaries round a portion of the settlement which was named the county of Cumberland. We are told that this comprised the portion lying between the northernmost point of Broken Bay and the southernmost point of Botany Ray, extending westward to the Lansdowne and Carmarthen Hills, which he had seen and named during his inland excursions. He also minutely surveyed the harbours of Botany Bay and Port Jackson, and went several times to Broken Bay in order to examine its different branches. Charts of all these harbours were sent home by him to the Admiralty.

It had been arranged that the settlement should never be left without twelve months' provisions, but in consequence of H.M.S. "Guardian," a 44-gun ship under the command of Lieutenant Riou, after leaving the Cape on December 23, 1789, being nearly wrecked on her way to Sydney, the colony was brought to the verge of starvation. By skilful seamanship Riou took the helpless vessel back to Table Bay, though he wrote home "the ship is past recovery."[*] Meanwhile in New South Wales much of the valuable live stock imported had been killed, and not until the arrival of the "Lady Juliana" on June 3, 1790, were the meagre rations of the hungry people increased.[**] H.M.S. "Gorgon" had been at once commissioned for the relief of the colony after the "Guardian's" loss was reported at home, and on September 21st she reached Port Jackson, convoying a fleet of ten transports, when Captain Parker, her commander, with Captain King, newly appointed Governor of Norfolk Island, landed with dispatches for Governor Phillip.

[* "The Gorgon" took most of her stores from the Cape, leaving nothing but her anchors.]

[** The arrival of the "Neptune," "Surprise," and "Scarborough" in 1790 relieved the distress.]

The "Gorgon's" voyage added to the knowledge of the East Coast. Some of those in command of the ships in passing up the coast entered harbours which until then were quite unknown. Lieutenant Bowen, of the "Atlantic," discovered an inlet where Cook had imagined that the shore would form a bay and had named its northern point Longnose.

Bowen took the "Atlantic" into the bay and found that its latitude was 35°15' S. Its entrance was from a mile to a mile and a half wide: "the southernmost point an island [Bowen Island] almost connected with the mainland; the north point pretty high and rising perpendicularly out of the sea."[*] The north point at first was taken for a long, low island, but afterwards it was ascertained to be a peninsula. After Bowen had passed through the entrance he found himself in "a very capacious basin three or four miles wide and five or six miles in length," with regular soundings; of it he wrote: "The west side and head of the bay was a white sandy beach, the eastern shore is bold and rocky, and there is a small shoal in the middle of the entrance." Bowen came upon a native canoe upon the beach and saw kangaroos, but could not find fresh water. He named this harbour Jervis Bay in honour of Admiral Sir John Jervis.

[* Hunter's Journal, which quotes Bowen's description of it.]

Another captain, Matthew Weatherhead, anchored his ship "Matilda" "for two days inside an island off Tasmania in 42°15' S.and 148½* E." Weatherhead was one of those energetic seamen who took a delight in making known the geography of the South Pacific. He appears to have taken the "Matilda" into an inlet "within" Schouten Island, which, he says, "afforded shelter for five or six ships."

Schouten Island lies off the eastern coast of Tasmania, and is about ten miles from it. Weatherhead reached this island, which had been discovered by Tasman in 1642, and seen by Furneaux in 1774, on July 27, 1791. Neither the Dutch nor the English navigator had stopped to investigate its shores, both imagining it to be part of a group. Only a narrow strait separates the island from Freycinet Peninsula to the northward. The French on coming there in 1802 called the strait Géographe Strait, after Baudin's ship, and named the wide space between Schouten Island and the Tasmanian mainland Fleurieu Bay, now Oyster Bay, imagining that they were the first to see it but Weatherhead had brought the "Matilda" to an anchorage there, and on his arrival in Sydney Captain Tench realizing that he had made a discovery, questioned him concerning it. In answer to Tench's inquiries[*] Weatherhead likened the bay to Spithead, and said that he had found plenty of fresh water on shore, and that it was sandy and in many places full of craggy rocks. The only animals that he saw were three kangaroos. Although he met with none of the natives, he had seen several huts like those of Port Jackson, in one of which lay a spear. In honour of his ship Weatherhead named the place Matilda Bay.

[* Tench's questions and Weatherhead's replies appear in full in an "Account of Port Jackson," by Captain Watkin Tench, 1793, P. 137.]

Captain Tench, as though afraid lest anyone should doubt the authenticity of the above discoveries, wrote as follows on the last page of his "Account of Port Jackson": "The two discoveries of Port Jervis and Matilda Bay may yet be wanting in the maps of the coast. My account of their geographic situation except possibly in the exact longitude of the latter...may be safely depended upon."

Weatherhead met with another island off Cape Dromedary, where he thought two or three ships might easily find shelter. He probably sighted the small bight on the west coast of Montagu Island (seen by the "Surprise"), where small ships can take refuge. In the month of the following November he visited Jervis Bay and examined Bowen's discoveries, of which he made an "Eye Draught " (which we reproduce), at the same time remarking, " There is exceeding good anchorage here."[*]

[* "Adm. Sec. In Letters: 2309."]

Alexander Dalrymple made a copy of Weatherhead's sketch, to which he appends the note, "In the Matilda many natives were seen and canoes on the beach; the natives were armed with spears but they could have no communication with them." Dalrymple also shows the mouth of a creek on the west side of the bay and marks the words "Fresh Water" on the beach south of it. He calls a point yet farther to the southward Cabbage Tree Point, and on the east side of the bay he gives the names (from north to south) of Long Point, Long Beach (the "Matilda's" anchorage), Cawood Point, and Rocky Point, these being the first names given in Jervis Bay.

No less than five of the "Gorgon's" fleet, including the "Matilda," were whaling ships. Having seen whales on their way up the Australian coast the masters obtained Phillips's permission to try for a cargo of oil off there, hoping to be able to establish a fishery in New South Wales. Captain Melville of Messrs. Enderbys' ship "Britannia" (followed by the "William and Ann") was the first to put to sea on October 25th, and killed seven whales on that day, although he secured only two. Another master killed nine whales and secured five.

The other captains, Colonel Collins thought, were more desirous of obtaining a knowledge of the harbours on the coast than of keeping at sea long enough to be able to determine whether a fishery might be successfully established. Weatherhead was one of these. He landed during November from a boat in a bay north of Sydney, "about six miles southward of Port Stephens, where the seine was hauled and a quantity of fish taken."[*] Captain Nichols brought the "Salamander" to an anchorage in Port Stephens, "until then not visited by anyone." He made an eye sketch of the harbour and some of its arms; Salamander Bay being then placed on the chart.

[* Morna Point is 4½ miles south of Port Stephens, the land between Morna Point and Newcastle Harbour forming a bay known as Newcastle Bight.]

Weatherhead left Port Jackson for Peru on December 28th. One dark night his ship grounded upon Mururoa or Vairaatea (the Osnaburg Island of Carteret). In 1826 Captain Beechey in the "Blossom" saw remains of the vessel, and was able to identify the shoal as the scene of the "Matilda's" wreck. He named it Matilda Shoal. Weatherhead and his ship's company reached Tahiti safely in their boats.

When the Port Jackson natives saw that the white people had taken up a permanent residence in their land their behaviour changed. For some time they withdrew from the settlement and appeared to spend their time in fishing and hunting the kangaroo, called by them "patagorang." Nor would they ever visit Sydney. Captain Phillips therefore determined to take one of their number prisoner, thinking that if the man were treated kindly he would induce his countrymen to place more confidence in Europeans. The first man to be captured was Arabanoo (named at first Manly after the spot where he was taken). He became a general favourite but did not live long. Then two sick children were brought into the hospital for treatment. Later in November, 1789, two other natives were seized on the north side of the harbour; some of the seamen, meeting them on the beach, pulled them into the boat and brought them back to the settlement. One was a chief named Colebe, the other a younger man called Bennilong. Both were kept at Government House, where they were well treated and given suitable clothes. Colebe soon afterwards made his escape, carrying off the whole of his wardrobe. Bennilong was given his liberty in April, 1790, and at first did not seem inclined to leave the Governor's residence; but one evening he too disappeared without saying good-bye to his white friends. The fishing boats subsequently met these two men in the harbour, and afterwards, although they came armed with either spears or clubs, the natives visited Sydney, and from that time a better feeling sprang up between the white and black races.

Up to this time the homes of the colonists had been erected within a comparatively small space round the shores of the cove, but on the arrival of fresh ships bringing more prisoners and settlers, Phillip turned his attention to the formation of fresh settlements; one made in 1788 at Parramatta soon became a place of importance. On November 2nd, with three officers and a party of marines, the Governor visited the spot and named it Rosehill, after Mr. George Rose, then Secretary to the Treasury. Gradually small hamlets began to spring up amid the surrounding inland country.

Fortunately Phillip remained long enough in New South Wales to see his colony firmly established and to penetrate many parts of the interior. (An account of these explorations will be found in another Chapter.) But the anxiety and cares of office at last weakened his health. It is not unlikely that the beginning of his illness was due to the scanty fare that he had lived upon in the time of famine, when the Governor, "from a motive which did him immortal honour," gave up to the public store flour set aside for his own use, since he did not wish for more at his table than the daily ration issued to each person. His health continued to decline, and at length he petitioned the Home Government to be allowed to return to England. Reluctantly leave was granted and he left in the "Atlantic" on December 11, 1792, amid the regrets of the whole community.

The Founder of the first colony, he will ever be remembered as one who, in the words of the first Governor-General, laid its foundations "deep and wide." To have reached the bare shores of Australia safely with his fleet was a triumph of seamanship, but in a space of five years where all was wilderness to have moulded and left behind him a British colony fast becoming self-supporting was a feat that only few other men could have accomplished.

Captain John Hunter was appointed to succeed him.

Between the departure of Captain Phillip and the arrival of Hunter there was an interval of about two years and nine months, during which period the settlement was administered successively by the senior officers of the New South Wales Corps (an irregular force raised at home for special service in the colony). The first of these, Major Francis Grose, who practically suppressed civil government after Phillip left, thereby creating a serious set-back to all the former progress, continued in office until December, 1794, when he resigned and sailed for England. His successor, as Lieutenant-Governor, was Captain William Paterson, another officer of this regiment. He is best noted for the energy he displayed in endeavouring to penetrate the mountains, in forwarding to Europe specimens of the botany and natural history of the country, and in protecting the settlers from the raids of the natives when they became troublesome.

There is also evidence that Major Grose and his brother-officers, although they have been greatly blamed for the disappointing condition into which the colony relapsed at this time, were not unmindful of its general needs, as the following extract from a letter written by Captain Paterson (before he became Lieutenant-Governor) to a friend[*] at home will show. It is dated Port Jackson, August 23, 1794: "The 'Britannia,' Captain Raven, is taken up by the officers for the purpose of bringing horses and cattle from the Cape of Good Hope, and by her I have sent a box of specimens for you and directed Captain Raven to leave them in charge of Masson if there be no ship ready to sail while he is there. In return I hope you will not forget me in the garden seeds and farming seeds such as clover, horse beans, lucerne, and such as you think will stand the long voyage. At present I have only a garden of 6 acres...My stock increases fast. I have a large stock of goats, a cow and a calf, and expect great things by the ' Britannia,' at least I ought for my share is £400."

[* Forsyth.]

Then Paterson goes on to tell us more about the colony: "Everything looks well and the country not that desert which many of the first settlers supposed. We are now independent of flour, and in a few years I have little doubt but that meat will be in plenty. We find, as the country gets cleared, the soil is found to be better for wine and corn. I think it will exceed the Cape. The encouragement Major Grose has given settlers of all descriptions has certainly done wonders. From this place to the new settlement at the Hawkesbury, a man can walk in eight hours and a good road made all the way, so that we have an intercourse with that [place], Toongabby and Parramatta in the course of one day..."

In 1795, when the second Governor, Captain Hunter, arrived and took over the Colony from Paterson, its internal affairs again began to flourish. The fortunes of the land improved, forests were cleared and cultivated, and the town showed signs of progress. New settlers, too, in increasing numbers made their homes at Parramatta and in the Hawkesbury River district at Portland Head.

The first book ever printed in Australia, "The General Standing Orders of New South Wales, 1802," states that Sydney and Parramatta or Rosehill were first divided into two parishes, Sydney being called the Parish of St. Phillip in honour of Governor Phillip, and Parramatta the Parish of St. John in honour of Captain John Hunter. Sydney Parish included Petersham, Bulanaming, Concord, and Liberty Plains (named in 1793), while Parramatta Parish included Banks Town, Prospect Hill, Toongabby, Seven Hills, Castle Hill, Eastern Farm, Field of Mars (the name given by Phillip to land granted by him to eight marines), Northern Boundary, The Ponds, and Kissing Point. Each of these places was of course little more than a hamlet and only consisted of a few settlers' houses.

The Hawkesbury or St. George's Parish was made the third parish of the new colony during the rule of Major Grose in 1794. In this region six cattle, some of the herd first brought to the colony, which had strayed into the bush in June, 1788, had sought a retreat, and here they or their descendants were discovered in 1795. The country over which they ranged became known under the name of the Cowpastures, and it not only formed a happy hunting ground for the Governors, but also supplied them with the rare luxury of fresh meat. At Greenhills, its principal town, which was renamed Windsor, Captain John Hunter spent much of his time. There exists an old sketch of the Cowpastures known as John Hunter's Chart, made in 1797, on which is shown a lagoon with the name Black Swan Lake, and at some distance from Mount Taurus, where a bull had been killed, various inscriptions such as "here a bull was seen" or "beautiful country." The chart shows that Hunter, as did Phillip before him, went exploring inland.

Captain Hunter also made expeditions along the coast; in Phillip's time he had charted Port Jackson and surveyed several rivers; he now initiated fresh discoveries, and tried to build a ship of 160 tons, which, however, he could not finish, "but she stood in the frame upwards of two years exposed to the weather without the smallest decay." He brought to the notice of the Home Government the native flax, the indigo which grew "spontaneously," and the astringent bark of trees well adapted for tanning, as well as the abundant iron ore, and, what was most encouraging, the equally abundant coal.

e left for Europe in September, 1800, and, on taking his departure, placed the administration in the hands of Captain King, who, when Hunter did not return, was appointed to succeed him.

Governor King's energy gave an impetus to discovery both on land and sea, and his efforts to promote British influence extended far beyond the limits of the colony that he ruled.

remembering the proximity of Tasmania and New Zealand, and, thinking it unwise to leave the shores of the former island unpeopled and open to the designs of other nations, he impressed his views upon the Home Government, with the result that settlers were sent to Tasmania, and a house--possibly the first ever built in New Zealand--was erected for officials in the Bay of Islands. King retired in August, 1806.

The new Governor, Captain William Bligh, was a Cornishman like his predecessor, and had seen service in various parts of the world. He had fought with distinction at the Dogger Bank in 1781, at Gibraltar in 1782; and, in 1801, under Lord Nelson, he commanded the "Glatton" at the battle of Copenhagen. In 1787 he had proceeded in the "Bounty" to Tahiti to collect bread-fruit, and was the victim of the well-known mutiny. His second voyage on the same errand was a complete success, and to the British Government he seemed to be the very man to pilot the young settlement into quiet waters. Bligh, however, brave man though he had proved himself, and superb seaman, as all his voyages will testify, was not a success as Governor. He soon ruffled the military officials and roused a commotion which he could not control, with the result that, after placing him under arrest, they kept him a prisoner within his own house for twelve months. He returned to England in 1809 and in turn was succeeded by Colonel Paterson, formerly of the New South Wales Corps, who arrived from Tasmania.

Paterson left the colony in 1810. He was one of the best and the most popular of the lieutenant-governors, but his kindliness of heart often prevented him from doing useful work for fear of giving offence. On leaving Port Jackson ten boats crowded with people followed his pinnace to the ship, "cheering him all the way." He died during his homeward voyage.

Lachlan Macquarie, who succeeded him as the new Governor, came of an old Scottish family settled at Ulva. He had seen service in America, in India, and at Alexandria. In 1807 he was appointed to take command of the 73rd, and in 1809 received orders to proceed to New South Wales with that regiment, being promoted to the rank of major-general while he held the reins of government.

Macquarie's rule, which extended over a period of twelve years, was of the greatest importance to the colony. He had been invested by the home authorities with larger powers than any previous Governor with the exception of Phillip, and had been given a free hand and adequate means to carry out any measures which he might deem expedient. Among his reforms perhaps none were more beneficial than those which affected the port itself.

One of his methods was to impose taxes upon native products brought into the harbour and landed at Sydney by whalers and traders from different islands in the Pacific. The harbour had become for many of these vessels nothing more nor less than a dumping ground; and, owing to the fact that its depth of water allowed ships to discharge their cargoes in the very heart of the town, wharves and stages sprang up in all directions round the cove. Macquarie insisted that these buildings should be constructed with some uniformity, and enforced regulations for the greater convenience of shipping and commerce. His judicious development of its trade raised Port Jackson to the position of an important and thriving seaport. Among other taxes he imposed the following:

On each ton of béche-de-mer, £5; on each ton of sandalwood, pearl shell, or sperm oil, £2 10s.; on each spar from New Zealand, £1, as well as various duties upon cedar, kangaroo skins, and seal skins. A flourishing trade had long since been established in these commodities so that the new taxation considerably increased the revenue.

His insight also told him that roads and bridges, being the natural ducts of a new country, should precede rather than follow colonization, and with prison labour at his command, by means of chain-gangs, he made roads inland wherever it was possible to do so, making them so thoroughly that many constructed during his rule are still used. He encouraged the exploration of the interior and visited each settlement in turn, going by sea to those at a distance, and endeavouring to effect improvements wherever it was in his power. In consequence there was not a pioneer in the country who did not in his heart thank the British Government for placing such a man at the head of the infant colony.

Macquarie's activities were not confined to the outlying country and the adjacent settlements. In Sydney his energies found scope in all directions. He found the town composed of small houses or huts scattered about or huddled together according to no organized plan. Under his hand it began to be a fair city with well-ordered streets and imposing public buildings. He tried also not only to rebuild the town but to beautify it by planting gardens and by making walks and roads wherever they would command views of the shores of Port Jackson. A lighthouse possessing a revolving light was erected by him at South Head. Mrs. Macquarie had the drive in the Domain laid out after her own plan, and on the extreme point overlooking the harbour a sort of natural seat has ever since been known as "Mrs. Macquarie's Chair." The Governor and his wife bade farewell to New South Wales in December, 1821.

He died in London two and a half years later, and was buried at his old home in Scotland.

CHAPTER IV

MARITIME DISCOVERIES. PORT JACKSON

Even before Macquarie's coming to Port Jackson, Sydney was looked upon as an important British outpost in the southern hemisphere. Thence while the city was still in its infancy had set out the exploring expeditions of Hunter, Shortland, Waterhouse, Bass, Flinders, Grant, Murray, Curtoys, and Symons, and later of King, often with only such equipment as the colony could provide. True successors to the English sailors of the Elizabethan age, their voyages have placed some of these seamen among Britain's most noted discoverers. They served in the naval ships, of which it has been justly said that they helped to build up the country. Considering the amount of work done, there were not many vessels employed, and only a close study of the instructions issued to the men who held commissions in them can throw even a little light on the patience and skill with which they first explored not only New South Wales but also the adjacent seas and territories.

the most fascinating story of early Australia is to be found in their log-books and journals. In these the daily events are recorded, set down at the time they occurred in a matter-of-fact, sailor-like way--the writer possibly not realizing that he was entering information which was to complete a link in the chain of the discovery of a continent. Yet these bare facts seem to unfold a clearer message for us than anything the most ornate language could convey.

Following the "Endeavour," which, as we have seen, discovered the east coast, and the "Sirius" and "Supply," which convoyed the first fleet to southern waters, the ships whose names are perhaps most familiar in connexion with the early exploration and settlement of Australia are the "Reliance," "Investigator," "Buffalo," "Lady Nelson," and Mermaid."

"SIRIUS"

The "Sirius" was a frigate of about 520 tons and mounted twenty guns. Built as the "Berwick," she was intended for the East India Company; meeting with an accident by fire she was purchased by the Admiralty and renamed. Captain Hunter was appointed to command her with the rank of post-captain, but, when the vessel was assigned to Captain Phillip for his expedition, Hunter for a time was second in command. On the colonists being landed he resumed his post as captain of the ship. Unless the story is true that Spanish ringbolts have been found embedded in the rocks at Sydney, the "Supply" and "Sirius" (with the vessels forming the fleet) were the first European ships to anchor in Port Jackson. In September, 1788, the "Sirius" was sent to the Cape of Good Hope to obtain a supply of fresh provisions for the settlement. It was a rather remarkable voyage, for on her way thither she steered a course southward of New Zealand to Cape Horn, endeavouring to keep as much as possible in a parallel between the tracks of the "Resolution" and the "Adventure," and on November 24, 1788, before rounding the Cape, reached the high latitude Of 57°31' S. The "Sirius" spent twenty-eight days amid the ice and passed through what Hunter describes as a lane or street of ice-islands varying in magnitude from the size of a country church to two or three miles in circumference. Many were half black, apparently with earth, to which they had adhered; others were tinged a beautiful sea green.

On January 2nd Hunter arrived at Table Bay and came back to Sydney in May, 1789. When the colonists were reduced to starvation during the famine the "Sirius" received orders to bring a supply of provisions from China and to call at Norfolk Island on her way. She left Port Jackson on March 6, 1790, and was destined never to return, for on reaching Norfolk Island on March 19th she struck a reef of coral rocks while trying to enter Sydney Bay and became a complete wreck. Over one hundred years later her anchor was recovered and is now a "Monument" in Macquarie Street, Sydney.

Captain Phillip then hired a Dutch snow called the "Waaksamheyd" ("Vigilance") to bring the officers and men home, and on his arrival in England Hunter was as usual placed on trial by court martial for the loss of his ship, but was honourably acquitted. At this time (October, 1793) we find him on board H.M.S. "Queen Charlotte" under Sir Roger Curtis at Torbay. He sailed to take up his appointment as Governor of New South Wales on February 15, 1795, in command of H.M.S. "Reliance," Captain Henry Waterhouse, an officer who had served under Phillip, holding the rank of second captain. After calling at Teneriffe and Rio, Hunter arrived at his destination on September 5, 1795.

"SUPPLY"

The "Supply" was a wonderful little ship, and it has been said that she was "ever the harbinger of glad and welcome tidings."[*] Described as a very firm, strong little brig, she mounted eight guns and was purchased by the Admiralty to take the place of the "Grantham" when that ship was proved unseaworthy. While the complement of the "Sirius" numbered 160 men, that of the "Supply" was but fifty-five. Under Lieutenant Ball, as tender to the frigate, she helped to escort the transports and store ships to New South Wales, and seems to have been especially favoured by Captain Phillip. When eighty leagues eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, he went on board the "Supply" in order to hurry on in advance and choose a place for the reception of his fleet. To her, therefore, fell the honour of being the first ship to follow the "Endeavour" along the east coast. It has been told how she had entered the harbour of Port Jackson a day before the other vessels in 1788. While stationed there she had a very useful career and made many voyages to Norfolk Island. She sailed from Sydney with the "Sirius" in March, 1790. In the following month Captain Phillip dispatched the brig on an important mission to Batavia. A little later she too was ordered home for refitting.

[* Tench.]

The " Supply " returned to England by way of Cape Horn, possibly in the track which the "Sirius " had previously taken, for on December 27, 1791, she also reached the high latitude Of 57°32' S. On April 20, 1792, she sighted the Lizard.

"RELIANCE"

Through the services of her officers and men the "Reliance" played a very distinguished part in promoting settlement and colonization. After Captain Hunter had landed at Sydney under a salute of fifteen guns from the ship on Saturday, September 12, 1795, his patent was read constituting him Governor.

Waterhouse succeeded Hunter as her captain. He was Bass's brother-in-law and proved a very energetic officer. The colonists owe him a debt of gratitude, for in 1797, when the "Reliance" in company with another "Supply" under Captain Kent called at the Cape, Waterhouse and Kent purchased the valuable merino sheep of the late Colonel Gordon and brought them at their own expense to Sydney. Waterhouse Island in Tasmania (which possesses a good anchorage) was named by Flinders in his honour, and when homeward bound in the "Reliance" in 1800 he himself discovered, far to the southward of New Zealand, an island which he named Penantipodes Island.

In the year 1797 Lieutenant Shortland (who as a midshipman had served formerly under Phillip), while in pursuit of some runaways, came upon an unknown river north of Port Jackson, to which he gave the name of Hunter, and found a harbour where in the surrounding cliffs a stratum of coal was found. At this spot the settlement, afterwards known as Newcastle, was formed.

Yet among those serving in the "Reliance" at this time who worked for and guided the destinies of the new land the figures of George Bass and Matthew Flinders stand out in greatest prominence. Bass was the ship's surgeon, with a passion for discovery; Flinders a midshipman who two years previously had completed a difficult voyage in the "Providence" under Captain Bligh, and who therefore was admirably fitted for the work of exploration. These two men, sometimes apart, sometimes in company, sailed from Port Jackson again and again to glean knowledge of the coast-lines of both Australia and Tasmania. Within a month after their arrival at Sydney they had fitted up a boat only eight feet in length, called the "Tom Thumb," that had been brought out in the "Reliance," in which they traced George's River for a distance of twenty miles beyond Captain Hunter's Government Survey. In March, 1796, they again put to sea in a Sydney-built boat (another "Tom Thumb") and gained a minute knowledge of the coast south of Botany Bay. In returning home they entered Port Hacking, and on the outward voyage while trying to obtain water their boat was thrown ashore above Wollongong. From here, coasting Five Islands, they ran southward as far as the lagoon near Port Kembla, now called Tom Thumb's Lagoon, where they landed and met with many adventures, falling in with natives unseen before. Their muskets being rusty and their powder wet, Flinders kept the somewhat hostile natives amused by clipping their beards while Bass dried the powder and laid in a store of water. "This part," the former says, "was called Alowrie by the natives." It is known to us as Illawarra.

On December, 1797, while Flinders was absent in Norfolk Island, Bass took another voyage. In a whaleboat manned with six volunteers--bluejackets from the "Reliance"--he visited Shoalhaven, Jervis Bay, and Twofold Bay, penetrating as far as 40° S. Continuing his southerly course after passing Cape Howe, he found the coast of the mainland became more and more exposed and was convinced that a strait existed between Australia and Tasmania. He touched at Wilson's Promontory and Western Port, and in the belief that the former land had been seen by Furneaux called it Furneaux Land, though Captain Hunter afterwards changed the name to Wilson's Promontory "in honour of Mr. Wilson of London."

Bass's voyage extended along 300 miles of coast, and he drew a rough outline of the land seen by him, which unfortunately has been lost. The original chart was entitled "An eye sketch in a whale-boat by Dr. Bass." A part of this was embodied in a chart which Governor King drew to show the track of the "Harbinger" through Bass Strait. King observes that the land in Bass's chart appears to be erroneously laid down to the extent of "twelve miles in latitude and forty miles in longitude." He has preserved to us, nevertheless, an important relic of this intrepid seaman, and Matthew Flinders, who supplied King with details of it, has also made use of it in his atlas, slightly altering the position of the land, to reconcile it with its true situation upon the map.

To complete his explorations Bass set out with Flinders in 1798 in a small schooner of twenty-five tons called the "Norfolk." Touching first at Twofold Bay they surveyed it and running south came to the Kent Group and Furneaux Islands, the southeasternmost of a chain of islands between Wilson's Promontory and Tasmania, some of which Flinders had surveyed in the colonial schooner "Francis" which had been sent to the relief of the shipwrecked crew of the "Sydney Cove," an East Indiaman lost in 1797 on her way from Bengal to Sydney. On October 19th Flinders anchored with Bass at Preservation Island, the scene of the wreck. From there they went to Cape Barren Island, where they met with many strange animals, including the wombat, brush wallaby, and the echidna.

On November 1st they anchored for a tide at the largest of the Swan Isles, two small islands which Flinders had also seen before and had so named because a European sailor had assured him that he had met with vast numbers of black swans breeding there. They could not find a single swan, but observed a sooty petrel and several wild geese. "The swans therefore really turned out to be geese. This bird was either a Brent or Barnacle Goose with a small short head, long slender neck and plumage for the most part of a dove colour with black spots. It had a deep, hoarse, clanging and though a short, yet an inflected voice. Its flesh was excellent."[*]

[* Cereopsis Novae Hollandiae or Cape Barren Goose, which is only found in Australian waters.]

From there Bass and Flinders coasted along the northern shores of Tasmania, and on November 3rd discovered Port Dalrymple and the mouth of the Tamar. Bass had an opportunity of observing the country situated within an angle formed by two chains of mountains. They examined the river up to a point where its waters had become half salt and half fresh. The grey kangaroo abounded in the open forest and the brushes were tenanted by the smaller black wallaby. The plumage of the parrots was noticed to be more sombre than those of the mother colony and many water-birds frequented the arms and coves. Numbers of black swans were seen swimming in the river. Bass calculated that there were at one spot 300 within the space of a quarter of a mile square and he heard the dying song of some scores; that song, so celebrated by the old poets, "exactly resembled the creaking of a rusty alehouse sign on a windy day."

Driven back by gales to the Furneaux Group on November 21st, they left again on December 3rd to continue their Tasmanian explorations, and on the 6th discovered Circular Head--the eastern point of a peninsula projecting northward from the coast. On the 9th, south of Three Hummock Island (the north-eastern island of the Hunter Group), a long swell was perceived to come from the south-west, and Flinders hailed it as "the completion of our long-wished-for discovery of a passage into the Southern Indian Ocean."

On the day on which they saw Cape Grim (the north-west cape of Tasmania) the land was observed to be washed by ocean breakers, which proved, what had been already surmised, that a navigable channel separated Australia and Tasmania, this channel of course being Bass Strait. Following the west coast of Tasmania downwards, they passed South-West Cape and then South Cape, and turning into the opening of Storm Bay on December 14th weathered Cape Frederick Henry (of Furneaux). They examined the openings in the neighbourhood of Tasman's Peninsula named the Isle of Caves and Norfolk Bay, and on December 21st reached the entrance of the Derwent. Taking with them Captain Hayes's chart of the river, they explored it, and anchored in Herdsman's Cove above the spot named Risdon by Hayes. They beat down the river on January 2nd and turning into D'Entrecasteaux Channel entered Port Pruen, where they saw signs of a ship's visit and a tree felled near a run of water. Flinders thought that either D'Entrecasteaux or Hayes had been there, and as a matter of fact Hayes had watered his ships in this cove in May, 1793. After surveying Furneaux's Frederick Henry Bay, Flinders and Bass on January 3, 1799, sailed out of Storm Bay, and, resuming their exploration of the east coast, completely circumnavigated Tasmania.

Later in the year Flinders was sent in the "Norfolk" to chart the east coast of the continent to the northward of Port Jackson, when he discovered Shoal Bay and after surveying Moreton Bay, anchored in Hervey Bay. The immediate result of his voyages was his summons to England, where he received from the Admiralty a commission to return and undertake a complete survey of the coasts of Australia. He was now promoted to the rank of commander and appointed to the sloop "Investigator" (formerly the "Xenophon") with a complement of eighty-eight men as well as a landscape painter, a natural history painter, and a botanist, who was Robert Brown. Among the officers there were eight midshipmen, one of whom was John Franklin.[*]

[* Afterwards Sir John Franklin, the Arctic explorer.]

"INVESTIGATOR"

On July 18, 1801, the "Investigator" sailed from Spithead, reaching Cape Leeuwin, Western Australia, and on December 7th entering King George's Sound, which ten years before (in 1791) Vancouver had visited and named. Here Flinders careened his ship. Leaving on January 5, 1802, he voyaged along the southern coast of the continent. From Fowler Bay he proceeded, sometimes on land and sometimes by water, exploring and naming Spencer Gulf and St. Vincent Gulf.[*] He also named Mt. Lofty and disproved the existence of the supposed strait dividing Australia from north to south. He thus annexed the whole of South Australia for his country. In Encounter Bay he met the "Géographe" under Baudin, and after bidding the Frenchman adieu turned his attention to a fine harbour near the western entrance of Bass Strait. He was unaware that Port Phillip had already been discovered by Murray in the "Lady Nelson," and placed the name of his own ship on a pile of stones at the top of Station Peak. He reached Port Jackson on May 9th.

["He fell in with two immense gulfs ... he went as high as he could go in his ship and traced round the heads of these deep gulfs in his boats."--King's letter to Nepean.]

On July 22, 1802, the "Investigator" left Sydney to survey the eastern and northern coasts. In this voyage Flinders filled in many blank spaces on Cook's chart of the east coast, and after entering Torres Strait sailed along the whole of the Gulf of Carpentaria. On an island in the gulf called Sweers Island he again left the name of his ship and the date 1803. He stopped at Cape Wessel. to effect some repairs and returned to Sydney by way of the west coast, calling at Timor and reaching Port Jackson on June 9, 1803.

Here the "Investigator's" timbers were found to be unsound and she was condemned. As Flinders wished to finish his survey and then lay his charts before the Admiralty, he applied to Governor King for a ship to go home in, and went as a passenger in H.M.S. "Porpoise," of which Robert Fowler, late first lieutenant of the "Investigator," was placed in command. The "Porpoise" sailed from Port Jackson on August 10, 1803, in company with the "Cato" of London and the "Bridgewater," a vessel belonging to the East India Company. The ships had been a week at sea when, 200 miles from the land, the "Porpoise, followed by "Cato,'' struck on the Great Barrier Reef and was disabled--the "Bridgewater" just clearing the danger.

The Great Barrier Reef.--The chain of coral reefs which are known collectively as the Great Barrier Reef--the scene of many a brave seaman's misfortune--extends for nearly one thousand miles from Swain Reef at their south-eastern extremity to Bligh's Anchor Cay, their northernmost termination. They hedge the east coast of Australia from 22°23' S. to as far as Cape Direction in 12°51' S., whence they trend northwards to Anchor Cay, "forming a coralline structure unequalled in the world for their vast extent and formidable obstructions to navigation,"[*] where ship after ship has been dashed to pieces or left her timbers to whiten and rot, if not to serve as a beacon to warn the passing mariner.

[* "Admiralty Sailing Directions."]

The reefs vary in breadth from a few hundred yards to several miles, and in distance from the shore, from twelve to seventy miles. The swell of the Pacific dashes against the outer edge of the Barrier with terrific force while the inner waters remain perfectly tranquil. Beneath them, however, lurk innumerable dangers in the shape of banks, shoals, and sunken rocks.

Although so dangerous, the reefs are surpassingly beautiful. The water is very clear. The coral, of vivid tints of green, purple, brown, and white, forms many a fairy bower beneath the waves, and takes every conceivable shape and pattern. "We had wheatsheaves, mushrooms, and staghorns," writes Flinders, and other forms in a variety of colours, "equalling in beauty and excelling in grandeur the parterre of the curious florist." Besides the live coral growing as it were out of solid rock, there is dead coral in masses of dull white--composing the stone of the reefs or rising above the water in the form of blackened lumps; to these last Flinders gave the name of Negroheads. In the pools within the edges of the reefs are sponges, sea eggs, and sea cucumber (trepang).

Ships making their way up the east coast to Torres Strait have the choice of two routes. One leads through Capricorn or Curtis Channel along the Australian coast and is called the Inner Route, for the ships pass within the reefs. The other route leads outside the barrier--to the eastward of the reefs--and is therefore known as the Outer Route.

Since the days of Cook the names of different ships have been bestowed upon these reefs and shoals, either because the ships discovered them or else met with mishaps there. Among those thus distinguished in very early times were the Endeavour Reef (1770), Bellona Reefs (1793), Cato Bank (1803), Frederick Reef (1812), Kangaroo Shoals (1815), Alert Reef (1817), Minerva Shoal (1818), and San Antonio Reef (1821).

There are deep openings through the barrier by which ships can either pass out to the Pacific or from the sea to the coast. Cook discovered the first passage, while others have been found in comparatively recent times, as, for example, the Flora Pass, reported by the schooner "Flora" as lately as 1883. These passages, like the reefs, often take the names of the ships or the men who threaded them; thus the earliest discovered were Cook's Passage (1770), Bligh Boat Entrance (1789), Flinders' Passage (1802), Hibernia Entrance (1814), Indefatigable Entrance (1815), Nimrod Entrance (1822), and many others. In 1798 Captain Swain in the ship "Eliza" discovered the southernmost reef[*] in 22°23' S. 152°37' E., although the brig "Deptford," Captain Campbell, in the previous year had met with coral reefs--within the barrier--farther northward, in latitude 21½° S. The "Eliza" ran for twenty leagues among the reefs before she cleared them and had soundings from ten to sixty fathoms. Swain at last found a passage out of them "in 22° S. by a long and tortuous channel." The reef now bears his name; the pass has none (possibly because it was no pass but a series of openings which were too sinuous to be considered safe), but he appears to have been one of the first to navigate a ship through the reefs off the Australian coast after Cook and Bligh had threaded their way through Cook's Passage, Providential Channel, and Bligh Boat Entrance.

[* Lady Elliot Islet is the most southern coral islet.]

During the "Investigator's" voyage Flinders gained his first knowledge of the extent and dangers of the Barrier Reef. In company with the "Lady Nelson" he had steered up the east coast in Cook's track, marking its features and picking his way through the shoals that line the shore. To the north-north-west of Breaksea Spit he found a vast mass of reefs twenty leagues from the coast. When the ships reached Watering or Middle Island (one of the Percy Group) on October 6th another long range of reefs were seen which Flinders says were not the identical reefs seen by Campbell in the "Deptford" although they formed part of the same barrier. He discovered too that these reefs instead of being two degrees from the nearest island as laid down by Campbell were only twenty miles from it. Continuing their voyage to the Cumberland Isles the ships throughout had broken water and reefs on both sides of them. On October 18th the "Lady Nelson," which had lost her main keel and damaged her trunk, was sent back to Sydney, and Flinders proceeded on his voyage alone.

Immediately after he parted from the "Lady Nelson" he again became entangled in reefs extending from east to north-north-west. He bore along "their inner side," tracing the edge of the reefs until on October 21st he found a passage out to sea. This is situated forty miles from Cape Upstart, in 18°45' S. 148°10' E., E., and since has borne the name of Flinders' Passage. Its inner or southern entrance, through which he passed, was seven and a half miles broad; the passage ran nearly north and south and was twenty-one miles long. He then continued his course to Torres Strait, discovering the reefs known as Eastern Fields, and, turning again towards the Main Barrier, entered Torres Strait by Pandora's Entrance which had been discovered by Captain Edwards in 1791. Flinders says that from the time he entered the reefs, he had to steer 500 miles before lie found a way out; and in giving directions to seamen who might follow his track through the opening, he writes: "The commander who proposes to make this experiment must not be one who throws his ship's head round in a hurry"; and again he says: "If he does not feel his nerves strong enough to thread the needle (as it is called) among the reefs while he directs the steerage from the masthead I would strongly recommend him not to approach this part of New South Wales" (as the coast was then called).

In 1803 when Flinders left Port Jackson for the last time in H.M.S. "Porpoise" in company with the "Cato" and "Bridgewater" he sailed by the Outer Route to Torres Strait. Wreck Reef, or rather the chain of reefs, on which the "Porpoise" and the "Cato" were wrecked on the morning of August 17th (when the "Bridgewater" left them to their fate), being on the eastern side of the barrier and about eighteen and a half miles in length and from a quarter to a mile and a half in breadth. It consists of patches of coral reef separated by navigable channels and is the home of seabirds and turtle. The eastern end of it, named, Flinders says, "not improperly," Bird Islet, in 22°10' S., 155°28' E. was found to be covered with coarse grass and shrubs. After striking, the "Porpoise took a fearful heel over on her larboard beam ends," fortunately falling towards the reef so that her people were saved. The "Cato," under Captain Park, struck about two cables length away and "fell on her broadside," when her masts instantly disappeared. Several of the seamen were bruised against the coral rocks and three young lads were drowned. One of the poor boys who had been shipwrecked no less than three or four times before--in every voyage that he had made--clung to a spar beside his captain and through the night bewailed that he "was the persecuted Jonas who carried misfortune wherever he went." He lost his hold among the breakers, was swept away and seen no more.[*]

[* Flinders, "Terra Australis."]

The shipwrecked men gained the dry sand in the centre of the reef and prepared their encampment. While searching for firewood that night they discovered a ship's spar and a piece of timber, rotten and worm-eaten, which, in the opinion of the master of the "Porpoise," was part of the sternpost of a ship of about 400 tons. Flinders imagined (as all sailors were then wont to do when seeing wreckage) that it had belonged to one of La Pe~rouse's ships, but in more recent years timber as well as coins and other relics from a Spanish galleon have been recovered within the reefs, where they had been sheltered and preserved, perhaps embedded in some sandy shallow, so that it is not improbable that both sternpost and spar came from a long-lost Spanish vessel.

Flinders immediately set to work to build a cutter out of the timbers of the "Porpoise." This, when finished, he named the "Hope," and embarking in her with Captain Park and twelve others he sailed on August 26th to Port Jackson. For the relief of the shipwrecked crews Governor King dispatched the ship "Rolla" and two schooners, the "Cumberland" and the "Francis." Leaving Port Jackson at daylight on September 21st Flinders reached Wreck Reef eight days later, when the crews were taken on board.

During his absence some of his old officers of the " Investigator--among whom, besides Robert Fowler, were Samuel Flinders and John Franklin--superintended the building of a small decked ship, which was named the "Resource." On being manned she was placed in charge of Denis Lacy, formerly master's mate of the "Investigator."

The officers and men of the "Porpoise" and "Cato" were distributed among the four ships. Those who preferred to return to Port Jackson went back there in the "Francis" and the "Resource";[*] others, including Lieutenants Fowler and Samuel Flinders and John Franklin, sailed in the " Rolla" to China, where they obtained passages to Europe. Matthew Flinders, with ten officers and seamen, embarked in the "Cumberland" (the little schooner of twenty-nine tons lent by Governor King), intending to proceed to England, but on his homeward voyage he was forced to call at Mauritius. There he was detained by the French and kept a prisoner for seven years.

[* As the "Resource" sailed to Sydney George Curtoys, commander of the "LadyNelson" spoke her off Broken Bay and records this fact in his log. In 1804, with the "Lady Nelson" and the colonial sloop "James," she conveyed settlers from Sydney to Newcastle when Governor King raised that place to the dignity of a settlement. While voyaging home the "James" was wrecked and went to pieces off Broken Bay. Her crew was picked up and conveyed to Fort Jackson by the "Resource."]

Flinders has left a clear account of his explorations in his work "Terra Australis," and his surveys were so accurate that his maps form the basis of all modern Australian charts. In later days it is interesting to look upon the first bare outline of New Holland in one of his journals, from which the northern coasts are missing (it being simply a rough draft made when he was a midshipman, in 1792, with Captain Bligh in H.M.S. "Providence," before he had seen the southern continent), and then to turn to the charts accompanying "Terra Australis," in which every part of it appears delineated with so much care, skill, and detail that each map is a revelation in draftsmanship. One cannot help wondering whether Flinders when he drew that first roughly formed picture of the country was even then attracted to it and had resolved to fill in its outline; but, be this so or not, his name and the discovery of its coasts are inseparably connected.[*]

[* He died in London in 1810, and was buried in the churchyard of St. James's, Hampstead Road.]

"BUFFALO"

The "Buffalo" is well known on account of her many pioneering voyages; and writers of the early history of the colonies seem to regard her with a feeling akin to affection. Her figurehead was the effigy of a kangaroo, which may have endeared her to the white people as it did long ago to the black natives, of whom it is said that they were never tired of gazing at her as she lay at anchor in Sydney Harbour.

Turning over the pages of one of her log-books[*] we find her first in her own country at her moorings at Deptford (alongside the "Discovery"), under the command of Captain Ravenn,[**] and one of the earliest entries runs: "On Saturday, December 17, 1797, received on board fifty-one cauldrons of coal for the use of the colony of New South Wales"--an order evidently given before the discovery of coal in Australia had become known in England. It was a debt that was afterwards to be liberally repaid, for by Governor Hunter's orders a few years later coal was carried from Newcastle to Table Bay for the use of British ships calling at the Cape. The log-book continues: "On March 3rd the 'Buffalo' made sail to Long Reach," where, on March 24th, "the settlers to be rated as supernumeraries for victuals" came on board. On May 1st at 7 a.m. two boats were sent to Tilbury Fort for gunpowder for the ship's store, and by the 10th the ship had again weighed anchor and dropped down to the Nore towards H.M.S. "Zealand," the flagship of Admiral Lutwidge. On the 12th she received fifteen men from this ship to make up her complement. From the Nore the "Buffalo" sailed to the Downs, and on June 8th came to in St. Helen's Roads, where Captain Raven went on board H.M.S. "Arethusa" and received his final instructions before sailing. On June 9, 1798, in company of eight sail bound for India, the "Buffalo" stood out to sea.

[* Captain's Log, 1797.]

[** William Raven, formerly of the "Britannia."]

On her outward voyage she called at Rio de Janeiro and again at Table Bay, losing before she reached the former port one of the ship's company, for another entry states on Friday, August 3rd: "Missed Edward Parkinson, boy, who could not be found and imagined was washed out of the head and drowned as nobody could give an account of him since six o'clock." Boys were shipped to sea at an early age in those days and sometimes were unfitted for the hazardous life. The age of poor Edward Parkinson is not recorded, but Peter Lainz, the little cabin boy from St. Malo who sailed with Bougainville, was only twelve years old. He also disappeared one evening after the ship had passed Cape Verde in the same mysterious manner and was never heard of again.

At Table Bay the "Buffalo" took on board (not inappropriately) a number of South African cattle for the colony. On January 4, 1799, she again made sail with the fleet for India, but parted from it at daylight on the following morning and continued her voyage alone. Many of the cattle died before she reached Sydney on May 3rd, although Captain Raven put into Adventure Bay and Jervis Bay to obtain a supply of fresh grass and water for them. At both places Tasmanian and Jervis Bay natives were seen and were "very friendly," coming down to the beach "among the people," so that in these harbours, as well as at Sydney, the ship's figure-head may have made a good impression.

From this time onward the "Buffalo" was always busy. She played the part of flagship or transport, discovery or store ship with equal success. In 1800 Governor Hunter came back to England in her. On once more returning to the southern station she carried out important explorations, and in 1803 made surveys in New Caledonia. Captain Kent then visited the country, and on this voyage Port St. Vincent was named in honour of Admiral Sir John Jervis.[*] Among the ship's most notable missions under Captain Kent was that of the founding of Launceston, Tasmania, in 1804. (Hobart had been established already.) In accordance with his instructions the LieutenantGovernor, Colonel William Paterson, sailed from Sydney on Sunday, October 14th, embarking in the " Buffalo " under a salute of eleven guns from the fort. Forty-six officers and men of the New South Wales Corps accompanied the Governor, while the " Lady Nelson " also carried troops and settlers to the proposed settlement. Two smaller vessels, the " Francis " and the `Integrity," at the same time received orders to sail with Captain Kent to Port Dalrymple.

[* Kent named three islands inside the coral reef at Port St. Vincent, King, Paterson, and Robbins Islands--after the Governor of New South Wales, Colonel Paterson, and Mr. Robbins respectively--and the little island where the "Buffalo" anchored on her arrival was called Skull Island.]

fter leaving the harbour the ships, sailing southwards, met with a heavy gale, "which almost blew them back to Port Jackson." A few hours before the gale began the "Francis" had parted company with the "Buffalo," but the "Lady Nelson" and the "Integrity" remained with the flagship until the end of the storm, when the latter lost sight of both vessels. Owing to the tempestuous weather, out of the four ships which had left Sydney the "Buffalo" alone reached Port Dalrymple and moored on November 3rd four miles within the port. Next day she dragged her anchors, and touched, in spite of every exertion, but fortunately on a flat rock. By a spirited effort on the part of the crew she was floated undamaged, her anchor was slipped, and she was taken three miles higher up the harbour, where during the day the "Integrity" joined her.

On November 11th possession was taken of the northern shores of Tasmania on behalf of Great Britain with the usual formalities. The Lieutenant-Governor was saluted with eleven guns by the "Buffalo" on landing, and a royal salute was fired when the Union Jack was hoisted. On the 13th the general disembarkation took place at Outer Cove, where the Lieutenant-Governor had fixed his camp amid surroundings that seemed to all delightful, the waters of the harbour extending inland for many miles without interruption.

party of Tasmanian natives (now an extinct race) were encountered next day by some of the new colonists. At the sight of the white men they gave a furious shout and followed the British back to their camp. Here overtures were made by Colonel Paterson and they grew more conciliatory. Now and then, however, an indignant clamour, beginning with a single individual, ran rapidly through their lines, accompanied by excited gesticulations, the natives "biting their arms as a token of vengeance." In the end the blacks, we are told, "withdrew peaceably but were positive in forbidding us to follow them."

On November 21st two small ships--the "Lady Nelson" and the "Francis"--with torn sails and splintered masts, having sought refuge first at Twofold Bay and afterwards among the Furneaux Group, joined the "Buffalo" and "Integrity" at Port Dalrymple. On their coming into the port those on board saw with satisfaction the British colours flying on shore, and on the 23rd the bricks which had been sent from Sydney in the "Lady Nelson" to build houses for the settlers were safely landed. The "Buffalo" took her departure on November 29th, but before she left her crew erected two beacons to facilitate the safe entry of ships into port.

One of the last voyages of the "Buffalo" was made in 1807, when she sailed for England after her long stay in the colony. Among her passengers on this voyage were Mr. Marsden, senior chaplain, and his wife, and Mrs. King, wife of Governor King. After leaving Sydney a heavy gale threatened and it was proposed that the passengers should quit the "Buffalo," since she was an old ship and thought unseaworthy, and go on board a stauncher vessel which bore her company. The Governor's wife, however, was an invalid and could not be moved, and Mrs. Marsden would not leave her, so that the chaplain refused the offer and remained behind. Throughout the night the gale blew strongly, and the creaking timbers of the "Buffalo" groaned beneath the violent storm in a manner which gave those on board much concern. When morning dawned all eyes sought for their companion ship. But in vain. She was nowhere to be seen, nor was she ever heard of again.

"LADY NELSON"

In entering upon her eventful colonial career the "Lady Nelson" did that which alone ought to immortalize her--she was the first ship that ever sailed parallel to the entire southern coast-line of Australia.[*] A brig of sixty tons, she was built at Deptford in 1799, and differed from other exploring vessels in having a centre-board keel. She was chosen for exploration because her three sliding centre-boards enabled her draught to be lessened in shallow waters, for when these were up she drew no more than six feet.

[* "Early History of Victoria."--F. P. Labillière.]

In 1799, when the news reached London that the French were fitting out an expedition to survey unknown portions of Australia, the authorities were quickly stirred to renewed activity and decided to send the "Lady Nelson" to Sydney. She was hauled from Deadman's Dock into the river on January 13, 1800, with her full complement of men and stores on board, having been placed under the command of Lieutenant James Grant, and stocked with provisions for fifteen men for a period of nine months and enough water for three months. Before sailing her armament was increased to six carriage guns.

In January 16th she sailed to Gravesend. So small did she look when she left the Thames that the sailors in the ships in the river ridiculed her appearance and ironically christened her "His Majesty's Tinderbox." Grant called at Portsmouth, where he had orders to leave port with H.M.S. "Anson," Captain Durham, who (the Powers being at war) was to convoy a fleet of East Indiamen then on the point of sailing; and with them was H.M.S. "Porpoise," bound for New South Wales. This ship was formerly the "Infanta Amelia," prize to the "Argo," and was lying at Portsmouth when H.M.S. "Porpoise," after twelve months delay, was proved unsound. The Admiralty purchased the Spanish vessel, rechristened her the "Porpoise," and she sailed in company with the convoy on March 18, 1800. In New South Wales she proved an extremely useful ship, and with the "Buffalo" carried out the orders of Governor King, having been placed under his authority. She met her end, as has been told, on Wreck Reef.

After leaving Portsmouth the "Lady Nelson" did not long remain with the convoy. From the first she was scarcely able to keep pace with the big ships which bore her company, and when the commodore gave orders for her to be taken in tow by the "Brunswick" those on board had an unpleasant experience. On March 23rd Grant therefore determined to let go the hawser and to proceed on his voyage to Sydney alone. The brig eventually reached her destination in spite of all predictions to the contrary, and early on December 16th sighted the flagstaff at Port Jackson, which port she entered at six in the evening. Grant's coming gave much satisfaction to the colony, and when Governor King heard the description of his passage through Bass Strait, and of how the "Lady Nelson" had passed deep indentations on the north side of it and had seen beautifully wooded shores and rocky islands lying off them, he was greatly pleased. He did not, however, conceal his disappointment that Grant had been unable to penetrate a deep bay called by him Governor King's Bay (a name which afterwards was changed to Port Phillip).

Governor King had been instructed to have the whole of the south coast properly charted, and he determined to send Grant back again in the "Lady Nelson" to survey it. Grant on returning to Port Phillip for the second time failed to explore the bay; and John Murray, formerly master's mate in the "Porpoise," was appointed to succeed him as commander of the "Lady Nelson," after he had voluntarily sent in his resignation. Murray's appointment is dated September 3, 1801, and in January, 1802, he entered Port Phillip. He saw it first on January 5th, but, a high sea preventing him, he could not then effect an entrance and steered away to King Island, the eastern shores of which he surveyed, returning on January 30th to the south coast. He then sent Mr. Bowen and five men in the "Lady Nelson's" launch to examine Port Phillip. A "most noble sheet of water" was found. On the return of the launch Murray himself sailed into this newly discovered port in the "Lady Nelson," and after surveying and charting it for the Governor's satisfaction he hoisted the Union Jack. The chart of Port Phillip then drawn by Murray may be termed the most important he ever made, and it was one of those sent home to the Admiralty by Governor King. It shows the track of the "Lady Nelson's" boat when the brig entered Port Phillip for the first time in 1802. As the chart Grant had made of its outer shores was very imperfect, the Governor himself drew an eye-sketch of Grant's explorations, which was sent home also.

Governor King made other drawings of Bass Strait. We have 111 already referred to the one which combines Bass's eye-sketch with the "Harbinger's" track through the Strait. The "Harbinger," under Captain Black, came from the Cape and arrived at Sydney on January 11, 1801. She had closely followed in Grant's track and was therefore the second ship to sail through Bass Strait. On his way Black met with an island which he named King Island in honour of the Governor.[*] Another eye-sketch drawn by King shows the track of the ship "Margaret" from England commanded by Captain Buyers, this being the third ship to sail through Bass Strait. She came to an anchorage in Port Jackson on February 7, 1801.

[* Mr. Raid of the "Martha," however, had first seen it in 1799, and had informed Governor Hunter of his discovery.]

There is yet another very early MS. chart of Bass Strait in existence and one which is historic. It is described as "A chart of Bass's Straits generally laid down from one published by Alexander Dalrymple, Esq., with additions made during the 'Arniston's' passage through them in 1804." Louis de Freycinet acknowledged that the drawing of Port Phillip in his chart of "Terre Napoleon" was taken from it. Originally copied from one of Dalrymple's charts during the "Arniston's" voyage, it was found among the papers of the "Fame" when that vessel was captured by the French ship "Piemontoise" in 1806. The "Arniston" was one of a fleet of ships that left England in 1804 under convoy of H.M.S. "Athenien," whose commander had received orders from the Admiralty "to proceed with the East India ships under his convoy through Bass Strait to China passing east of New Holland and Port Phillip."[*] Interesting as it is (the original being still preserved in the dossier of Baudin's journal in Paris), the chart has no geographical importance, for the shores which profess to be those of Port Phillip bear no resemblance to the outlines of that harbour.

We now return to the story of the "Lady Nelson," a vessel which occupies a niche in the history of Victoria somewhat similar to that filled by the "Endeavour" in the annals of New South Wales; but whereas Cook's ship discovered the east coast and then left it, the "Lady Nelson," after charting the bare coast-line of Victoria, returned again and again to explore its inlets and to examine its shores. Indeed, while she was stationed at Sydney there was scarcely a dependency of the mother colony that was not more or less indebted to her whether for proclaiming it a British possession, or for bringing it settlers and food, or for providing it with a means of defence against the natives.

[* Sailing orders, Dalrymple to Marsden; May 25, 1804.]

The "Lady Nelson" went northward as well as southward, and in company with the "Investigator," in 1802, examined the Queensland shore as far as the Cumberland Islands. In making her way up the coast, unfortunately, she sustained damage which rendered her unfit for service. At the time the ships were within the Great Barrier Reef; and Flinders states that he kept the brig with him until a passage clear of reefs could be found to enable her to get out to sea. Flinders bade Murray farewell among the Cumberland Islands when Flinders wrote: "The zeal he had shown...increased my regret at parting from our little consort."

After separating from the "Investigator," Murray, in order to spare the "Lady Nelson's" sole remaining anchor, gave orders for two swivel guns crossed to be lashed together, and, when winds were light and waters smooth, he anchored with the swivels until the carpenter was able to make an iron-bark anchor to take their place. He made his way carefully down the coast and reached Sydney Cove on November 22nd.

In 1803 Lieutenant George Curtoys succeeded Murray in command of the "Lady Nelson." He had been master's mate of the "Glatton," and before coming to Australia had spent a long term of confinement in a French prison during the war with that country; his health, therefore, was in a rather delicate state when he took charge of the vessel. He was highly recommended to Governor King by Captain James Colnett. On June 10, 1803, in company with the "Albion," whaler, Captain Bunker, the "Lady Nelson" sailed from Sydney with the first British colonists under Lieutenant Bowen for Risdon Cove, on the Derwent River, and then was laid the foundation of the present city of Hobart. This was the first attempt made by the British to colonize Tasmania, Risdon being chosen as the site by Bowen because there the best stream of water ran into the cove and also because there were extensive valleys behind it.

When the colonists had disembarked at Risdon Cove and building operations had been started, at which time we are told that the "Lady Nelson" "lent the colony a bell and half a barrel of gunpowder," the brig returned to Port Jackson. Here Lieutenant Curtoys was again taken ill and was removed to the naval hospital. As his health did not improve, he shortly afterwards resigned his command and retired from the Royal Navy.[*]

[* Later we find him in charge of a brig which traded between Java and Timor, and his death was reported at Timor in 1813.]

The "Lady Nelson's" new commander was James Symons, who also had served as midshipman in the "Glatton" under Captain Colnett and afterwards on board the "Buffalo." Symons was ordered by Governor King to proceed to Port Phillip to assist in moving the settlement (which had been formed at that place in 1803 under Colonel Collins) to Tasmania. The "Lady Nelson" left Sydney on November 28, 1803; but, being delayed by bad weather first at the Kent Group and again at Port Dalrymple, she did not reach her destination until January 21, 1804. On the 25th, having received the Port Phillip settlers on board, in company with the "Ocean" she made sail out of Port Phillip Bay. After a passage of ten days she reached Risdon. Colonel Collins thought this site ineligible and gave orders for the Risdon settlement to be moved to Sullivan's Cove, where he had encamped, the name Hobart, which had been given by Lieutenant Bowen to Risdon, being retained for the new site. Later in the year 1804 the "Lady Nelson" under Symons visited New Zealand and Norfolk Island, and helped to remove white settlers to Launceston when the Norfolk Island settlement was broken up.

In 1806 Symons received instructions from the Governor of New South Wales to convey a New Zealand chief named Tippahee or Tepahi, and his sons from Sydney back to his own dominions. Tippahee's residence was at the Bay of Islands, and there he was safely landed. Before lie entered the harbour Mr. Symons carried out a little expedition of exploration and examined a deep bay in his boat, ascending a river which he seems to have surveyed. Among the many valuable charts made by the commanders of the "Lady Nelson," however, there are not any of New Zealand, and possibly Symons did not actually chart the places which he has described.

From this time. forward occasional voyages were made by the "Lady Nelson," and we read of the different governors and officials taking excursions in her to the various settlements. No detailed record of these exists, so it is not always easy to trace the doings of the ship. For some years she lay dismantled in Sydney Harbour, and during that period is described as "nothing more nor less than a coal hulk." Before this she had been handed over by the Admiralty to the colonial authorities.

In 1819, by an order of Governor Macquarie, she was thoroughly overhauled and accompanied the "Mermaid" as far as Port Macquarie; later, in 1824, when in charge of Captain Johns, she was chosen to convey settlers to Melville Island, where the British Government had determined to form a settlement. With H.M.S. "Tamar" (Captain James Gordon Bremer) and the "Countess of Harcourt," a ship chartered to assist him, the "Lady Nelson," heavily laden with passengers, soldiers, and stores sailed on August 24, 1824.

She then left Port Jackson for the last time. On September 20th the vessels reached Port Essington, and an entry in Captain Bremer's log states that on that day possession was taken of the north coast of New Holland on behalf of the British Government. On November 10th Captain Bremer took leave of the settlement and handed it over into the charge of Captain Maurice Barlow, who had been appointed commandant. The "Lady Nelson" remained behind to act as guard-ship, and she was also required to bring needed stores and supplies from the islands to the northward for the use of the settlers.

resh provisions being scarce, in February, 1823, Captain Barlow dispatched her to the islands for a cargo of buffaloes. When she left Port Cockburn her commander was warned to avoid an island called Baba, which was infested with pirates who bore the reputation of being very daring and very cruel. It is supposed that the warning was unheeded. for there the little vessel met her end. When Lieutenant Kolff, of the Dutch Navy, visited Baba in July, 1825, the inhabitants were shy and deserted the village called Tepa on his landing. He was convinced that a crime had been committed, and learned that some months previously "an English brig manned by about a dozen Europeans had anchored off Aluta on the S.E. coast and had engaged in barter with natives, who were on board in great numbers and who, taking the opportunity of five men being on shore...attacked and killed the people in the brig as well as those in the boat when they returned." The last news of the "Lady Nelson" was brought to Sydney some time afterwards by a ship called the "Faith," whose captain reported that her hull with her name painted on the stern was still to be seen at Baba Island.

Besides the ships whose work has been described above, there passed in and out of Sydney Heads small colonial vessels including the "Norfolk," "Francis," "Cumberland," "Edwin," "Integrity," and "Resource," whose histories are interwoven not only with that of Port Jackson but with those of Tasmania and New Zealand as well. There were also the East India Company ships bringing more prisoners to the colony. And these too played their part in discovery. On their way across the Pacific their commanders frequently took unknown routes and drew many a useful chart of islands and channels seen, which Dalrymple afterwards published. The charts show the tracks of their ships, and the accounts of their voyages may be read in the first Sydney newspapers where many a thrilling tale of adventure is narrated, rivalling those old stories of the Spanish main recorded in the more ancient chronicles of the sea.

All these voyages created keen interest at Sydney, especially when on the arrival of the ships their commanders brought the news of the finding of a new harbour, coast, or river, with information that the land was fertile and its waters a good sealing ground. An impetus was given to shipping and colonization and fresh ventures were quickly planned, men sometimes setting out of the port in the frailest craft with the poorest equipment, to investigate the desirable regions. These ventures "helped largely to develop the spirit of daring, the strong love of liberty which pushed forward the rough aggressive pioneer work and cleared the way for British dominion in neighbouring lands."[*]

[* Old Sydney Traders by Maorilander.]

To Port Jackson, too, there came traders from all countries, including the weather-beaten South Sea whalers laden with furs from the sealing grounds on the New Zealand coasts. Sealers also came from the islands in Bass Strait, where, save when an occasional King's ship put in an appearance, they were monarchs of both sea and land. Others there were from islands farther to the northward the stories of whose voyages are memorable not only as tales of adventure but for the gorgeous setting in which the scenes were laid amid islands, atolls, and coral reefs.

What a history of their first coming those old skippers might have written! The majority were venturesome, hard-grained British seamen (with an occasional American), who ably assisted the naval officers who traversed long ranges of sea-line, for we find the old maps marked with their tracks and the names of the ships[*] in which they sailed from Sydney to Tahiti or Fiji, where they occasionally sought a cargo of sandal-wood. From Port Jackson some sailed southward to Hobart, and from Hobart they penetrated farther southward to Macquarie Island,[*] dispersing when whales and seals in Australian waters became scarce, to come together again in later years at New South Shetland.

[* Such names as the "Britannia," "Nautilus," "Eliza," "Hibernia," "Favourite," and "Active."]

[** Among these the "Emerald," "Perseverance," "Lynx," "King George," and "Betsy."]

Some of the names of the captains of these ships will live in the history of exploration, as, for example, Matthew Weatherhead, whose story has been told; Raven of the "Britannia" and Bampton of the "Endeavour," both pioneers of Dusky Bay; Ebor Bunker, who, in the "Albion," carried some of the first British settlers to Tasmania; Alexander Rhodes of the "Alexander," beloved of the Maoris; Frederick Hasselburg of the "Perseverance," who discovered Macquarie and Campbell Islands and later lost his life by drowning among those islands; George Powell of the "Dove,"[*] whose chart will ever be remembered in the history of the Antarctic; and Richard Siddons of the "Lynx," perhaps the greatest traveller of them all, who gave so much information concerning early Fiji, and delighted to hold mission services on board his ship in Sydney Harbour, and whom we find later in company with William Smith and Robert Fildes in Blythe Bay, New South Shetland.

[* Formerly of the "Queen Charlotte," and afterwards of the "Rambler," who was killed by natives of Vavu.]

There were also those foreign discovery ships whose commanders followed La Pe~rouse into southern waters and entered Port Jackson to seek refuge for their weather-beaten vessels and to gain knowledge of the southern continent, of which they have given us accounts in their journals. They saw Sydney while the town was in its infancy, when canoes of the blacks floated on the waters of the harbour, and trees and foliage still covered the surrounding points and indentations, so that their writings are valuable records. The most notable expeditions being those of Alexandro Malaspina, who brought the Spanish ships "Descubierta" and "Atrevida," in 1793; of Baudin, commander of the French ships the "Géographe" and the "Naturaliste," in 1802; also of De Freycinet, who came in the "Uranie " in 1819; Commodore Bellingshausen a year later with the Russian ships "Vostok" and "Mirni," a navigator celebrated for his long voyages in the Antarctic; Duperrey in the "Coquille" in 1821; Bougainville the younger with the ships "Thetis" and "Esperance" in the same year; and Durnont d'Urville in the "Astrolabe," who came in search of La Pe~rouse's expedition (1826-28) and at last found the island where the ships were lost.

CHAPTER V

THE EXPLORATION OF THE INTERIOR

GOVERNOR PHILLIP AS EXPLORER

The first Governor of New South Wales had soon discovered that although he had been set over so vast a territory there was only a narrow strip within his grasp. Within a few miles of Sydney there ran a range of mountains rising in places almost perpendicularly to a height of from 4,000 to 5,000 feet. Curving above Broken Bay on the north and below Port Jackson on the south they formed a barrier which completely hemmed in the settlement and cut off all advance into the interior.

They were part of the Great Dividing Range which runs with scarcely a break down the eastern coast of the continent from Cape York, the most northerly point, to Wilson's Promontory at the southern extremity. Because of their cobalt colouring Captain Phillip gave them the name of the Blue Mountains. No more apt designation could have been found, for the atmosphere at the distance from which they are viewed imparts to them a wonderful blueness. For twenty-five years men tried in vain to pass over this barrier. In the days of Phillip and under the rule of his immediate successors expeditions, all of which ended in failure, left Sydney and endeavoured to penetrate different parts of the mountains. Perhaps because in those early years no one was able to cross them they held a strange and powerful fascination for the colonists. Rocks, precipices, and thick eucalyptus scrub might repel the would-be discoverer, but when days bright with sunshine revealed sparkling waterfalls and smooth green patches among the ranges the desire to explore became irresistible. Many set out never to return; often a settler in search of grass or a pioneer starting without proper equipment vanished for ever in the wilderness of forest; but his disappearance caused little surprise and the country to the westward remained unseen and unknown.

The first actual attempt to reach the mountains was made by Phillip himself shortly after his arrival. On April 15, he departed with provisions for four days attended by officers and a party of marines. In three days they passed the swamps and marshes on the north side of the harbour and found themselves in rocky barren country covered with bush, which made their advance difficult and often impossible. Fifteen miles from the coast Phillip obtained a fine view of the mountains, and he called the northernmost the Carmarthen Hills, the southernmost the Lansdowne Hills, and one between Richmond Hill.

At that time he felt sure that there must be a river near at hand, and on the 22nd started again, taking with him some small boats in which to cross any stream that might be found. For four days, by keeping close to a small creek, his party pushed their way through difficult country, and on the fifth day reached a small eminence whence for the first time a full view of the Carmarthen and Lansdowne Hills was obtained. Phillip named this eminence, which was his farthest point, Belle Vue Hill. Lack of provisions then compelled him to return to Sydney, having fully proved the difficulties of penetrating into the interior, for the whole distance covered by his party had not exceeded thirty miles.

nother expedition was planned by him to examine the country westward from Belle Vue, but it had to be deferred. In June, 1789, however, whilst surveying Broken Bay, which he had seen first in March, 1788, Governor Phillip discovered a large river whose water at a short distance from the entrance was found to be fresh and good. He named it the Hawkesbury, and on June 26, 1789, Captain Watkin Tench and Mr. Arndell, assistant surgeon, reached the banks of another river to which the name of Nepean was afterwards given by the Governor.

Captain Tench describes the latter river as being nearly as broad as the Thames at Putney. "From its banks," wrote Phillip in February, 1790, "I hope to reach the mountains, which has been attempted by a party who crossed the river, but after the first day's journey they met with a constant succession of deep ravines...so that they returned, not having been able to proceed more than fifteen miles in five days; when they turned back they supposed themselves to be twelve miles from the foot of the mountains."[*]

[* Governor Phillip's letter, 1790, " Historical Records of New South Wales."]

The party Phillip refers to as having "crossed the river" was one under the command of Lieutenant William Dawes, who in December, 1789, got across the Nepean and unsuccessfully tried to reach the ranges. Captain Tench says that "at the time they turned back they were further inland than any other Persons ever were before or since--being 54 miles in a direct line from the coast--when on the summit of Mount Twiss--a hill so named by them which bounded their peregrination."[*]

[* "A Complete Account of the Settlement, etc.," Watkin Tench, 1793.]

On August, 1790, Dawes and Tench together started on another expedition; they took with them a strong escort and spent a week penetrating in a south-south-west direction "bounding their course at a remarkable hill," to which, says Tench, from its conical shape we gave the name of Pyramid Hill."

Some short excursions were undertaken towards the close of 1790, and a little later, on April 11, 1791, Governor Phillip himself again led an exploring expedition inland. Dawes, Tench, and Collins accompanied him, and included in the party, which numbered nineteen persons, were two Sydney natives.

Every man except the Governor carried his own knapsack, which contained provisions for ten days...and every man was garbed to drag through morasses, tear through thickets, ford rivers, and scale rocks." The advance was first directed to the north-west, and two days after leaving Rosehill they reached the river. Tench says they then "turned to the right hand" and traversed a creek, until on the 13th they came to a little hill, from which they had a good view to the westward. The Governor called this eminence "Tench's Prospect Hill." On the 14th, on leaving it, they retraced their steps to the river, passing over country which "excepting for the last half mile was a continued bed of stones in some places so thick that they looked like a pavement."

Although Captain Phillip cannot be said to have actually made any further discoveries, a good deal of general information concerning the inland parts was obtained in this expedition. He ascertained that the Nepean was an affluent of the Hawkesbury; he observed the windings of the various branches of the river and the places that ought to be avoided by future explorers, and he also had opportunities for noting the customs of the inland natives; one old man gave an exhibition of his powers in climbing trees which is described as being "the finest display the Governor had ever seen."

CAPTAIN PATERSON AND OTHERS

On September, 1793, Captain Paterson, of the New South Wales Corps, led an expedition into the mountains. He was accompanied by Captain Johnston, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Laing, and a strong escort of soldiers, among whom were some Highlanders, who, like Paterson, were accustomed to Scottish hills. Boats were sent round to Broken Bay, whence they entered the Hawkesbury and on the fourth day reached Richmond Hill. At this place in 1789 Governor Phillip's progress up the river had been obstructed by a waterfall which his boats could not pass over. Paterson overcame the difficulty by leaving his large boats and proceeding with two that were smaller and lighter. He found the river carried him westward and that the navigation was very intricate; a new river, however, which ran through a huge ravine, was discovered and named the Grose (in honour of Major Grose), and up this Paterson took his boats.

The termination of his journey was at a large rocky precipice which received the name of Canopy Cliff. This cliff faced the junction of the Grose with a smaller stream, the Grose flowing east and the stream west of the cliff. A high peak of land seen by Paterson at this point was named Harrington Peak. From Canopy Cliff to its junction with the Nepean he found the Grose River to descend in falls and rapids about 400 feet. But the party could not continue their exploration, since one of the boats had loosened a plank and the other had been driven upon a stump, so Paterson gave up further progress, "leaving the western mountains to be the object of future discovery." He reached Sydney on September 22nd, and in writing an account of his expedition to a friend at home he says: "From an accident that happened to our boats, we returned after a journey of ten days and got about 10 miles nearer them (the mountains) than former travellers."[*]

[* Unpublished letter to Forsyth. In this letter Paterson speaks of a second expedition he was about to take into the mountains.]

"Captain Paterson," remarks Collins, who relates the story of his journey,[*] "was amply rewarded for his labour and disappointment by discovering several new plants." He saw but few natives, and believed that their arms and legs were longer than those of the coast natives." As they live by climbing trees ... it might perhaps have been occasioned by the custom of hanging by their arms and resting their feet at the utmost stretch of the body..."

[* Collins's " Account of Colony of New South Wales."]

Following Paterson's exploit, attempts were unsuccessfully made by different people, among whom were Hacking, Dr. Bass, and Wilson, to find a pass through the ranges. Wilson's terminal point "may be regarded as being on the hillside overlooking the Wollondilly at Bullio."[*] Perhaps the most difficult task was that undertaken by Bass, of whom it is said that he used iron boat-hooks on his hands and feet in climbing down the steep sides of the rocks, and, when stopped by ravines, caused himself to be lowered by ropes, but, after fifteen days of danger and fatigue, he returned to Sydney without achieving success. On an old map at the British Museum communicated by Colonel Paterson is an inscription which perhaps tells best what Bass actually did. It runs as follows: "In this direction[*] Mr. Bass's party went 28 miles from Mount Hunter--beyond that the mountains were impassable; soil good for the first 18 miles."

[* R. H. Cambage: " journal of the R.A.H.Soc."]

[** i.e. westerly from Mount Hunter.]

ENSIGN BARRALLIER

Ensign Barrallier, New South Wales Corps, was the next to make a notable expedition into the ranges. In 1802, in order to obtain leave of absence for him from his military duties so that he might lead the expedition, Governor King claimed him as his aide-de-camp, and sent him "on a fictitious embassy to the king of the mountains."

Barrallier first made a preliminary excursion and crossed the Nepean with a party of four men to find out the best route by which to proceed later. He journeyed "as far as about 45 miles," where he chose a site for a depo~t at a place called Nattai by natives and discovered the river still known as the Nattai River, then he returned to Sydney, and having received his final orders from the Governor went first to Parramatta and then to Prospect. Taking his departure from the latter place with a party which consisted of nine persons besides himself and a native from Cowpastures named Gogy, he crossed the Nepean on November 6, 1802, at a ford called Binheny by the natives. Here it was found impossible for the bullock wagon laden with provisions to get over the river and the bullocks had to be unyoked, and finally the provisions, as well as the wagon itself, had to be carried by the men to the opposite bank. Once all were safely across Barrallier directed his route to the south-west[*] and spent the night near a swamp called by the natives Baraggel. Here some rare shells were discovered. Next day, November 7th, he passed Menangle. In the lagoon were fish and eels of enormous size, more of which were found at Carabeely, another stretch of water and swamp, and near the latter the men killed a kangaroo. Barrallier here came upon a herd of wild cattle and counted 162 "peaceably pasturing.'' They were descendants of the six landed by Phillip in 1788 which through their keeper's neglect had strayed into the bush more than fourteen years before to live and multiply in freedom.

[* After passing Menangle his route took him near the spot where Picton now stands.]

On catching sight of the party the beasts advanced as if to attack the men and had to be driven off. A second herd and a third were seen, also the body of a bull "of a reddish colour with white spots" lying in a ditch, below a terrace conjectured by Barrallier to have been "the battle-field of the bulls." Two natives were met on this day where the party halted for dinner. One of these, a "mountaineer" whose name they made out to be Bungin,[*] was very shy and wore a curious mantle of skins of various animals sewn together. The other, whose name was Wooglemai--i.e. in native language, one-eyed--was friendly and knew Gogy the native from the Cowpastures and apparently had visited Parramatta and Prospect. The explorers, continuing their journey at 5.30 p.m., encamped for the night near a running stream on territory belonging to the mountaineer, who in return for kindness shown him built a hut for Barrallier and next day attached himself to the party. Two miles from this place "a chain of mountains was visible, the direction of which," says Barrallier, "is inclined towards the south."

[* Barrallier writes: "Bungin was an inhabitant of the south, and had left the Canambaigle tribe because they wanted to kill him."--Diary of Ensign F. Barrallier, "Historical Records of New South Wales,"Vol. V.]

Continuing their advance on November 8th the men crossed several creeks and late in the afternoon, after traversing a plain, entered rocky country and reached a valley where they spent the night. At this time they were four miles from Nattai. On the morning of the 9th the silence was broken by the sound of "cooees" in the distance, and shortly afterwards two mountain natives were brought into the camp. One had never seen white people before and was terrified when Barrallier offered to shake hands with him.

On the same morning the exploring party, advancing again over rough country, "all covered with stones and brush," arrived at Nattai,[*] and Barrallier decided, before starting on his journey into the mountains, to send for a fresh supply of provisions. Three men, accompanied by the native Wooglemai, went back next morning with the wagon to the settlement. They did not return until the 19th, and during the interval Barrallier with some of his party carried out some short explorations. He followed a creek[**] which ran between mountains to the Nattai River, the terminus of his first journey. Tracing the river on its left bank, he came on November 11th to the junction of the two rivers, the Nattai and the Wollondilly.

[* About six miles north-west of the town of Thirlmere.]

[** Shea's Creek, Barrallier's route to R. Cambage--" Journal, R.A.H.Soc., Vol. III.]

In the evening he arrived at a valley where he camped for the night.[*] In describing his journey on the 12th he says he passed through another chain of isolated mountains which might be nearly four miles in length and sighted on the right "the great range, the height of which is more and more considerable ", the soil of the country everywhere was very rich; "the hills...covered with kangaroos, which resembled a flock of goats grazing peaceably."[**] He sowed pumpkin seeds and an apricot stone at the foot of a mountain, where he also noticed prints of natives. Observing a mountain which "though high[***] appeared easy of access he climbed it, but could not gain its summit, being stopped by a barrier of rocks-projecting outwards-in the shape of vaults." Proceeding onwards he met with some strange natives, from whom it was difficult to elicit any information regarding the mountains and who afterwards showed signs of hostility to some of the party. On the 13th he returned to the depo~t.

[* Burragorang Valley.]

[** "Historical Records of New South Wales," Vol. V.]

[*** Identified by R. Cambage. ("Journal R.A.H.Soc.," Vol. III) as South Peak, and "is an outline...in the extreme southern end of a small chain...known as the Peaks...the sandstone rocks of which the peaks are composed extend back north-westerly, forming the southern watershed of the Tonalli and are called the Tonalli Range."]

After the return of the wagon Barrallier started on a longer and more important journey into the ranges. On November 22nd he left the dep~ot, taking with him five of his strongest men and some natives with sufficient provisions for one month. He travelled through a precipitous gorge (S. 75° W.) by a route which he had already pursued, crossed the Nattai River near which he had "cut some huts," and on November 23rd arrived at the junction of the two rivers, Nattai and Wollondilly. Here he met several strange natives, including a chief named Goondel. who conversed with some of the members of his party.

On November 24th, having passed at noon the mountain he had tried to climb on the occasion of his first journey,[*] and having crossed difficult bushy country, "going over hills which stood in all directions," he arrived about four o'clock at the top of a hill where he was able to observe that "the direction of the chain of mountains extended itself north-westwardly to a distance which I estimated to be 30 miles and which turned abruptly at right angles.[**] It formed a barrier nearly N. and S. which it was necessary to climb over."

[* South Peak, according to R. Cambage]

[** Tonalli Range.]

At seven o'clock he reached the summit of another hill,[*] whence he descried three openings: "the first on the right towards N. 59°30' W.; the one in front of me and which appeared very large was west from me; and the third S. 35°0' W." The sight of these openings filled the party with encouragement.[**] Their spirits had flagged in the course of the day, for the range of mountains which they had passed over was covered with big granite stones which had made the route very laborious.

[* Alum Hill, according to R. Cambage.]

[** The three openings by Barrallier have been identified as follows: The northern opening just south of Mount Colong and at the head of a creek which flows into Colony Creek. The centre one due west of Woolshed, the third that through which the Bindook track passes. (See R. Cambage.)]

The trees were blue gum and iron-bark of medium height; and a number of rivulets were passed. The total. distance covered by Barrallier up to this date is given as 100 1/2 miles. Naturally the distance measured "as the crow flies"[*] was not nearly so great; but Barrallier had to take a zigzag course over the mountains, and his men were sometimes compelled to travel two or three times as far as they might have gone had a direct route been possible.

[* Barrallier's route is shown upon Oxley's maps and also upon a map of New South Wales by J. Cross, 1827, corrected to 1829 and dedicated to J. Oxley.]

On November 25th at noon Barrallier reached a large stream, where he halted for dinner. Its current was very rapid and its bed was filled with granite stones. He crossed some hills, their direction being north and south, climbed a very steep height, and at six o clock discovered a cave large enough to contain twenty men, and he says he was then only half a mile from "the western passage." He sent two men "to discover it" and "to ascend the mountain at the N. of this Passage," while he waited in the cave for them, On their return they "related that after passing the range that was in front of us we would enter an immense plain, that from the height where they were standing on the mountain they had caught sight of only a few hills standing here and there in this plain, and that the country in front of them had the appearance of a meadow." Much elated with the news, Barrallier continued his march at nightfall and arrived at the mouth of a passage half a mile wide, formed by a perpendicular cut in the mountains (the profiles of which were of immense height), and he now writes with certainty about his discovery of a pass through them:

"I sent men to try and find the trees...for the building of our huts. This work was completed...and after every one was sheltered, they congratulated themselves with having succeeded in accomplishing the passage of the Blue Mountains without accident."

On November 26th, at daybreak, Barrallier set out, taking two men with him, "to verify by myself the configuration of the ground and to ascertain whether the passage of the Blue Mountains had really been effected. I climbed the chain of mountains north from us, and when I had reached the middle of this height the view of a plain as vast as eye could reach confirmed the report of the previous day."

To his sorrow, on this day, while trying to get through to the level country, Barrallier found an unforeseen impediment in some hills that formed a barrier. He followed a creek, and then discovered a fast flowing river[*] between two chains of very high mountains. Turning northwards he reached the river at its junction with a large stream,[*] and in crossing it he and his men met with many dangerous obstacles.

[* Identified as the Kowmung River.]

[* Christy's Creek, probably Waterfall Creek.]

On the 27th so many barriers were encountered that on the 28th Barrallier was compelled to abandon the expedition. "After having cut a cross of St. Andrew on a tree to indicate the terminus of my second journey," he tells us he turned homeward and following the line of his outward track back to Nattai, reached the depo~t at 8.30 p.m. of December 2nd.

It will be seen that Barrallier had good reason to claim that he had crossed the Blue Mountains,[*] although the colonists do not seem to have benefited in any way from his arduous travels. Either he was unable to define his route clearly upon his map, or else the details he could furnish were too meagre to be of any use as a guide to explorers; but it is certain that a passage through the mountains remained undiscovered. Cambage writes: "The terminal point reached by this courageous explorer was...towards the head of Christy's Creek about 15 or 16 miles in a direct line southerly. from the Jenolan Caves," and he adds: "It is remarkable that Barrallier should have followed so far down the Kowmung before turning to the left, for had he turned up the river instead of down he would probably have succeeded in crossing the Great Dividing Range, after which he would have had no difficulty in proceeding westward."

[* R. H. Cambage," R.A.H.Soc.'s Journal," Vol. III.]

CAYLEY'S REPULSE

Barrallier's successor as an explorer of the Blue Mountains was George Caley, who in 1800 came to Sydney primarily to collect plants for Sir Joseph Banks, but who interested himself also in matters concerning the welfare of the colony. Soon after his arrival he was made superintendent of the Government Garden, which had been marked out at Parramatta, and from time to time dispatched boxes of Plants and seeds to England in charge of the captains of different ships voyaging homewards. So carefully did he classify his collections, and so skilfully arrange them, that he was called "Botanicus peritus et accuratus" by Robert Brown, who named the Banksia Caleyi in his honour.

Caley soon found opportunities to make excursions inland, going at first only short distances. In October, 1801, with two companions, he left Prospect, crossed a chain of hills called the Devil's Back, where the Cabramatta Creek takes its rise, and arrived at the Nepean. This river Caley prefers to call the Hawkesbury, saying that "it is the principal branch and ought to have that name." Encamping near its banks, during the night he and his companions heard the noise of the wild cattle, and next day went in quest of them. They took a south-easterly course--having crossed the river on a fallen tree--but failed to come up with the herd, though they saw at the head of a marshy flat the body of a dead bull, probably of the Cape breed. Soon afterwards they returned to Prospect.

A few months later, with two others, Caley traced the course of Tench's River, and, being only familiar with English rivers, was struck with its deep bed and high, perpendicular banks, with trees growing on either side, which he described as "melancholy Casuarinae."

In March, 1802, he was particularly energetic and on the 9th started on a short tour which lasted five days, but of which he has left but few particulars. On the 26th he set off again from Parramatta, in company with one man, and with his mare laden with provisions, to visit Mount Hunter. Striking out on a south-west-by-south course, they travelled for eighteen miles and came to "a flat piece of ground called Arayling by the natives," five miles from which they arrived at the Nepean. There they had to take the baggage off the mare and carry it themselves over the river, an operation which Caley says, "took us nearly up to the neck in some places...The water was very cold and the current strong...the bottom inclined to quicksand." They afterwards swam their horse across and reached Mount Hunter on the 28th.

The ascent was steep and difficult, owing to shrubs impeding their path. From it Caley obtained a fine view of the Blue Mountains, which he resolved to explore, observing a little prematurely that "they did not deserve the name of mountains." He defined them merely as "high hills," though he admitted that "to the northward they may be more rocky," from which it is evident that he did not catch sight of the naked rocks forming bastions round them or the deep gorges lying hidden between the "high hills." A little later, when he attempted to fight his way across them, he altered his opinion that they were hills, and bestowed upon them the title of mountains.

We read in his diary that in October, 1802, he made another short journey from Prospect with two companions--possibly the same two as before--and, taking "a direct W.S.W. by S. course," came to the Nepean. Having passed over the river, they travelled through forest land, and arrived "at the foot of a hill (Blue Mountains)," to the summit of one of which they climbed.

In December of the same year Caley twice crossed and recrossed the Nepean in an expedition undertaken for the purpose of defining the true course of the river, for at that time some of its windings were not yet filled in upon the maps in use in the colony. He left Prospect on December 4th, accompanied by a friend, and took his mare laden with sufficient provisions for an extended tour. The party set out on a west-south-west-by-south course, and first arrived at the Great Creek,[*] where they fell in with a number of natives. That day they forded the Nepean at a part of the river which Caley does not seem to have seen before, as he says he found that it trended north and north-west.

[* South Creek.]

After leaving its banks, they travelled a short distance and "got on to the hills (Blue Mountains)"and pushed their way along them for three miles through a dense thicket which at last compelled them to turn back. In their return journey they met with another river, which was probably that now known as Mount Hunter rivulet, for they had only proceeded a short distance from it when he remarks: "This place I thought I had seen before in my journey to Mount Hunter."

On his return to the Nepean, Caley recrossed it, but did not go back to Prospect, though he says that he looked for that place from the brink of the hills, but could not clearly see it, the weather being hazy. He writes: "We...crossed the Hawkesbury River at the end of the hills...that seemed to be rent asunder for a passage for it, which I propose to call Dovedale, from its grand and romantic appearance." From Dovedale, so named after the well-known valley in Derbyshire, Caley made his way to Bagalin, "the place I was bound for, this being at another part of the river. Here he halted. He could see a large vale from Bagalin, and, believing that the river flowed through it to the south-cast, he resolved to explore it with the view of finding the head of the river.

Setting out on this second journey, Caley and his companions crossed the Nepean at a known part of the river where it had been already surveyed, and possibly at a short distance from where Barrallier had forded it a month before.[*] They then directed their course south-by-east three miles, and pitched their tent at a swampy place, the name of which, as they learned from natives, was Menangle. The natives also told Caley in answer to his questions that the river did not run through the vale he wanted to find, and that he would be unable to take his mare over the rocks to it.

[* This ford was North of Bird's Eye Corner: another ford over the Nepean was known as Emu Ford, and another Cowpasture Ford.]

During his short stay there a heavy thunderstorm took place, and he allowed four natives to take shelter under his "painted sheet" or tent. Leaving Menangle he travelled to the south-west, and then traced his former course south-by-east and came almost at once upon the river "deeply seated in a narrow, rocky valley with almost perpendicular sides." He followed it for a quarter of a mile and found that its course ran first south-south-east, a turn north-north-east, then east-north-east. About four miles from Menangle he halted at a place where there was good water and plenty of grass for the mare. It was a very picturesque spot and he named it Ripponden--a name that has since disappeared from the maps.

Still anxious to find the river's true course, he travelled north-north-west over some hills and came to Poppy Brook, so called (by him) because wild poppies were found growing there. Poppy Brook was a small stream of clear water flowing over a bed of small black stones, similar to those he had often seen in brooks in England. It is the Stone Quarry Creek of Barrallier,[*] whose name for it survives, and takes its rise in the high land west of Picton.

[* In early maps of New South Wales by Arrowsmith (communicated by Lieut-Colonel Paterson and also upon Oxley's map) Poppy Brook and Stone Quarry Creek are shown as different streams. Apparently Governor King identified them as the same stream.]

The tracks of wagon wheels told Caley that Barrallier had been there before him, and the natives at Menangle had related that "at Nayti, the furthermost outpost reached by him, he had built a bark hut." Caley remarks that he had already heard from Governor King that "Barrallier had been 150 miles in the country," where "he had fixed stations," and says also that the Governor had pointed out one of these to him, "which I understood was 50 miles S.S.W. from Prospect and called by the natives Natta, but which I now learn is Nayti," and he adds, "with that I endeavoured to find it."

Crossing Poppy Brook, Caley first proceeded to the south-west and west-south-west without any success: he then turned south-south-west and discovered a sheet of water or lagoon which he called Scirpus Mere; some beautiful plants were growing not far from this lagoon, and where the thicket was densest he found a species of Persoonia with sweet-scented flowers and pubescent leaves. Seeing no signs of Barrallier's depo~t, and having lost all traces of his wagon wheels, he went to "another range to the eastward," but still not finding Nayti returned to Poppy Brook. On leaving this stream a second time Caley struck a course for four miles to the north-north-east, and at the end of the fourth mile arrived at a spot called by the natives Murdogra, "which being a low, flat piece of ground without any trees growing upon it, its green verdure had a pleasant appearance in a country where all was forest." Here he stayed the night and saw, at about a mile distant from his camp, the smoke of native fires. He continued to search for Nayti, but could not find it, though he was convinced, from what the natives had said, that it was at no great distance.

At this time the party fell in with wild cattle, but "not in a herd; in general two bulls and at the most six, were seen together." Some of them had humps between their shoulders, though "it is said that there was not a humped one among them when they ran away," and Caley remarks: "Many people are of the opinion that the natives kill them, but...the natives told me that when the cattle see them they immediately run at them and they are obliged to climb up the trees." Turning back next day, after a tour of nine days, Caley returned to Prospect.

In addition to making sea voyages to different parts of the coast in search of botanical subjects, we find Caley a year or so later again touring inland. In 1804 he set out on an excursion to the territory which he called Vaccary Forest (the Cowpastures), to ascertain the extent of its boundaries. His diary of this journey is enlightening. We learn that it was then conjectured in Sydney that the wild cattle which had so long pastured in Vaccary Forest were now beginning to roam farther into the country and it was feared that they would altogether forsake the tracks they had frequented hitherto. A large party of horse and foot indeed had been sent to drive them if possible into "a very strong fenced yard newly made...for this purpose," but "this scheme or rather chase ended...with running one or two cows down."

It had been usual since the days of Captain Hunter for the governors and officers to take visitors to the colony on excursions to the Cowpastures to hunt the wild cattle, although it was found no easy matter to single one out of the herd. Caley believed these excursions would become even more frequent, owing to the fact that "the trees had been marked all the way there, a track being visible and a small house built" for the hunting parties. Still at that time little was known with respect to the boundaries of these pastures, and Caley therefore proposed to make a complete survey of them. Loading up his mare with provisions he left Parramatta accompanied by his manservant and went on February 11th to Prospect, whence the party took their departure. They encamped for the night at the side of some small ponds, around which there was young grass growing, and set off early on the morning of the 12th to the Nepean, arriving at the river about noon. Before they reached it they "discovered Cowpasture House seated in a bushy place on this side of the river."[*] The grass all round it and even close up to it had been burnt, but it had escaped injury. "It was," says Caley, "no more than a small hut built of boards, thatched with grass, and a wooden chimney. We saw in the house a cask containing a quantity of salt which had been carried there to salt beef."

[* The principal station was at Cawdor, where a dwelling-house was erected...afterwards used as a cowhouse.--W.R.G., "Saturday Magazine."

The men got over the river easily, the water being low; a little further down they noticed a fallen tree had been thrown across it for the purpose of a bridge. They found its banks crowded with trees, chiefly casuarinae. On leaving their crossingplace, Caley bore away to Menangle, where he pitched his tent. The lake was now reduced to a very small compass, as the weather for so long had been hot and dry. On the following day he went back to the log bridge and recrossed the river in search of a pond where he expected to find some rare plants; but, to his surprise, it had entirely dried up. In making his way back to the camp he heard a voice--not that of a native, but of a white man calling; and, as "some desperate runaways were known to infest that quarter," he was careful to make preparations for an attack.

Four months before he had accompanied Mr. Robert Brown to Mount Hunter, and when upon the mount they had heard two men "hallooing" who evidently had lost each other, and Caley says: "By our halloaing in return one of them was decoyed to within a few rods of us, but as soon as he got the first sight, immediately fled." Although Caley did not actually see anyone on this occasion, he resolved to be very much on his guard, but says he did not think he would be "easily overcome even by an armed banditti."

Leaving Menangle, he went to Ripponden, which he had visited in 1802. From there he proceeded in the direction of Poppy Brook. On the way he saw a beaten cattle track, along which he travelled, and presently came upon a large herd of cattle lying down, which quickly sprang up and each one stared at the party "with fierce visage." A young dog that Caley had with him soon put them to flight. There were fifty-three in the herd, and they made off towards the river.

Caley then met with a small brook which he had seen before (possibly in December, 1802), to which he now gave the name of Little Brook. He continued in the direction of Poppy Brook, and noticed as he went how much the road was travelled between there and Ripponden. "Being an important one," he says, "I have called it London Road."

In the region of Poppy Brook, where he and his servant encamped, Caley decided to begin his survey, "at the termination of the range where I began my S.S.W. course in the discovery of Scirpus Mere." He set out next day on his old track to carry out this intention, when he heard a voice through the brushwood, and shortly after "a native came running to me and called me by my name...He informed me there was a large party Walbunga," which meant "catching kangaroos by setting the place on fire, and by [the blacks] placing themselves in the direction the animal is forced to pass and by throwing spears at it as it passes along."

In further conversation with his black friend Caley learned that there were strange blacks from the mountains among the party of natives, and that one visitor was no other than the famous Cannabygal, or Cannamikel, a chief much dreaded by the other tribes. At last Caley prevailed upon the native to "cooee" for the others so that he might see the strange blacks, and "a large party came running towards us and by the place being brushy they were upon us before they well saw who we were." Some of the natives evidently had seen Caley from their hiding-places on a former expedition, for he writes: "I perceived a deal more knew me than I could recognize...My man noticing a few...behind a tree I immediately went up to them and inquired for Cannabygal and...one man clapped his hands upon his breast and gave me to understand he was the person."

Of this early meeting with the mountain natives Caley gives the following account: "I singled out the chief of the party[*] I was known to and opened a familiar conversation. During that time all the rest were in a profound silence...The strangers were four in number, three men and one woman; the men were without any clothing except a belt to fix the mogo in; the woman had a kind of cloak upon her back made of skins of animals but which did not conceal her nakedness...They were of gigantic stature in comparison with the rest; their hair being long and their features in general gave them a frightful countenance, though I must own that Cannabygal had something pleasant in his face while I was conversing with him. None of the four ever had seen a white man before. They had a large domesticated native dog with them."

[* Evidently a Cowpasture native to interpret for him.]

Caley shot a bird to show the power of his fire-arms and gave it to them, and they were much surprised that they could not discover any wounds. At last, he says, finding that his absence was more wished for than his company, he informed them he was about to depart. They at once pointed out to him the exact direction which they desired him to take, and his native friend acquainted him with the fact that several women belonging to the mountaineers' party were stationed near by and that therefore he must be careful not to alarm them. Caley gave a promise that he would go in the direction pointed out, and kept his word. This obliged him to go a little way out of his course, but he says that the distance was "too trivial" to be noted on his map. The Cowpasture natives had informed him that the strangers were cannibals, but this he doubted. He asked the natives several questions respecting the source of the Hawkesbury and they pointed to the south-east; when he inquired as to the whereabouts of Nayti they pointed west-by-north.

It was probably at this meeting and from these mountain natives that Caley obtained the information concerning the unknown interior which afterwards in a letter to Mr. Robert Brown he claimed to have possessed. He said in it that he had heard from the natives that there was a great river inland and a plain above the trees, and that "the mountain natives who came at times to the outskirts of the colony had their heads covered with emu feathers."

After parting from the natives and their guests Caley and his man sought their former track. They ascended a steep hill to get to a higher and more backward range, and "fell in with a herd of cattle which had taken the road we were going, but before we got on to it they returned...the dog close at their heels; seeing them in a state of confusion I was beginning to clear the way for them. However, I had the satisfaction of seeing them keep on the range...Some decayed fallen trees they leaped over like hunters, and there was a noise made by the rattling of horns such as I had never heard."

A cow fell behind and lay down, evidently unable to move, so Caley went up to her but could render no assistance, for at the sight of him she became so much frightened that he says "it was only tormenting her more." He regretted being unable to shoot her and put her out of pain on account "of His Excellency's Proclamation forbidding the like," adding: "I could not ease my mind at having to leave the poor animal thus, and resolved if I should visit this part again I would know whether she had quitted it."[*]

[* Caley heard afterwards that a lame red cow always followed the herd in this manner and concluded that she might not have been badly hurt.]

He and his man continued "to rise upon the range," and saw a great bush-fire at the spot where they had lately left the natives. At length they got to the farthest end of the range, where, Caley says, "I now began to trace the western boundaries of these pastures."

He thus describes a small valley with some ponds of water and good grass which he thought suitable for a station: "The place we had chosen to pass the night by its greenness had a pleasant appearance...It was rocky in places...The cattle came here for water...This is the place I have called Green Dingle." On first coming there Caley believed himself fortunate to find such a pleasant camp, but shortly afterwards he rather regretted having chosen it for a resting-place, as the voices of natives were heard close at hand, from which it was evident that the blacks had followed them and were only hidden from them by a turn in the valley. Warning his man to keep very quiet he made preparations to resist them, "as I could not tell in what manner they would act." At night Caley took care to keep up a very small fire, concealing it and their tent with bushes so that they should not be seen by the natives. He writes: "We could hear them making a loud noise as if they were dancing and making merry...When they became silent we went to sleep...and fixed our gun in such a position as to have nothing to do...than pulling the trigger on our being suddenly awakened."

Next morning Caley and his man rose early and breakfasted before daybreak. After loading the mare with their baggage they went towards the black fellows' camp, but already they had left it and were upon the march. Caley followed them, wishing to see Cannabygal again, but writes: "He kept out of my presence...My man being eager to get a view of the women kept following them with the mare; by so doing he put them in a fright and they screamed loudly...and on my taking hold of the halter to pull the mare round some of the natives hit her with their spears and being high mettled she began to caper...I was afraid I should give offence and create hostilities, but...happily the whole ended in a joke." Some of the Cowpasture natives escorted Caley for some distance after parting with the mountain natives, and he says that when Cannabygal and his companions were out of sight "the others burst into fits of laughter and were highly delighted by their being so frightened on seeing white people." Caley had noticed that they themselves were "as mute as mice" when the mountain natives were present, and he adds, "The strangers are greatly dreaded and reverenced, particularly Cannabygal, who according to superstition is invincible and more than mortal."

Continuing his examination of the boundaries of the Cowpastures from Green Dingle on a westerly course, he found some extensive cattle tracts, "the largest running N.N.W., which the party followed and came to a creek named by him Brush Creek. From this creek he traced the northern confines of the Cowpastures. On returning to Sydney he gave an account of his travels to the Governor, who in his remarks[*] upon Caley's observations says that "By Caley's journey and chart he makes the extent of the ground frequented by the wild cattle...about 11 miles in the north and south direction and about 8 in the widest direction from east to west."

[* "Historical Records of New South Wales," Vol. V.]

These short expeditions were the forerunners of exploration of a much bolder character undertaken with the object of trying to find a pass over the mountains. It was in November, 1804, that Caley first tried to cross them, having been provided by the Governor with four of the strongest men in the colony to assist him. On Saturday, November 3rd, taking a boat up the river, the party landed "at the upper part of Richmond Terrace with the intention of travelling to the Carmarthen Mountains; but between them and their goal stretched ranges of hills which had to be traversed before it could be won." Being resolved to keep clear of the Grose, Caley shaped his course to the west-north-west. He had gone only a short distance, however, before he was confronted with deep valleys and rocky precipices, some of which rose to a height of over 1,000 feet; and wherever a level track was found it was equally difficult to travel over, the ground being covered with impenetrable bush.

In spite of these obstacles in his path he continued to advance slowly, and on the 5th from a hillside obtained a fine view of the hills he was trying to gain; but he describes himself as "thunderstruck with the roughness of the country that presented itself between them and us." He went higher up the hill in order to be able to determine the best route to take, and, after scanning the country resolved to steer as straight for the Carmarthen Mountains as the roughness of the country would permit. He proceeded down the side of a valley, and descended it where it was joined by another valley in which there was a swamp. The valley was surrounded by high-topped trees, and the greenness of the swamp gave the place a most beautiful appearance; Caley named it Swamp Valley. The men traversed it by marching sometimes in the valley and sometimes on the edge of the hills. They then crossed the swamp and halted at the north end of the valley, where Caley mounted a hill in order to take bearings and to find out how far they were from the Grose, and "ere long was favoured with a view of Grose's Head," about seven miles distant. He there caught sight of an increasing volume of smoke rising from the spot where they had encamped, and, hurrying to it, found his men in great consternation owing to one of them while kindling a fire having set the bush alight. The flames burned furiously and spread among the dead trees so rapidly that for a time the party were in considerable danger.

Leaving Swamp Valley, Caley travelled on the following courses: west-north-west, south-west, west-south-west, and west-by-south, and at length, at the end of the last course, he got another view of the Carmarthen Hills. He next turned west-1/2-south obliquely into a valley which came from the northeast, its waters running to the south-west. Here he found plants similar to those around Sydney. Directing his courses for the most part in a south-westerly direction, he crossed three more valleys, all of which emptied their waters to the south-west. The last one, which was very deep, with a steep and difficult descent into it, Caley called Dark Valley. Fortunately the weather was fine and on this day he caught sight of some lories,

On December 7th a very fine morning broke, and the party started on a south-west course, and after ascending a hill advanced along a range until they arrived at the brink of a valley which came from the northward. Its sides appeared perpendicular; its depth was about 300 yards, its width nearly a mile, and Caley says: "I was at a loss to know how to cross this deep valley, which seemed to bid defiance to man." At length he found a place where by holding on to the bushes and small shrub-like trees he was able to make a partial descent and creep along the edge of the rocks. The luggage was lowered by making a rope of twine, and handed on from one man to another over the rocks. Having so far got safely down, Caley determined not to cross the valley but to proceed down to the Grose, which "was joined by another valley that came from the S.W." Eventually he came suddenly upon the Grose, but was forced to return, "for the rocks formed perpendicular sides apparently to the water's edge." After trying unsuccessfully to advance, first at one place and then at another, he says at last he had "only the northern valley to make choice of." He hastened to it again and his men were at last able to make their descent a little above the union of the northern valley with that which came from the south-west. Fine streams ran through these two valleys, which, after uniting, took a course to the eastward.

In giving an account of his adventures here Caley writes:

"The dreary appearance, abruptness, and intricate and dangerous route experienced at this place induced me to call it the Devil's Wilderness." His party advanced two miles in a south-west-by-west direction, "crossed the northern branch of the Grose River and went up a very steep and high hill." The passage was rough and so dangerous that the men were in great peril, often climbing over ledges of rock where a false step might have cost them their lives. All fortunately gained the top in safety, but much fatigued, and, although they had only just left a stream, parched with thirst owing to the heat. As a substitute for water they ate the native currant. They continued climbing hilly ground until they came to some high bluff rocks, in order to surmount which they again took off their loads and handed them from one to another. An olive-coloured snake about four feet long passed close to Caley, but, as he had no weapon in his hand, it escaped him.

Having ascended the rocks, which he called Skeleton Rocks, he obtained from the top of them a fine view of the country to the eastward. Continuing an uphill journey the party suddenly came upon a very narrow ridge, which gradually widened until it formed yet another hill "of gentle ascent and descent." Whilst passing over this, a breach on the left suddenly opened to their view and they saw a valley below, into which Caley descended to look for water and to seek a resting-place for the night. He soon found a spot suitable for a camp, and describes how he had then to humour his tired men, who "were not so overcome by fatigue as overawed by the dangers through which they had passed." He tried to raise their spirits by telling them that, although the route was a rough one, he was of opinion that they had hit upon the range likely to lead them to the Carmarthen Mountains.

After he had reasoned with them for some time his words had the desired effect and stimulated them to proceed. Caley was much interested not only in the plants but also in the birds, insects, and other things new to him that he saw in this part of his expedition. In particular he found a strange, luminous grub, a number of which had fastened themselves to a projecting rock above where he was sleeping. When he awoke during the night, at first he imagined that he was gazing at the stars. Owing to this circumstance he called the place Luminous Valley, but he says: "Although I saw so many I was able to catch but few."

On the morning of November 8th the party, in order to get to the range, retraced their steps for a quarter of a mile, and having altered their course arrived at a small, oblong hill the shape of which Caley says reminded the men at once of a pincushion. He therefore gave it the name of Pincushion Hill. From there they could see the smoke of their last camp fire in Luminous Valley east-by-north.[*]

[* A little distance farther Caley gives the following beatings: "Pincushion Hill E. ¼ N., Grose's Head E.S.E. ¼ S., Round Hill in Grose's Vale E.S.E. ¼ E,, Round Hill of Mr. Dawes S.W. ¼ S. End of the high range or Fern Tree Hill W.S.W. ¼ W. Courses later upon the range: N.W. by N.W., S.W. by S., and S.W. by W., all half a mile."]

On the 9th Caley left the range, which he thought was carrying him too far to the north, and entered a shallow valley to try and gain an eminence (Fern Tree Hill). Travelling due west, he had no sooner got across it than another deep valley appeared, and, thinking this was the last valley, he crossed it in an oblique direction south-west-by-south 1/2 mile which brought his party to the point of another range which "we went down a little south," where it ended in a steep precipice between two valleys. They tried to descend into the one on the left hand, but found that "the water fell several yards perpendicularly"; and Caley describes the place as resembling a chasm called Grislefoot between Whernside and Ingleborough, two of the highest mountains in England with which he was familiar; and from his experience of climbing English mountains he came to the conclusion that there must be a "midfitter" which united the range he was standing on to the eminence called Fern Tree Hill. After much searching he proved this surmise to be correct by finding the midfitter. The valleys on each side of it soon became very deep; through the one on the left the waters were carried to the Grose, while through that on the right they ran "probably into a branch of Hawkesbury below Portland Head."

Being now short of water Caley went down into a deep valley to look for it, and found some in another valley which led to the foot of Fern Tree Hill. Here they encamped. A high wind blew in heavy gusts in the afternoon, threatening rain. The night was wild and showers fell, causing the men much discomfort. On the morning of the 10th the sun shone, though it soon became obscured by clouds. Some lories were seen and Caley also heard the laughing jackass. He describes the place as a barren spot, the trees sparse, small, and of crooked growth, some resembling blue gum in colour and others having rather twisted bark. Where there were patches of treeless ground the land resembled that around Sydney, producing the same plants, such as Banksia cricaefolia.

From this camp the party went tip to the midfitter to get to Fern Tree Hill. After some intricate climbing,[*] Caley saw from a height the pivot range, "of the mountains we had crossed on our first leaving Richmond." From here he led his men west-south-west to a valley and hill covered with brush, and found that he had got on the wrong range, as to which he observes "a man might soon be bewildered." He therefore turned back, and upon again seeing the first range of mountains resolved "to keep them as the surest guide. For to keep in direct line by compass was not in my power here to do." The courses afterwards taken collectively were from south to south-east, and at last the summit of Fern Tree Hill was gained, as to which Caley writes: "Four miles may be said our whole day's journey," and "of that, the course S. to S.E. may be called 3 1/2 miles."

[* Their courses then were S.W., S.W. by S., both 1 mile. W. and S.S.W. across the head of the valley, which had given so much trouble to them when searching for water the night before. Still going up hill on courses first S.S.W, and then S.S.E., and lastly E. by N., both 1 mile.]

The summit of Fern Tree Hill was found to be very narrow and covered with brush, chiefly consisting of, amongst others, "a glaucous leaved Senecio and a white flowered species of Smilax, which retarded progress very much, and nettles which grew very high and stung vehemently." The part that "was void of bush was thickly covered with timber and a species of fern which as it increases in age forms a tree." Many of these tree ferns were very tall, as were some of the timber trees. The soil was very moist and commonly of a brown vegetable mould. From here Caley had a view of the mountains on both sides. On his left he saw the first range--his "surest guide" and on the right a fainter view of the ranges in that direction; his bearings were the Grose's Head, east-1/2-south, western end of Mount Banks[*] south-west-by-west, some whitish rocky breaches between south and south-south-west, whilst Round Hill bore south. The whole country from west to east by way of north appeared mountainous, yet but few peaks were to be seen. The valleys came from the westward, and where "the rocky breaches" were there seemed to be a large valley.

[* Governor King says that Caley always called Mount King George by the name of Mount Banks.]

Leaving the summit of Fern Tree Hill they proceeded down the side of it east-south-east to some rocks,[*] where "there were but few trees," to pass the night. On the way down the hillside one of the party had a rather bad fall but soon recovered from its effects. During the night rain fell heavily and all complained of being cold and wet, although Caley had hoped that they would have been secure from the rain through "having a hollow rock to creep into," but the water came trickling down the rock and it was worse than being in the open.

Next day was the 11th--a Sunday morning--clouds of heavy fog prevented the men leaving the camp before ten o'clock, by which time it had dispersed. The party went down hill on a south-south-west course to cross a valley and ascend Saddle Hill or Mount Banks, but on arriving at the bottom of the hill Caley was surprised to find that the valley formed a "dreadful chasm" with perpendicular sides the depth of which..."could not...be less than 50 yards...The breadth did not seem to exceed 15 yards..."He threw some large pieces of rock into this ravine and records that they made a weird noise and seem to take an endless time to reach the bottom. There being no way of crossing it, the men returned to Station Rock. The afternoon was wet and the fog became so dense that they now could see only a few rods before them, it was therefore thought best to halt for the night.

[* Afterwards named Station Rock.]

Caley mentions the different birds seen. Two crows flew round them and some thrushes and redbreasts with black and white heads made their appearance. The weather of the 12th was as wet and foggy as the previous day, and although the afternoon was clearer, Caley did not deem it prudent to make a fresh start so late in the day and spent his time in trying to get views of the country round his camp.

On going to the top of the rock he found it to be large and to answer his needs in every respect so he called it Station Rock. He accordingly made a level with water and found the place was nearly equal in height with the base of the mount of Mount Banks, nearly also equal with the top of Saddle Hill and with the top of Round Hill, but Saddle Hill was lower; and he ascertained that Fern Tree Hill, Mount Banks, Saddle Hill, and Round Hill did not form one range as he had supposed when travelling there. He writes: "From Station Rock as far, as eye could trace from the S. to the W. the ground appeared to slope towards us...It had the aspect of being rough and mountainous. From Round Hill it sloped towards the N.E. until it met with the opposite branches of the Grose."

While upon Station Rock, Caley observed that Fern Tree Hill was separated from Mount Banks by a deep valley--the one in which lay the "dreadful chasm" into which he had cast stones. Saddle Hill and Mount Banks appeared to him to be on one range but at the west end of Saddle Hill he saw a broken precipice which seemed to form a valley "most probably...not deep." In the south 1/2 west to south-south-west there was a high breach, of whitish appearance, and he believed that at the bottom of it the principal branch of the Grose River passed, though he says: "It is doubtful to conjecture which is the principal branch of the Grose, let alone to affirm it."[*] However, he thought that this branch was "the largest of any that comes from the west by this quarter and is the same as I have mentioned at the Devil's Wilderness as coming from the S.W., at which place there did not seem any difference in the quantity of the water as in the one we crossed which came from the north."

[* Mr. Govett describing the Valley or ravine through which the Grose River flows says: "The mountains which rise most conspicuously above the surrounding ridges are Mount Hay, Mount King George and Mount Tomah...the first is of conical shape...(frowning amidst rugged masses of rock and the tremendous precipices and gigantic walls which overhanging confine the channel of this inaccessible river); Mount King George called by some the Camel's Back from its double figure (3 1/4 m. north west of Mt. Hay) presents on its west side tremendous walls of rock more than 400 feet perpendicular. Mount Tomah (of flat and tabular shape) is about four miles north of Mt. Hay. The latter possesses rich tropical vegetation. The river winds round the basement of the precipices and divides by a frightful chasm Mount Hay from Mount King George and Mount Tomah which last are both situated on the north side of the ravine. The Grose continuing in nearly an easterly direction for about 15 miles falls into the Nepean and then takes the name of the Hawkesbury which after winding by a tortuous course discharges itself finally into the sea at Broken Bay 30 miles n. of Port Jackson."]

On the 13th a fine morning burst over Station Rock, though clouds of mist hung in the valleys below. Gradually rising, they enveloped the camp when the men were preparing to leave it, but by noon had dispersed. Mountain fogs now began to hinder the movements of the travellers seriously, and Caley points out that it "would only have been labour in vain to attempt to travel through them." He feared them, because, apart from the risk they incurred, the delay necessarily reduced his stock of provisions. He knew, too, that since he had come by a zigzag route, he would have to return by it, and the fogs might easily render it impossible for him to find his former bearings.

Leaving Station Rock when the atmosphere grew clearer the explorers travelled west-north-west, following a circuitous route towards a valley which appeared to come from the westward. Their way led them over ground covered with brush, nettles, and large loose stones, "very heavy and of a blue colour like the magnetic stone on Prospect Hill," Caley being puzzled to find that he could see no rocks in the vicinity, "whence they could have been thrown by any convulsion." He was anxious to reach the valley which he believed came from the westward; for, he says, he intended "to keep it...on our left until it presented some favourable place of crossing in order that I might get to Mount Banks."

On reaching the brink of the valley and trying to descend it at this point, "it was found impracticable and so we returned" to the range. After this disappointment Caley caught sight of a hill bearing about north-west, which seemed to join to Fern Tree Hill, and he resolved to make his way towards it, as it seemed to form a passage to the west, and there appeared to be a small range that ran from behind it in a western direction. He therefore decided to head the troublesome valley, and, having done so, took his men through thick brush and came to a hill which lay on the right. From this hill Caley saw what he at first thought was a "saddle," but it proved to be a deep valley, and opposite to him stood the hill he wished to reach. He could now see that from it ran a high range consisting of small hummocks and he felt sure that upon this another eminence, called the Haycock, must be situated.

The valley, which he had previously imagined came from the westward, he now was convinced came from the northward. "To cross this valley was now the grand object," so he went along its northern edge, and, though he despaired of finding any place to descend, to his surprise he came upon a narrow cleft. He took off his load, and, having left his men behind, while he went down it, had not gone far before he noticed a kangaroo path and saw that the passage gradually widened. He accordingly returned to his men and all descended, forcing their way through a bush-like species of eucalyptus, which, in places, covered the hillside. They then halted at a hollow rock near which there was a rill of water. Some tall, straight trees with dark green foliage grew there, and at first Caley could not tell to what species they belonged, but he afterwards identified them as Sassafras. The party passed the night at a disagreeably damp place in the depths of the valley, which, as he made the descent, Caley says, "put me in mind of looking down a coal-pit, and where frogs and toads made such a hideous noise that I was induced to call it Dismal Dingle." Next day, the 14th, the morning was fine, yet from their situation the men were unable to see the sky unless they stood upright and looked through the openings in the trees.

Continuing their journey they went over Table Hill[*] north-west-by-north 1/2 mile to a midfitter. Of it Caley writes: "This midfitter which links Table Hill and a lower range is much like the one that links Fern Tree Hill and the range which cornes from the Devil's Wilderness. As we came along it the valley on our left conveyed its waters direct to the valley...which separates Fern Tree Hill from Table Hill...Between us and Mt. Banks there seem to be several valleys which...became...very deep."

[* Mount Tomah.]

Proceeding from the midfitter, Caley lost the range and followed a jutting spur. On retrieving his mistake he turned abruptly south-west, crossed a valley and fell in with another range south-south-west (a midfitter), then went south-west and arrived at a barren piece of land[*] destitute of trees, and in appearance much like some places in the vicinity of Sydney, such as South Head. Though this was a barren spot there was a wide contrast between it and Dismal Dingle. "It commanded an excellent prospect and the country round seemed to consist of small ranges of hills and valleys that run in a circuitous direction or as though nature had formed a labyrinth." Caley named this place Bluff Head. They at last were close to the foot of Mount Banks, but another deep valley still remained between them and it. They thought at first that this would check their progress, until Caley again espied a midfitter, and by this means their goal was won.

[* Bald Hills (?)]

The march from Bluff Head to Mount Banks was tedious, and the tired men thought that they would never come to their journey's end: "Between Bluff Head and Mount Banks they crossed two hills, the larger one being named Range Hill." A thunderstorm took place and they had to seek shelter in a rock house for the night. From it the Haycock bore north-1/4-east. Table Hill north-north-east-1/4-east, Saddle Hill east 1/4 mile. Here a piece of bark was found which looked as though it had been cut from the tree by natives. The only other signs of the aborigines seen by Caley in these mountains had been the smoke of their fires up the branch of the Grose which ran into the Devil's Wilderness.

Next day, Thursday, November 15th, Caley ascended Mount Banks[*] and had excellent views from it in every direction. To obtain these he says "was his main object" in journeying to this hill. The sky was clear when he arrived, and the men who started to search for a place at which to encamp, as near the summit as possible, soon found a rock house upon its western side.

[* This was Mt. King George, or the Camel's Back, so called from its double figure.]

The day was set aside as a "rest day for the men," but Caley himself did not rest and made all haste while the light was clear to take bearings and to make some observations. Beginning with the south end of Mount Banks he found that its top formed "an oval about 20 to 30 yards long which was covered with heavy loose stones...on the eastern side...ferns grow among these...but on the western a small bushlike eucalyptus"...The sides "break suddenly into rocks and at the bottom there was a deep valley, which comes from the west-north-west. This valley takes a circuitous course to the east and appears to run on the western side of Round Hill." At the bottom was a fine stream, "evidently that which falls into the Devil's Wilderness from the S.W."

The trees there were small in general of only two sorts...one with a bark like the colonial mahogany and the other...apple tree. There was an excellent view from the N.N.W. to the S. but from S. to N.E. the views are interrupted by the trees and only seen through the openings." He could not be certain whether he actually saw Prospect[*] as the high land "backwards" prevented him making out "its true figure."

[* Caley gives these bearings: " Round Hill S.ES. ½ S., Grose's Head the high point E. a little S. over it is cleared land, which I suspect to be Castle Hill. Prospect E.N.E. ¼ E."]

He found that the whole length of the top of Mount Banks was about half a mile, and that the north end was "somewhat the shape of the other...the top...thickly covered with loose stones...among which fern grows and causes bad walking." It commanded "a prospect from the S.E. by S. to E.S.E. in general very good." "From N.E. by E. to N.W. by W. Fern Tree and Table Hill prevent a distant view."[*] Caley looked again and again for "the conical hill which is called Mount Hunter," but he could not distinguish it.

[* Bearings from here were: "The Haycock N. 1/4 W. High distant saddle land N.N.W. A small hummock on Mount S.S.E.]

As he clambered round the mountain he came to a part which he named the Saddle and its north end "the Middle Hummock," whence he obtained the views he desired of the surrounding country; and writing of this spot he says. "Though the lowest part on the top of the hill it has the best prospect owing to its nakedness." After ascending the Middle Hummock he looked eastward and saw in that direction "a wide and extensive vale...and the land on the sea coast...a little hazy."

He then turned and looked westward! Before him lay that hidden region whose secrets so many brave explorers had vainly striven to discover; where fertile plains and wide rivers still awaiting the coming of white men were to prove the goal of those who followed him on his path of exploration--pioneers like himself whose names are written imperishably in the history of the West.

Having gazed at the mountains, Caley, tired and almost worn out, in spite of his indomitable spirit, wrote those familiar words which historians have so often quoted (possibly as paraphrased by Governor King): "On looking to the westward I saw no large valleys but the one close at hand from which the ground apparently kept rising gently and gradually as far as eye could trace. In a few places there appeared...swamps, in others void of trees and only scrubby...The present appearance would lead one to imagine it might be readily travelled over provided one was across the inaccessible valley close at hand, yet there is no doubt...we shall find other valleys of a similar nature as I am too well convinced of there being such...One comes upon them all at once like a ha-ha."

Finding his provisions dwindling, his men exhausted, and the mountains impassable at last he decided to return to Sydney.

Caley noted that Mount Banks[*] possessed but few plants. The trees growing there were the bush-like Eucalyptus and a species of mimosa; a glaucous-leaved Senecio mixed with the fern and when climbing the Saddle he remarks, "The Warrote grows here," referring most likely to the waratah.

[* Mount King George.]

The birds in this region were chiefly lories and crows. On seeing a crow on the 16th, when the men were on the point of starting on their return journey, he writes: "We had several times seen a crow...in this part on whichIcould not help remarking one of the men saying they must be lost or they would never stay in such a place...which put me in mind of Dr. Johnson's sarcasm when he saw a crow in Scotland."

The place where Caley stood to look westward may well be called the limit of his journey. Next day he left Mount Banks and travelled back along his outward track, the party arriving safely at Parramatta on November 23rd, when Governor King sympathetically stated that in his opinion the idea of attempting to cross such a "confused and barren assemblage of mountains with impassable chasms between was as chimerical as useless."

In August, 1806, Caley again attempted to cross the mountains, but of this expedition there is no account among his MSS. This is curious, for the expedition was of sufficient importance for King to write to Governor Bligh on August 23, 1806: "Caley is just returned and should have waited on you to-morrow but...he is much fatigued and in want of rest...He has confirmed the existence of a large tract of forest land beyond Natai which...confirms Mr. Barrallier's observations...and will be useful in extending the interior establishments by which means alone the passing of the mountains can be established...If the party had not taken a liberal supply of provisions they must have starved. The settler who accompanied Caley is quite knocked up."

It is said that on one of his excursions Caley penetrated far into the mountains and built the cairn of stones near Woodford to mark the limit of his journey. In later years there has been much doubt as to this being the work of Caley, but the fact that Governor Macquarie afterwards called the landmark "Caley's Repulse" will show that he believed it to be so, and it seems incredible that one so greatly interested in the exploration of the mountains as Macquarie could have been misled upon such a point. As Caley did not leave Sydney until after Macquarie's arrival, he may well have given the Governor a verbal account of his explorations.

Caley returned to England in 1810 and later was appointed to superintend the botanical gardens at St. Vincent. He never ceased to regret that he was unable to find a way over the mountains, and was sceptical with regard to BlaxIand's party having crossed them. "Will you believe me if I say the Blue Mountains in New South Wales are not yet crossed..." he writes from St. Vincent to Robert Brown; "for such...is my opinion. What I mean by crossing the mountains is having gone as far as where the waters are disembogued on the opposite coast and if having got to the summit of a range of hills which commands an excellent prospect of the colony and then descending on its western side, be called crossing the mountains they have long ago been crossed...Cox's River which we are now told runs through Prince Regent's Glen and empties into the Nepean I take to be a river which unites with the Hawkesbury at Mulgoey...Wonder no longer where the conflux of this river...is, but turn to the Grose and you will be tolerably correct...Mr. Barrallier crossed the mountains as much as the others have...The forest he travelled over is much superior, with a main branch of the Hawkesbury gliding through the middle of the vale, and if coals be an object I have seen them in that quarter myself...though I walked 18 of his miles in an hour in as rough a valley as up the Grose, yetIwould sooner trust to his accuracy than to Mr. Evan's."

BLAXLAND CROSSES THE MOUNTAINS

The three men who finally succeeded where so many had failed were BlaxIand, Lawson, and William Wentworth. The last-named, then only a youth of twenty, in after years, owing to his determination and energy in furthering every object for his country's good, came to be called by his fellow-colonists the Australian Patriot."

Gregory BlaxIand, who led this expedition into the mountains, had settled at South Creek some years before, and was already familiar with the danger and difficulties to be met with among the ranges, occasionally having made short excursions to the foot of them from his homestead. He was now about to establish his reputation as a. bold and skilful explorer of them.

Lieutenant William Lawson, the third of the party, was an officer of the New South Wales Corps and may be termed "a born pioneer," as is shown by the way in which he aided BlaxIand in this expedition, and by the part he played later, when he opened up the district around Mudgee.

It has been stated that Lawson often conversed with Caley in England upon the subject of crossing the mountains, and that the plan of ascending the ridge or the spine of the main range and following it westward was then discussed for the first time. On the other hand, it is said that the idea originated with BlaxIand, who, in a previous tour, had noticed that the backbone of the mountains ran westward and determined to ascend the ridge and push his way along the top of it, keeping in sight the heads of the gullies which were supposed to empty their streams into the Western or Warragamba River on the left hand, and into the Grose on the right. Whoever suggested it, it was the plan which ultimately led to success.

At four o'clock of the afternoon of Tuesday, May 11, 1813, the explorers left BlaxIand's homestead at South Creek with four servants, five dogs, and four pack-horses, crossed the Nepean at Emu Island (some thirty-six miles west of Sydney), and after travelling two miles to the south-west halted at the foot of the first ridge, where they encamped for the night. Next morning they ascended the ridge, and on reaching its summit came to a spot where there was a freshwater lagoon.[*] As they advanced, difficulties soon overtook them. Their horses were constantly stumbling and the rocky hillsides, trying enough for the men, proved still more so for the animals. After two exhausting days both for man and beast, it was decided to leave the horses in charge of two men while the rest of the party cut their way through the bush. The work was unflinchingly got through, although there was not a man who was not wearied nor a hand that was not blistered and sore.

[* This lagoon still exists. The explorers reached the summit of the first ridge somewhere near the station at Glenbrook.]

On this memorable day, Friday, May 14th, a path extending for five miles through the thicket was completed wide enough to allow the pack-horses to pass and at five o'clock the explorers returned to camp. On the following day, leaving the camp as before in charge of the two men, they cleared two more miles, but, seeing no sign of grass for the horses, they returned again at five o'clock. On Sunday they rested. Next day, the 17th, the whole party pushed on and encamped on a narrow mountain ridge between two very deep gullies where some of the men descended a precipice to a depth of 600 feet to look for water, but none could be found. On the 18th, two miles farther on, they found their path flanked on both sides with precipices. Removing on their way some of the larger pieces of rock, the men crept along the narrow edge of the ridge and eventually got over in safety, but in the evening returned to camp, tired and out of spirits.

On the 19th, they ascended the second ridge,[*] and, looking back from it, caught a distant view of the settlement now a "minute speck " beneath them. Not far from this spot, while busily cutting trees along the narrow path, they came upon a cairn of stones, shaped like a pyramid. One side of it had been opened and the stones scattered around, evidently by natives. It was thought then that it had been built by Bass to mark the end of his tour and that the exploring party were now following in his tracks; but, as already mentioned, Governor Macquarie believed that this pile of stones was Caley's work and named it Caley's Repulse.

[* This second ridge was the rugged range lying beyond Linden and separated from it by a deep valley.]

What lay beyond Caley's Repulse was a mystery! The explorers might well have been overawed by the task they had set themselves. Possibly they remembered the old stories of the blacks at Port Jackson, who said it was the abode of evil spirits who hurled thunder and floods and burning winds upon them or, as Caley had learnt from natives, that beyond the mountains there was a great river inland and "a plane above the trees," which was nearer the truth.

From Caley's Repulse for some days the travellers advanced step by step averaging four or five miles a day, and on May 22nd reached the summit of the third and highest ridge in the neighbourhood of Wentworth Falls. A precipice here crossed their path and defied their efforts to descend it. At last they found a way round it and noticed that the ridge they were on was widening before them. Next day they passed close to the site of Katoomba and cut their names upon the trunk of a tree growing In their route. New birds attracted them. Emus were heard calling, and on the 24th the sound of a black fellow chopping wood excited their curiosity, and told them, although they could not catch sight of the native, that the mountains were inhabited.[*]

[* On this day they crossed Blackheath.]

On May 25th, the track of a wombat was seen, and a little later the smoke of native fires rising through the trees to westward, where apparently thirty natives were moving about but so far off that it was impossible to ascertain anything regarding them. On Friday, May 28th, as they followed the mountain spur that juts beyond Mount Victoria, to the explorers' joy, they could see grass country in a valley below them. It was clear of trees and covered with loose white pebbles and stones. At first it looked barren and sandy, but they perceived that it really was grass, long and of a light straw colour. In the evening they descended the ridge to examine it more closely, but returned again to their camp on the edge of a high mountain, which was afterwards named Mount York by Governor Macquarie, though for some time it was familiarly known to travellers as the "Big Hill." It rose sharply 798 feet from the valley below, which was called the Vale of Clwyd.

On Saturday, 29th., at seven o'clock in the morning, the men began their descent into the valley through a passage[*] between the rocks thirty feet wide which they had discovered the day before. A low, slanting trench had to be cut with a hoe down the steep side of the mountain for the horses to walk in, since there was no sort of foothold for them.

[* The passage was afterwards named Cox's Pass, but Blaxland, in a letter to the Governor, dated June 15, 1815, states that it was discovered through a suggestion of Wentworth's, and that the river was found by Lawson while the others were bringing the horses down the mountain.]

From the foot of Mount York the explorers proceeded northwesterly about two miles and encamped on the banks of a fine stream of water.[*] The natives evidently were still moving before them, for smoke was again seen to the westward on the 31st; remains of their old fires were found and traces where they had been sharpening their spears; and the marks on the trees showed that their method of climbing differed from that of the Sydney blacks.

[* The River Lett.]

On this day Blaxland and his party passed through forest land and open meadow and met with two streams.[*] At nightfall they pitched their tents by the faster-flowing one at a short distance from a high hill, which took the shape of a sugar loaf.[**]

[* The Cox and Lett Rivers.]

[* The Cox River, named by Governor Macquarie; and Mount BlaxIand, so called by Evans.]

After once more surveying the newly found pastures, the explorers, now sorely in need of provisions, prepared to return home. For a time they satisfied their hunger by eating flowers of the honeysuckle tree, which are shaped like a bottle brush and are full of honey. The natives still were encamped at a little distance away, evidently possessing no huts, and would not allow the white men to approach them. Terminating their journey eight or nine miles from Mount York, on Tuesday, June 1st, the travellers ascended the ridge and began their journey homewards; they carefully marked the trees to show each mile of the road, and crossed the Nepean on Sunday, June 6, 1813, with all their party well.

There still may be seen on the old Bathurst road near Katoomba the remains of a tree trunk-now fenced in--on which BlaxIand, Lawson, and Wentworth carved their initials L. B. W. Standing on a high point of the mountains, it forms an inspiring memorial of a supreme effort of those three men, carried to success solely by their courage and endurance.

Great was the excitement in Sydney when the news of BlaxIand's success became known. With one accord the colonists rejoiced that they were no longer to live hemmed in to the westward by a mountain barrier, covered by giant rocks with ravines between, which, like some sleeping monster of old, had withheld from them for so many years the land that rightly should have been theirs to till and cultivate--a barrier among whose ravines Caley's stubborn will had been of no avail and against whose rocks the determined spirit of Bass had spent itself in vain. Had the mountains themselves been removed the hopes of the townsfolk could not have burned more brightly than when their footsore fellow-colonists, thoroughly worn out, their clothes torn and frayed and hands covered with wounds, returned home bringing the good news that their party had passed over the Blue Mountains and had seen long grass growing on the other side. Little wonder if, as it has been averred, Governor Macquarie gave an order to ring the church bells, for the conquest of the mountains was complete.

Perhaps on that day, as the great possibilities for the country's development dawned upon them, some remembered the words of Captain Tench written on reaching New South Wales with Hunter in H.M.S. "Sirius" on January 20, 1788: "To us it was a great and important day and I hope will mark the foundation...of an Empire," and perhaps, echoing them, some said of June 6, 1813: "This too, is an important day for it will mark a milestone on our road."

EVANS EXPLORES THE PLAINS

The mystery concerning the Blue Mountains having been solved, the discovery of the new territory led to important results. On November 19th, acting on instructions from Governor Macquarie, George William Evans, Deputy SurveyorGeneral, set out with a party from Emu Island to make a survey of the road and to explore the country from the point where the discoverers had turned back. On November 26th he reached the valley through which the rapid stream ran--the limit of BlaxIand's expedition--and encamped at the foot of the "handsome mountain like a sugar loaf," which he named Mount Blaxland, calling two others "similar in figure" Wentworth's and Lawson's Sugar Loaves.

In advancing from Mount BlaxIand, Evans, on November 27th, came upon a range[*] whose hills were very steep and proved a difficult ascent for the horses. He then discovered a valley where the grass was thick and halted to rest them. During his stay in it he remarks that he was unable to find any mimosa. This flower he evidently greatly admired, for he mentions it more than once in his journal. Strangely enough, in the country which he was on the verge of discovering the mimosa grows plentifully, and in some parts in the greatest profusion. When flowering, its exquisitely scented yellow clusters often form one of the prettiest features of the landscape. At this point, however, Evans was yet amid rugged bushland on the side of a hilly range, and could not then have foreseen, unless BlaxIand had already mentioned the flower to him, that he would be likely to find it in his path.

[* Clarence Hilly Range, named later by Governor Macquarie.]

Next day, November 28th, he left the horses in the valley, and sent three of his men to look for a track by which the animals could proceed on the morrow, while he crossed over to the north side of the rivulet to survey it. He returned to the camp at one o'clock and soon afterwards the men also came back, having been successful in their efforts to find a passage.

On Monday, 29th, in spite of precautions, Evans says that he "stopped quite out of spirits, having got completely entangled among the hills." All this day he had great difficulty in fighting his way to the main ridge of the range. The only path to it led him through wildernesses of scrub and over masses of granite rock where the horses' feet suffered terribly.

After travelling for two miles and a half, he got upon a lofty hill whence he could see for about fifteen miles to the north-west. He tells us that the view he obtained was all forest trees, but in every other direction it was obscured by high ranges, and the whole journey on this day totalled only three and a half miles.

On November 30th, he succeeded in mounting the main ridge by a difficult path, and from it, after walking for two miles, he could see northwards for a good distance. A peculiar mist rising some twenty miles away attracted his attention; it was so unlike smoke that he thought a river or large lagoon must be there. A quarter of a mile farther along the range he took another look around him from a high mount, and could see for forty miles over what appeared to be open country.

He then descended the range and passing over huge boulders came upon a river which took its rise in some large hills to the southward. Here his party shot wild duck and caught fish, which were large and plentiful in the stream. The distance travelled on this day was five and a half miles.

Evans then followed the windings of the river, which appeared to lead him "north of west" and next day, December 1st, discovered on the north side of it a remarkable hill with a stone on the peak. The hill was "nearly circular in form or like an Indian Fort,"[*] and this he named Evans's Crown[**] after himself.

[*Quoted from Oxley's journal.]

[** It is close to Tarana.]

He walked to its summit and, on looking westward, could see for a distance of fifty miles, then gaining his first view of the Bathurst Plains. His joy was unbounded. One can well believe the story handed down by the earliest settlers there who said that when Evans first caught sight of the plains he imagined that he was gazing at a vast inland sea. He might easily have been misled, for waves upon waves of grass like ocean billows lay stretched before him as far as eye could see. Nor can one wonder that Evans was delighted with his discovery. Few places suited to the wants of civilized man had been so jealously concealed from observation and approach, more bravely striven for or so hardly won as this inland prairie. He soon discovered that it was grassland, and of it he writes "It is a great extent of grazing land!...well watered by running streams in almost every valley!" This day he travelled five and a quarter miles. The following day turned out wet, and every one of the party got drenched, the thin leaves of the eucalyptus affording them little or no shelter; but he took great notice of the country through which they passed, and wrote: "I think it equal to Van Diemen's Land, the river winding through fine flats and round the points of small ridges--that gradually descend to it--covered with the finest grass and intermixed with the white daisy as in England." On this date he travelled only four and a half miles.

Next day he found the flower that he had before so often sought in vain--the mimosa--"in clusters on the banks of the river," and evidently his progress on this day was a little faster, for his distance was five and three-quarter miles. On Saturday, December 4th, he came to "an exceeding good tract of country, and he describes it as "the handsomest I have yet seen, with gentle rising hills and dales well watered. The distant hills which are about five miles south, appear as grounds laid out, divided into fields by hedges. There are few trees on them and the grass is quite green."

He still kept near the river, which provided the men with an abundance of fish, and the dogs in the meantime killed a kangaroo, of which there were plenty seen, as well as emus. While tracing the river, which wound over the plains, he bestowed upon it, a day or two later, the name of Fish River, because the fish were so easily caught and continued to be so abundant. His men rested near the banks on the 5th as it was Sunday. It rained most of the day and they had no shelter, nor did the trees provide them with any bark as a protection.

The first clear tract of land was named O'Connell Plains, in honour of the Lieutenant-Governor. "At the space of about a mile," says Evans in his diary on December 6th, "I came upon a fine plain of rich land, the handsomest country I ever saw, it surpasseth Port Dalrymple" (Tasmania). Again he returns to praise it: "This place is worth speaking of as good and beautiful: the tract of clear land occupies about a mile on each side of the river...We saw a number of wild geese but too shy to let us near them."

Farther on he came to the outskirts of yet another plain which was "still more pleasing and very extensive." He reached it at three o'clock on December 6th, and observes: "The soil is exceedingly rich and produces the finest grass intermixed with a variety of herbs. The hills have a look of a park and grounds laid out. I am at a loss for language to describe the country--I named this part the Macquarie Plains." He notes the abundance of game, and fish as well, "which is caught immediately--they seem to bite at any time." This day's progress amounted to six miles.

Evans continued to advance along the Fish River, and on December 7th, "at about four miles," his men were stopped by another river from the southward, which they traced for two miles in order to find a spot where they could ford it. They were held up by an approaching thunderstorm and had to find a shelter, for it was a severe one. This day the distance travelled was five and three-quarter miles.

After a wet night a fine morning broke on December 8th. While employed in tracing the second river, Evans, two miles farther on, came upon more open country, which he named Mitchell's Plains. His party managed to cross this stream by throwing a rough log bridge across it, while some of the men swam over with the horses. He found the surroundings very beautiful: "No mountains to be seen. There are high hills at great distances, can observe them green to their tops."

He named the second river Campbell River in honour of Mrs. Macquarie, it being her maiden name, and came to its junction with the Fish River at sunset. The two streams when united formed one river, to which Evans gave the name of the Macquarie, in honour of the Governor of New South Wales.

The Macquarie River flowed through another extensive plain, and on December 9th Evans in glowing terms praises the scenery: " The hills are fine indeed...I never saw anything to equal it...the soil is good," and he adds a word of admiration for some trees he saw there: "The small trees on the lower banks of the river stand straight not lying down as...at the Hawkesbury." He also commends the grass:" The grass might be mowed, it is so thick and long, particularly on the flat lands." He was able to travel eight and a quarter miles on this day.

On December 10th he again followed the windings of the Macquarie across country which seemed to excel all the rest in its richness, and which he describes as "excellent good land with the best grass I have seen in any part of New South Wales." Even the hills were covered with fine pasture, the trees being far apart. "At the termination of the plains is a very handsome mount," and Evans went to the top of the mount which stood at the extremity of the plains, and says: "I named it Mount Pleasant from the prospect it commands to the N.E."

As he stood and viewed its surroundings he wrote upon his map: "I can see at least 30 miles S.W. I could distinguish several plains and the course of a stream." He certainly makes it plain from his writings that he was pleased with all he saw, and he observes: "The river now winds itself round the points of forest hills."

There were numbers of emus and kangaroos now to be seen, but he writes, with evident disgust, "The dogs will not give chase and I imagine they are bad ones." The river compensated for this loss, however; for he presently adds: "Nothing astonishes me more than the amazing large fish that are caught: one is now brought in that weighs at least 15 Ibs. They are all of the same species."[*] He thus ends his entry on this day: "I call the plains last passed over 'Bathurst Plains.'" The distance travelled was seven and a quarter miles.

[* Native Perch or "Australian Bass."]

From Mount Pleasant, on the 11th, Evans continued to follow the course of the Macquarie. There soon came an alteration in the aspect of the country, and he thus describes his route:"The river leads me among hills the points of which end in rocky bluffs near the water. At about four miles I was brought up by one of them which appears to be the termination of a range of high hills from the south and is the only mass of rock I have met with since leaving the Blue Mountains." He halted at this spot for a few hours so that he could examine it and ascend a peak, which he named on his map the Pine Hill. From its summit he saw that the river "twined about N.W. round the points of stupendous green hills to the S. and S.W." On the north side of the river a ridge of pasture hills ranged westward. To the east he could see the fine plains that his party had travelled over. He could observe no rocky ranges with pine trees save the one he was on, and he writes: "The pines have a very romantic appearance...the largest of them is about four feet in circumference."

He wished to go over the river and explore the north side, but says, "we could not cross the water." On this day the party travelled where there were many rocks but good pasture, the distance accomplished being six and a quarter miles. On Sunday, December 12th, his men rested, while Evans took a walk for a few miles to the south-west, and was pleased to see "steep healthy hills thickly covered with grass and water in almost every valley."

On the 13th "the hills were still steep and not so fine as those already passed"; "they are rather rough with rocks...The gums are much larger and intermixed with boxtree...the soil...of a stiffer nature having pieces of alabaster rock among it. The high lands...have a great deal about them that on the surfaces is quite white in some places and of a yellow cast in others." The Macquarie's course now grew "irregular." On December 14th the country through which it ran became more and more barren-looking, and Evans says, "it is the worst I have been over since leaving the Blue Mountains." Nevertheless, he managed to travel seven miles on that day. On the 15th the road grew very rugged indeed, and the only open country to be seen was that from north-west to east.

The travelling for some days had been so rough that the men were now almost barefoot: the stones and grass had cut their shoes to pieces. Nor could they hope to renew them, since the dogs would not chase the kangaroo and, says Evans, "there is no certainty of obtaining skins for our feet." The horses' backs were also in a bad condition, and seeing no hopes of getting to the end of the high range of hills on which he then was Evans determined on December 16th to turn back on the following day. He writes" "I am now 98½ miles from the limitation of Mr. BlaxIand's excursion." This he had ascertained through having measured the whole distance by chain.

On the 17th the party turned eastward and made their way back again over the open plains. The track on Evans's map shows that he did not follow his outward track along the Macquarie, and only returned to the river at intervals, presumably when in need of water. On one of these occasions he was fortunate enough to meet with some of the natives. He had previously looked for them, and had found "late traces" of their presence, so that he writes, "I think they are watching us and keep at some distance."

On the 21st, however, while the men were fishing on the banks of the river, some were seen making their way towards it. The white men watched the black party advance over the plain, and quietly waited for their approach in order to surprise them. There were only two women and four children. "The poor creatures trembled and fell down with fright" at the sight of the strangers, and Evans says. "I think they were coming for water, I gave them what fish we had--also some fish hooks, twine and a tornahawk--which they appeared glad to get from us. Two boys ran away: the other small children cried much at first. A little while after I had played with them they began to be good humoured and laugh. Both the women were blind of their right eyes."

Thus East met West on the Bathurst Plains.

BATHURST AND BEYOND

After Evans had returned to Sydney and had given an account of his travels, no time was lost in making a road over the mountains to the newly-found territory. Two hundred and fifty-seven miles of thick bush were cleared (fifty-eight of which spanned the breadth of the mountains); viaducts were built round giant rocks; chasms were bridged in a way that even to-day would be considered remarkable: with the result that when, on April 25, 1815, the Governor, accompanied by Mrs. Macquarie and suite, left for the settlement, the general and his wife were able to drive the whole way in their post-chaise. This notable feat in roadmaking was the work of Mr. William Cox, J.P., of Windsor.

Upon reaching Evans's Crown and the highlands above the Bathurst Plains, the Governor obtained an extensive view of the country and of the Fish and Campbell Rivers. The first glimpse of the former gave him an idea that it was a stream of considerable magnitude. Owing, however, to the dry weather at the time, very little water was running and it might have been more properly described as a chain of pools.

At a distance of seven miles from the bridge which had been made over the Campbell River, a little to the south of its junction with the Fish River, the view was again admired. We need not wonder that the general openly expressed his pleasure at the sight of the open country. Years afterwards it was written of him that "he constructed roads like a Colossus and covered the Blue Mountains with corn"! but at this time he knew nothing of the interior, therefore the fertile grassland heralded prosperity and dispelled any doubts suggested by the barren regions of alternate rock and thicket.

A little later he saw the Macquarie, when the course of the river could be easily traced by the tall swamp oaks that grew upon its banks. It is the Macquarie of the white man; but in past ages the black men had called it Wambool or Wandering River, on account of its winding course, and out of the wood of the swamp oaks they had carved their boomerangs, shields, and womerahs. In its reaches were afterwards found large numbers of that curious animal the duck-billed platypus, and on the banks grew in profusion shrubs new to the colonists, strange grasses, and flax with its sweet-scented purple and white flowers.

A few trees were dotted here and there over the open country, chiefly the tall white eucalyptus, others being wattle or mimosa and some casuarina, tall and picturesque as the pine. On each side of the river little dark hillocks or knolls, and peculiar "fairy rings," had been formed, and long furrows at regular intervals marked the plains. The furrows were remarkable and would have been taken for plough ridges in a civilized land, but no ploughshare had yet broken the soil, and it was conjectured that the water of a flood which had long receded must have caused them. It was curious that the furrows on each side of the Dividing Range ran in the same direction from north-east to south-west.

On May 4th the party encamped in an open space on the left bank of the Macquarie, whence the Governor made excursions along both banks and saw some natives. He had a portrait of a native chief drawn for him, and in a letter to the Home Government vouched for its being an excellent likeness. Some of these natives possessed cloaks of kangaroo skins, stitched together with the sinews of the emu, which they wore loosely over their shoulders. These had the fur side turned inwards and were often adorned with curious devices on the outer side. Governor Macquarie described one to Lord Bathurst which he said bore "as regularly formed a St. George's cross as could be made."

On Sunday, May 7th, the Governor fixed on a suitable site for the erection of a town to which he gave the name of Bathurst in honour of Henry third Earl Bathurst, then Secretary of State for the Colonies. The site designed for the town was found to be by observation taken at the selected flagstaff twenty-seven and a half miles north and ninety-four and a half miles west of Government House, Sydney. Within a distance of ten miles there were "not less than 50,000 acres, quite half of which was fit for cultivation..." On May 11th the Governor and his party set out on their return to Sydney, where they arrived on the 19th.

As the Macquarie River flowed with such strong current and volume past the new settlement, the Governor dispatched Evans to trace the river still farther, and explore the country to the west and south-west. This is known as Evans's second expedition westward. Accompanied by his man Appledove, he left Bathurst on May 13, 1815, passed through a valley named Queen Charlotte's Vale, and discovered a small tributary and then a larger one, which he called Limestone Creek. On the 25th he fell in with a creek bearing south, which joined the bed of a stream that came from a north-westerly direction. It was dry, but the banks were seventy-nine feet apart and the large swamp oaks growing on either side made it evident that it marked the course of a large river. Evans named it the Lachlan in honour of the Governor, and established a military depôt at a spot which he called Byrne's Creek. He discovered many hills and named the highest three Mount Lachlan, Mount Molle, and Mount Lewin. Emus and kangaroos were seen, and there were remains of burnt-out native fires, around some of which he counted no less than twenty-three heaps of emu feathers. A few days before he started on his return he met three natives, a man, woman, and child; the man ran to a tree and climbed up it, the woman and child remaining terrified at the apparition of a white man. Evans succeeded in getting on good terms with the child, but the man in the tree cried so loudly that he might have been heard half a mile away. On June 1st Evans, after carving his name and the date upon a tree, left the Lachlan River on his return to Bathurst, where he arrived on June 12th.

In 1817 Governor Macquarie ordered Lieutenant Oxley, the Surveyor-General, to trace the courses of the two rivers, the Lachlan and the Macquarie, and to "ascertain their final termination." In company with Oxley, there went on this expedition Evans; Fraser, to collect plants for Lord Bathurst; Parr, who acted as mineralogist to the party; and Allan Cunningham.

CHAPTER VI

ALLAN CUNNINGHAM

Allan Cunningham, who brought back from his travels on land and sea such a plentiful store of the floral wealth of the continent, was a "Botanical Collector" for the Royal Gardens at Kew, and was admirably fitted not only by his scientific training but by his own untiring energy and devotion to his task for the work which has rendered him famous. The hardships which he endured during his Australian researches seem to have shortened his life, and indeed a glance at his portrait, reproduced on another page, suggests that nature had scarcely equipped him for the tremendous physical strain which his long explorations imposed upon him.

His journal, bound in one large volume, is in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, and the full extracts which will be found in the following pages are now published, as far as the author knows, for the first time. It is a diary of his work day by day for a period of less than two years out of the many that he spent in New South Wales, where he was to end his life. He sent home many letters and notes[*] describing discoveries of importance; yet of all the records he has left this book is the most human.

[* The diary and the reports of Cunningham are too voluminous to be printed in extenso in such a volume as this, but all essential portions are either quoted verbatim or in a slightly abbreviated form.]

It begins shortly after his arrival in the colony, when he had made his home at Parramatta, and tells of his first advance with Lieutenant Oxley's expedition into the interior of a country which he was afterwards to penetrate again and again, exploring its vast distances, making new discoveries, and closely examining its flora. In turning over the pages of this old book, the very scent of the flowers, the splendour of their colours, and the delicate tracery of the ferns, seem to pervade it and carry us back to the time when, as a young man of six-and-twenty, Allan Cunningham landed in Sydney and first began to make his collections of plants and seeds.

He was of Scottish extraction, his father, Allan Cunningham, being a native of Renfrewshire. His mother, whose maiden name was Dickin, came of a Shropshire family. The elder Allan Cunningham was her second husband; she was married to him on August 20, 1790, and she bore him two sons, both of whom were to end their lives in New South Wales: Allan was born at Wimbledon on July 13, 1791, and Richard on February 12, 1793. Both went to school at Putney, and after Allan's schooldays were over he spent some time in a conveyancer's office in Lincoln's Inn, but the study of law did not sufficiently appeal to him and he gladly accepted a situation at Kew as clerk to Mr. W. T. Aiton, then at work on the second edition of the "Hortus Kewensis."

Here Allan Cunningham often met Robert Brown (late botanist of H.M.S. "Investigator"), librarian to Sir Joseph Banks, who had charge of the "Hortus Kewensis" through the press; and, doubtless from Brown, Cunningham gained at first hand much information concerning the flora of Australia. In 1814 he received his appointment as Botanical Collector to the Royal Gardens and left Plymouth with James Bowie on October 29th, in H.M.S. "Duncan" (74), Captain Chambers, for Brazil.

Rio de Janeiro was sighted on Christmas Day, and a few days later the two botanists landed and spent three months collecting specimens in the surrounding country. In April, 1815, they started for San Paulo, where they arrived after a month of hard travelling through rough country. They returned to Rio in August and spent twelve months in collecting plants in the neighbourhood, sending home both dried and living specimens. Cunningham then received orders from Sir Joseph Banks to sail to New South Wales, while Bowie was to proceed to the Cape of Good Hope. The former took his passage in the ship "Surrey" and reached Sydney Cove on December 20, 1816, after a voyage of ninety-five days. He landed on the following day and proceeded at once to report his arrival to Governor Macquarie, then living at Parramatta, who gave him a very kind reception. Shortly afterwards he hired a cottage and took up his residence at Parramatta, where he seems to have lived during the earlier part of his stay in the colony.

He tells us that, on paying his first visit to the Governor, General Macquarie had hinted that an expedition (under the command of Mr. Oxley) to explore further to the westward of the Blue Mountains was in contemplation; that it would be composed of ten individuals, and strongly recommended him to join it, being convinced that "an infinite number of new and interesting specimens of plants might be detected in the several districts through which it might pass." Cunningham determined not to miss so favourable an opportunity of seeing the interior, and, matters being amicably arranged with Mr. Oxley, he began his preparations for the journey which was to prove the forerunner of many tours of exploration.

At first Cunningham was content to accompany expeditions as the botanist attached to the party, but before long he found that he himself possessed the inclination and skill to become a leader in exploration. On his long journeys into new and strange country he was gradually attracted, not only by the fascination of its botany, but by its unknown mountain ranges, its distant plains, and its curious rivers winding within their deep, torn banks over beds of sand. He soon seems to have determined to investigate them, and about the year 1822, starting under his own leadership and using his own methods to penetrate the bush, he began his work as an explorer, with the same zeal that he bestowed upon his botanical researches. How well his efforts were rewarded and how great the measure of success which crowned his labours the discoveries of Pandora's Pass, the Darling Downs, Cunningham's Gap, the Gwydir, the Dumaresq, and the Condamine Rivers will sufficiently bear witness.

His long voyages with Captain King to the north and northwest coasts afforded him increased opportunities for studying the botany of the mainland, and his visits to Tasmania and New Zealand added greatly to his knowledge of lands beyond the limits of the continent itself.

Like a true botanist, Cunningham took pains that not distant England alone should reap the benefit of his toil. During his many journeys into the bush over miles of trackless country he sowed various kinds of seeds in Australian soil in scattered areas, choosing localities where he believed the plants would best germinate and thrive. These seeds he had brought with him from England, from Brazil, and from the Cape, his last port of call before landing at Sydney. So that, in after years, many people on perceiving a single specimen of some strange plant flourishing alone in the native earth in an isolated spot have wondered why and how it came there. Probably the ornamental Aga\ve americana growing at the foot of the hill whereon stands the old Church of the Holy Trinity at Kelso sprang from seed thus sown; and, if so, it is in itself a fitting memorial to Cunningham.

One day when conversing with Dr. Lang on this subject he said: "I always carry into the interior a small bagful of peach-stones" (in his journals he enumerates various fruit stones and seeds), "and whenever I find a piece of good soil in the wilderness I cause it to be dug up and drop in a few in the hope of providing a meal for some famished European...or some hungry blackfellow." In Sydney and around Parramatta he was equally eager to distribute seeds of English flowers--usually specimens of the commoner kinds--to those earlier generations of Australians who thus learned to love the primrose, the wallflower, and the violet, as had their forefathers, and to cultivate the English rose, all of which gave colour and lent influence in forming the minds of the children, many of whom were destined to make their homes in that very wilderness, and to plant their gardens there.

How much the flowers meant too to those British people who had left their native land perhaps Hopley's picture which we reproduce, best will show.

Though Oxley's "Journal of Exploration into the Interior" in 1817 has long been printed, we read an entirely new account of his travels in Cunningham's diary. Fresh as he was from Brazil, he is able to give us with a more experienced mind his impressions of the plants and flowers that he saw growing upon the Blue Mountains, at Bathurst, in the country watered by the Macquarie and Lachlan, and also on the north-west coast, and to compare them with those already seen by Robert Brown on the eastern side of the mountains and in Northern Australia.

Cunningham's diary, which begins while he was residing at Parramatta, runs as follows.

ALLAN CUNNINGHAM'S JOURNAL

BOTANIZING AT PARRAMATTA, MARCH, 1817

1817. March 1st. Saturday. Dull cloudy weather. Prevented from stirring out of doors. Small mistling rain most part of the day.

Evening fair, light clouds.

2nd, Sunday. Showery in the early part of the morning. Fine and clear at 9 o'clock. Continued so the whole of the day.

3rd. Monday. Morning very fine; went on board the Brig Kangaroo and saw Captain Jeffreys who informed me that he could not sail before the 16th or 17th inst. Returned on shore in consequence of an invitation to dine with His Excellency in the afternoon.

4th. Tuesday. This day was occupied on the Botany Bay Road. Gathered on the roadside duplicate seeds of Tetratheca sp. On the damp sandy camps gathered specimens of Banksia oblongifolia and seeds of Petrophila Pulchella. In dry forest lands near the Bay I gathered specimens of Dodonaea cuneata, a new species, a small shrub; observed in the deep waters near the road an aquatic plant in flower, perhaps A ctinocarpus of Brown's Prodrs. Cor. 3, petals white, anthers and styles yellow.

5th. Wednesday. Papering my seeds and specimens.

8th. Saturday. Ticketing and packing the remaining of my specimens. Having visited the North Rocks near Parramatta but twice since I had been in New South Wales and desirous of augmenting my seed list I made an excursion to them at 12 o'clock. Gathered seeds of Ceratopetalum gummiferum (Christmas Bush);[*] seeds of an annual plant of the Asperifolia.; Aster sp., a very slender herbaceous plant; duplicate seeds of Panax sp., often before observed with some ferns, among which is a singular Acrostichum [leather fern]. On my return, gathered species of Epacris sp. [an Australian heath], flowers very large, white.

[* Although called a bush, it is really a tree, attaining a height of thirty to forty feet. It belongs to the natural order Saxifrageae. The generic name is taken from two Greek words meaning a horned petal. It is confined to the State of New South Wales.]

10th. Monday. I made an excursion early this morning to the Pennant Hills about 8 miles from Parramatta. In rocky valleys at the base of these hills I gathered seeds of a handsome shrub of the genus Exocarpus, and perhaps the species discovered by Labillardière in Van Diemen's Island in 1793 and called by him E. expansa; much the habit of Taxus, receptacle of the fruit larger than E. cupressiformis [native cherry] and of a deep purple colour. Exocarpus cupressiformis, specimens in flower, and Baeckia densifolia, abundant on damp rocks.

11th. Tuesday. Prevented from stirring out of doors. Heavy rain at night.

13th. Thursday. Morning fair but cloudy. Repapering[*] my specimens, seeds etc. Having heard of the arrival of the Ships Fame and Sir Wm. Bensley from London and desirous of ascertaining whether they had brought any letters for me, I went down to Sydney but found none had arrived...

[* Changing the papers in which the specimens were dried from damp to dry sheets.]

17th. Monday. The whole of the day was employed on an immense tract of land beyond the Camp at Parramatta but met with but little success. The late heavy rains had destroyed nearly the whole of the seeds that were ripe as well as the flowering specimens. Gathered seeds of an Elaeocarpus, a small tree, on the banks of the north creek etc., in low damp situations.

19th. Wednesday.> Took a walk a short distance on the Camp, gathered seeds of Patersonia sericea; Goodenia sp., a small herbaceous plant; and a species of Hypoxis, a small liliaceous plant, found among grass.

20th. Thursday. An opportunity offering of a pack horse going up to Bathurst, I sent forward a specimen press and some paper to remain at the depo~t till my arrival.

21st. Friday. Morning particularly calm, fine and clear. I occupied myself this day examining the botanical productions of a rocky creek in the environs of Baulkham Hills, about 5 miles north-west of Parramatta; collected seeds of the following plants:

1. Jasminoides (= Lycium), a twining shrub not unlike Jasminum gracile(H.K.), but the berry is many seeded.

2. >Veronica sp., a small creeping rock plant, flowers blue.

3. Cissus sp., leaves quinated, leaflets ovate-oblong, glaucous beneath; a twining shrub.

4. Baeckia sp., allied to >B. densifolia, a low depressed shrub, in damp situations.

It being far advanced in the afternoon before I could return to Baulkham Hills, having gone along the margins of the creek several miles, I passed the evening and night at the little farming establishment of a friend.

22nd. Saturday. I returned to Parramatta this morning.

24th. Monday. This day I finally packed my seeds and specimens. Writing letters to the Right Hon. Sir J. Banks and W. T. Aiton, Esqr., informing them among other matters of the shipping of a box of specimens and seeds on board H.M. Armed Brig "Kangaroo," bound for England direct. Enclosing copy of journal from September last to the end of last month, together with an account of my disbursements.

25th. Tuesday. Having placed my box on board the daily passage boat, in order to be forwarded to Sydney Cove, I went down myself by land. In the afternoon I ship'd my collection on board the Kangaroo brig, which is expected to sail in a few days.

26th. Wednesday. Bright clear day. Heat moderate.

27th. Thursday. Waited (on the 26th) on the Governor but could not see him, His Excellency being much engaged at this period forming his despatches for England.

31st. Monday. This dayIreceived a letter from the Deputy-Surveyor stating that next Thursday has been fixed upon as the day on which the remaining persons composing the expedition should proceed forward from Parramatta and begging me to hold myself in readiness on that day.

1817. April 1st. Tuesday. Remained within doors all the day--writing forward journal.

2nd. Wednesday. This day I conveyed my chest and boxes to the Government store-house and placed them under the care of the storekeeper until my return from the intended journey.

JOURNEY OVER THE WESTERN OR BLUE MOUNTAINS

Parramatta to Bathurst, 3-19 April, 1817

April 3rd. Thursday. Although I have not received from the Right Hon. Sir J. Banks or Mr. Aiton any instructions to direct me in my duties in this country, still I should feel by no means justified in allowing so very favourable an opportunity now offering itself to pass by, and more especially as the natural history of the western interior of the continent is becoming daily more important and interesting to the Mother Country.

Considering the small portion of this vast continent yet known, and that imperfectly to a few individuals, and the large tract of country we may necessarily plod over in our endeavour towards accomplishing the primary and grand object on account of which the expedition (to which I have attached myself) has been formed, I anticipate much in my department and pursuits, and have endeavoured to guard against those inconveniences (which I have experienced on former journeys) by furnishing myself with moderate-sized portable saddle bags, and specimen cases, well canvassed over and painted, for the reception and protection of those treasures that the interior of this country may afford me. Mr. Evans, Assistant-Surveyor, arrived the last evening here at Parramatta in order to make arrangements relative to an extra cart for the conveyance of the remaining part of our luggage to Bathurst, intending to proceed forward on our route for that settlement to-morrow morning.

4th. Friday. About 9 o'clock this morning we sent the two carts with the people forward, in order if possible to arrive on the right bank of the Nepean River (a distance of about 21 miles) this evening. We (Mr. Evans and myself) finally left Parramatta about 10 o'clock, passed the cluster of farms at Prospect Hill about midday, and were obliged to swim our horses over the South Creek, which although considerably abated, presents at this time a rapid stream of water of considerable depth, its wooden bridge having been carried away by the late floods. About 4 o'clock in the afternoon we arrived at the Ferry on the Nepean River, where we stopped for the night.

The road over which we passed this day, which is bounded by open forest land, is tolerably good considering the recent heavy rains that have fallen upon it and the waters that cross it in the slight hollows formed by the gentle risings of the country. The botany, with very few exceptions, is the same as that observed in similar situations in the environs of Parramatta. I have, however, gathered specimens of a Prostanthera, a dwarfish shrub with small purple flowers; a species of Persoonia, forming a small shrub with linear leaves is likewise in flower, and a species of Erodium is abundant in the pathway. Dodonaea filiformis, seen but sparingly in open woods near Botany Bay, is very abundant on each side of the river, in young fruit. From the difficulty experienced in passing the South Creek, our loaded carts, which we had passed on the road, could not overtake us this day.

5th. Saturday. In consequence of our carts being unable to pass the South Creek the last evening, we were detained the whole of this day at the Ferry House. It afforded me an opportunity of examining the botanical productions on the immediate banks of the river, which, however, were by no means interesting. These are clothed with spreading trees of the Melia Azedarach commonly termed by the settlers "white cedar." It was in fruit. Casuarina torulosa and some common Eucalypti are the whole of the arborescent plants I observed. The late floods had made such dreadful ravages in the banks, which had been overflowed to a very considerable depth, as to leave me no herbaceous plants of any consideration.

6th. Sunday. Our carts and people having arrived this morning, we ferried our luggage over the river (which at this period is not less than 90 feet wide) and pitched our tent on the opposite or left bank. Our horses, which had escaped from the paddock in which they were encircled, were not secured till too late to swim them over to our encampment.

7th. Monday. This morning we swam our horses and bullocks over the river, and only waited the arrival of the Surveyor-General, John Oxley, Esq. (the chief of the expedition) to join us, according to agreement, in order to proceed on our journey. The banks on the Nepean abound with a species of Arum known in England by the name of A. Orixense [it is now known as Typhonium Brownii, Schott] differing from A. trilobatum in having a pedunculated spathe, which is longer than the spadix. Like its congeners, its flower has a fetid smell, and its root is of the most acrid taste and irritating quality so common to the genus, but boiled or roasted it is a nutritive vegetable equal to Caladium esculentum or buckra yam of our West Indian colonies. It is however but small. In an excursion I made down the river on its left bank, the following are the most remarkable plants that came within my notice and observation.

Phytolacca pentandra, an herbaceous plant of the habit of P. dioica; Native Elder, habit of Sambucus, specimens of which I sent to England per "Kangaroo," Clerodendron sp., a small tree 12-18 feet high, in fruit; Senecio sp., a tall herbaceous plant, in low swampy spots. The forests near the river are at this period altogether unproductive of any botanical subject for the collector. They abound with an abundance of the white cockatoo and a few flying squirrels.

8th. Tuesday Morning. We sent our men and carts forward westerly to the depo~t at Springwood, a distance of about 12 miles in the mountains, and were ourselves in the fullest hopes of overtaking them at that resting place in the evening. Mr. Evans and self were detained the whole of the day waiting the arrival of Mr. Oxley.

9th. Wednesday. Frosty: atmosphere fresh and sharp. Mr. Oxley had not arrived to join us and aware that we were one day behind our carts, we left directions with the man at the ford to inform Mr. Oxley we would wait one day for him at the second day's halting post--at the 28th mile mark--and commenced our route from Emu Plains about ten o'clock. The road to the foot of the mountains is through the open wooded flat called Emu Plains, so named probably from numbers of those birds having been found here at the formation of the colony, and when the country had been cleared and opened this far inland. The timber is small and consists of the Eucalypti observed about Parramatta. The ascent from the plains is very gentle, leading through fine avenues of trees of tolerable size formed by the new road which is of easy and slightly curved form and of convenient width.

About one o'clock we passed the depo~t at Springwood, which is remarkable for the good grassy pasturage and lofty handsome timber with which this resting place is surrounded. Eucalyptus robusta (white or swamp mahogany) and E. resinifera; (red mahogany), and Casuarina torulosa (River Oak), are predominant, with another species of Eucalyptus called by the colonists "Stringy Bark." Our carts had left this depo~t early this morning for the next stage, where we were all to meet at night. About 3 miles onward there is an obvious change in soil and in the appearance of the timber, the former being barren and rocky and the latter becoming stunted and diminutive. In these sterile tracts many of the plants common about Sydney and Parramatta appear to very fine effect. Among them I observed a species of Podolobium [Oxylobium] in pod, it appears distinct from P. trilobatum in the formation of the lateral lobes of the foliage, which are entire as well as bifurcated and spinous.

Near the 18th mile mark, is an open and extremely bleak and barren part near the road side. Upon a small eminence of rugged ascent stands a pile of stones supposed to have been erected by the indefatigable and persevering botanist Mr. George Caley, and suspected to be his farthermost advancement westward in a grand botanical excursion which he had undertaken with a view of crossing the mountains. His Excellency in passing this place on his route to Bathurst in the year 1815 called it Caley's Repulse. The country is now very rugged and mountainous, and the road difficult, which in one place is formed by means of a wooden bridge over a gully, reflecting great credit upon the persons to whom its formation was entrusted by His Excellency for their judgment and perseverance in this difficult undertaking. Near the 20th. mile is an extensive flat or plain, which His Excellency in the journey above referred to, has called the King's Table Land. This exposed situation is covered with the shrub Eucalyptus microphylla [= Eucalyptus stellulata], forming thick brushes of underwood. This plain is considered as the summit of the western mountains, and from them a very extensive panoramic view presents itself of the country around us. On the S.W. side of the plain the mountain terminates in abrupt precipices of very considerable depth, at the bottom of which is seen a glen or ravine which the Governor has termed the Prince Regent's Glen. The length of this picturesque and remarkable tract of country is estimated at 24 miles.

Onward two miles we arrived at dusk at a wooden house, erected originally as a store for the preservation of provisions for the use of the men working on the road, and now converted into an half-way house, being 28 miles from Emu Ford. Our people had already arrived there and had kindled a large fire. The soil is now for the most part of a sandy grit, compounded of fragments of iron and sand-stone, in which, with a little peat, the finest specimens of Australian botany flourish.

I observed specimens of Persoonia with filiform leaves, agreeing in specific character with P. microcarpa. Stylidium setaceum, a very delicate plant, abundant on the wayside. On bare rocks Chloranthus stoechadis is very luxuriantly in flower. Some shrubs of the habit of Boronia, with pinnate and ternate leaves, grew very abundant on the roadside near the 26th mile mark: they were, however, not in flower. This evening we were joined by Mr. Oxley at our resting place at the 28th mile mark. Some boggy slopes at the back of our Wooden House have been called Lewis's or Jamieson's Plains.

10th. Thursday. Mr. Oxley ascertained by the assistance of the barometer, which he had brought with him, the height of the spot where we halted the last evening to be 2,984 feet and from the circumstance of King's Table Land being several feet higher we calculated it to be upwards of 3,000 ft. above the level of the sea. We availed ourselves of the clearness of the morning and freshness of the atmosphere, and while our people were loading the carts walked onward to the 33rd. mile, where, at the top of a hill, an opening presents to us a grand romantic expanse of country; mountains running beyond mountains to the very verge of the horizon, striking the beholder with admiration and astonishment. We have here a S.W. view of the Prince Regent's Glen. On account of the circular form in which the nearest or fore ground below us is disposed the Governor in his tour was induced to call it Pitt's Amphitheatre.

We halted here until our people with our carts came up to us. In taking a general view of the botany of the country around, which is thickly wooded with brush and small diminutive timber of Eucalypti, there appeared the following among the many plants very frequent in the environs of Sydney. Platylobium nova sp., with the habit of P. parviflorum, the leaves however are ovate, netted and silky beneath. The Boronia seen yesterday is very abundant in the sterile sands. Stylidium setaceum, with Arethusa sp., similar to the Arethusa figured in the last collection, were very fine in flower among the rocky grassy spots on the roadside. We did not notice Lambertia formosa, which is very frequent on the Blue Mountains, farther westward than about the 32nd mile mark. Continuing our route on the new road which runs on the main edge of the mountains and forms one side of the Prince Regent's Glen, we arrived at an open but low bushy tract of country, which His Excellency had named Hounslow Heath, although it is frequently termed Blackheath. Our carts and people were far behind us, occasioned by the rugged uneven state of the country. We therefore were obliged to halt for the day on this heath near the 41st mile mark. The water here is far from being good, it is the drainage of the low black peats which constitute the soil of the slopes from the heath. I furnished myself with specimens of a species of Grevillea, remarkable for the beauty of its flowers and the laciniated spinous habit of its foliage, which I have termed G. acanthifolia: a species of Pimelea, differing from P. glauca in having long filaments supporting the anthers, as in P. filamentosa, is likewise abundant.

11th. Friday. Cloudy morning. Proceeding forward on our journey the road continued for the space of 9 miles on the main range, where it abruptly terminates in almost a perpendicular precipice, down which a tolerably easy and practicable road has been formed, which has been called by the Governor Cox's Pass, and through all its windings cannot be less than ¾ of a mile. By admeasurement this abrupt termination of the mountains westerly proved to be 676 feet above the valley below it, which His Excellency has termed the Vale of Clwydd, from its resemblance and local situation being surrounded by mountains like that in North Wales. The retrospect view from the vale of the overhanging mountain is exceedingly grand and magnificent. At this point of view is observed the termination of a ridge that has the appearance of a very lofty distant hill, which the Governor has called Mount York, and which Mr. Oxley found by his barometer to be elevated above the level of the sea 3218 feet.

The Vale of Clwydd although boggy in some places has a rich soil, producing good grass, and in other respects is excellent pastureland. Here we observed the very remarkable change of country, differing from that on the mountains both in the vegetable productions and the nature of the soil. Banksia serrata ceases to exist farther west than the summit of Mount York, and B. compar succeeds it throughout the vale, of stubby arborescent growth in flower and fruit. This species of Banksia is perhaps only a variety of B. integrifolia. Eucalyptus Perfoliata (H.K.) is very frequent, and another species with some leaves cordate and sessile and others lanceolate and inserted on a petiole. Podolepis acuminata: Hibbertia cuneata, with large yellow flowers: Campanula sp., with large blue flowers and undulate bristly leaves: a species of Buchnera with yellow flowers: Helichrysum sp., allied to H. bracteatum, are all now very common plants, from Cox's Pass westerly. The rocks and shaded humid situations in the Pass afforded me specimens and seeds of Stylidium longifolium. A dwarf syngenesious shrub, Baccharis arguta is in seed: gathered seeds of Epacris spicata from plants growing in tufts in shaded situations. Acrostichum sp., having a sterile frond, a plant observed in glens near Botany Bay, is found here in great abundance on these shaded rocks with a species of Polypodium [Polypody Fern], with glossy laciniated coriaceous fronds. In Cox's Pass there is a kind of indurated pipeclay in lamina that might be turned to some ornamental or useful purpose by the sculptor. Some specimens which we collected of it worked as easily as chalk. Our people converted them into oil stones. We are now about 80 English miles from Sydney.

The mile-mark numbers begin afresh from the Pass to Bathurst. Passing through the Vale for about 5 miles we arrived at Cox's River, which is formed by a rivulet of fine water running to the eastward over a very stony bottom, and uniting itself with another stream at the western extremity of the vale, and from thence the junction takes its course through the Prince Regent's Glen and empties itself into the Nepean River. At this river we first observed granite, of which its bed is composed. Grevillea acanthifolia and G. asplenifolia, frequent on the margins of creeks on the eastern coast, grow on the banks of this river in the greatest luxuriance. Here is a depôt and store house under the charge of a corporal and 2 privates. We pitched our tent on the right bank of the river and halted for the night. Our barometer informed us that we had descended about 430 feet from the base of Mount York. In the Vale of Clwydd I gathered seeds and specimens of a shrubby Aster the flowers of which are of a bluish white colour.

12th. Saturday. Ascending from the river we continued our route westerly over a range of hills of difficult and fatiguing descent, which the Governor has named Clarence's Hilly Range, generally open forest land and tolerably good for grazing. The plants on this hilly district appear to differ very little from those before observed. Daviesia latifolia, a shrub first discovered in Van Diemen's Land is the most prevalent plant: a remarkable shrub, evidently from its distinct stipulae one of the Rubiaceae, is by no means rare; it is, however, not in flower at this time. Some large specimens of timber of the Eucalypti, which from the character of the capsule appear to be of the genus Eudesmia, are frequent. About 2 o'clock we arrived at the Fish River, on the western side of Clarence's Hilly Range, a stage of 16 miles--very severe and oppressive to our horses, the whole being sharp lofty hills and narrow boggy valleys, alternately. In one of the deep vales I gathered specimens of a species of Arenaria, with long white flowers and rigid sharp leaves: a species of Epilobium, agreeing in all its characters with E. angustifolium, is very frequent.

About 3 miles to the westward of Cox's River three remarkable hills connected together present themselves. The Governor desirous of commemorating the names of the three first individuals who penetrated thus far to the westward has called them Mount BlaxIand, Wentworth's Sugar Loaf, and Lawson's Sugar Loaf. Acacia melanoxylon [Blackwood of N.S.W.], a native of Van Diemen's Land, is to be seen occasionally here. It is arborescent, and is remarkable for the singular character of its seed being attached to the interior of the legumen by a coloured plicated umbilical cord. We had no time to examine the nature of the wood, the heart of which is said to be black. We pitched our tent for the night on the right bank of the Fish River. On the banks of this river, which, like Cox's River, has a stony bed, I gathered seeds of a Cnicus with laciniated leaves and a long tap or fusiform root, and seeds of a Limnanthemum smaller than Helichrysum bracteatum. Grevillea cinerea is very frequent on the rocky banks of the river in situations that have been recently inundated. Our people with their hooks caught some fish of about 2½ or 3 lbs. weight, which we found had a very fine flavour. It has a strong dorsal fin and appears to belong to the Perca (Perch) family.[*] Mr. Oxley ascertained by the barometer that the Fish River is 409 feet above Cox's River, and about 2570 feet above the sea level.

[* The native perch of the inland rivers is named the " Australian Bass " to distinguish it from the estuary perch (Percalates colonorum) from which species it seems to have evolved, and because it closely resembles the "Large Mouth Bass" of North America.]

13th. Sunday. The frost of the last night severe. Proceeding forward, having previously forded the Fish River, the country continues uneven and hilly, covered with small timber, and generally speaking is good pasturage in an open forest land. About 8 miles west of the Fish River is a fine spacious valley running N.W. and S.E., bounded by hills of easy ascent and thinly covered with timber. This vale, which the Governor has called Sidmouth Valley, is an exceeding fine and rich grassy spot. Lotus major [Bird's foot Trefoil], and Bellis sp. (or Cotula), with some grasses, is here in the greatest strength and luxuriance, all indicative of the excellence of the soil. In some wet boggy situations I observed a species of Lythrum, in habit and character agreeing with L. salicaria [Purple Loosestrife] of Britain, but differing in the flower not being dodecandrous. Onward, diminutive forest lands prevail, beyond which are open rising grounds and fine grassy plains. Banksia compar, Acacia melanoxylon, with Eucalyptus perjoliata, E. globulus etc., are very frequent. Near the 32nd mile mark from Cox's River is a small but exceedingly sterile patch of land where I gathered specimens of Aster speciosus, a fine shrubby plant with azure flowers: seeds and specimens of Helichrysum albicans; Dianella speciosa [Broadleaved Flax Lily], a plant with elongated foliaceous stems, supporting several blue flowers. At a small distance from the Fish River a very remarkable mountain attracts the notice of the traveller on account of the large stone or rock with which it is crowned. This singular mountain has been called by the Governor, Mount Evans. Our cart-horses and oxen being much fatigued with the labours of this day, we stopped and pitched our tent on the banks of a creek near the 34th mile mark from Cox's Pass.

14th. Monday. Anxious to reach the settlement on Bathurst Plains early in the day we rode forward with all possible despatch, leaving our carts and people to advance more leisurely. The country exhibits a continuation of fine open grazing lands of the same character in point of timber as was observed yesterday. At five miles distant from our last night's encampment we arrived at Campbell River, which is at this period a moderate stream, although in dry seasons it has been observed to be only a chain of small waterpools. We forded this river (the bridge having been carried away by the late floods) and continued for several miles over a gentle rising hilly sheep country with grassy valleys until the extensive plains of Bathurst opened to the view. A short distance south from the line of road which crosses the Campbell River is a fine rich tract of land called Mitchell's Plains. Near the Fish River, which forms a junction with the Campbell River some miles north of the road, are two very fertile plains, the one called O'Connell's Plains, and the other Macquarie's Plain, both said to be of very considerable extent. The botany has the same appearance as observed yesterday. A species of Indigofera, with short obovate pinnated leaves, being the prevailing shrub.

The plains around the settlement at Bathurst are a clear and open tract of campaign country bounded by gentle hills of easy ascent, thinly wooded, and well watered by the Macquarie River, which winds through them. The course can be easily traced by the particular verdure of the Casuarinae (swamp oaks) on its banks, which in fact are the only trees throughout the extent of the plain, a circumstance which will be the more severely felt as the settlement increases in population, firewood being brought in bullock carts from the considerable distance of 5 or 6 miles.

At about 2 o'clock p.m. we arrived at the Flagstaff on the settlement, erected by order of the Governor when His Excellency visited these plains in May, 1815. A superintendent's house, public kitchen, and temporary store have been erected for the accommodation of the residents there. The site intended for the town of Bathurst, by observation, taken on the spot, is situated in lat. 33°24'30" S., and long. 149°1745" E. of Greenwich, being also about 27½ north of Sydney and 94 west of it, bearing W. 20°30' N. 83 geographical miles--or 90½ statute miles--the measured road from Sydney to Bathurst being 140 miles or thereabouts. Somewhat more than a mile north of the road 5 miles west of Campbell River, near the Macquarie River, is a singular stone of large dimensions. It is a fine piece of quartz and is usually termed the " White Rock."[*]

[* The name is now given to the locality.]

15th. Tuesday. Aware that our stay at Bathurst would be short, and anxious to take a general view of the botany of these extensive plains, I started in a south-westerly direction over the hills, but found it very inconsiderable being confined to a few specimens. Pimelea sp., allied to P. glauca, but differing in having long filaments supporting the anthers, is exceedingly common, accompanying the two syngenesious plants on the plains. Gnaphalium sp., suffruticose, leaves ovate, lanceolate, glandulose, hairy. G. ericaefolium, a small suffruticose plant. On the hills and forest lands a species of Acacia with oblong-spathulate leaves, are very frequent, as are now seeds of the Indigofera seen yesterday. Winding round the plain I intersected the River Macquarie about 5 miles below the settlement and determined to trace it up, with a view of detecting any plants that grow on its immediate banks, which are as follows:--Goodenia sp., with large yellow flowers and laciniate leaves: Senecio sp., allied to S. quadridentatus of Labillardière (Erechthites quadridentata), but the flosculae appear to be 5-toothed: Senecio sp., leaves linear-lanceolate, serrated: Helichrysum alatum [=Ammobium alatum] leaves radical, spathulate, stem alated. A species of Gnaphalium, frequent on the eastern coast in rich soils, is likewise abundant here. On a lofty rocky hill called Mount Pleasant I gathered a species of Aster. I likewise observed a species of Dodonae, with narrow lanceolate crenulate leaves, in fruit. Near the river that species of Eucalyptus usually denominated Blue Gum is now in flower. I gathered specimens of it. The banks are covered with Rubus sp., same as near Parramatta and Urtica dioica. I gathered seeds of a Dianella.

In this day's excursion I had an opportunity of observing the general character of the soil. The hills are covered with a sandy quartzose grit and fragments of stone that have evidently undergone fusion, while that on the lower lands and more especially on the banks of the river is very rich and black and of a considerable depth, formed of decayed vegetable matter, the depositions of floods that have accumulated from one period to another. The whole plain may be termed a good cattle ground, although the sandy light aspect of its surface, and particularly that of the most elevated grounds, conveys no very flattering ideas of its becoming a grain country of any consideration. Returned at sunset to the settlement having passed over about 18 miles in a circuitous route.

16th. Wednesday. A drenching rain set in from N.W. early in the afternoon with thunder and lightning, which continued all the evening.

17th. Thursday. Much rain fell during the last night which continued this morning. Confined indoors.

18th. Friday. Being recommended to make an excursion to some brushy spots north of the Macquarie River I crossed over to the north side in order to visit the remarkable sterile scrubby tract called Winbourne Dale, bearing N.E. by E. for several miles, under a lofty range of mountains running nearly east and west. Having passed over about 5 miles of open rising grassy country I came to a watercourse termed Winbourne Dale creek, which after many windings empties itself into the Macquarie River about 20 miles below the settlement. Although not above 12 feet wide it was deep and the current very strong, occasioned by the late very heavy rains. Finding it impossible to pass this creek and that the object in view and the plans laid down in the morning were defeated, I followed the creek down about 3 miles, in which space it had received 2 or 3 minor streamlets from the northern hills. Arundo phragmites is common on its banks. A species of Veronica with terminal spikes, leaves opposite, lanceolate and serrated, is likewise abundant; it is in capsule and furnished me with seeds.

Podolepis rugata is frequent on the more elevated grassy grounds. The Buchnera with yellow flowers is now in seed. These fine pasture lands are for the most part unprofitable to the botanical collector.

19th. Saturday. The unsettled state of the weather had detained us longer than we expected at Bathurst but conceiving the waters to have abated sufficiently to allow our pack-horses to proceed forward to the Lachlan River we sent five of them from Bathurst this morning laden with provisions, and luggage, intending to follow them ourselves to-morrow. A species of Xerotes with leaves round and filiform. and an erect spreading panicle I observed among the grass on the plains. Near the settlement a dwarf species of Eryngium, much allied to E. vesiculosum (Labillardière), is common in patches. It is not in flower. It appears from Mr. Oxley's observations made by means of the barometer that Bathurst is 558 feet lower than the Fish River, and about 2,000 feet above the sea level. The nature of the soil of the plains is seen on the bank of a ditch dug round the Government Domain. The surface is loam, below sandy, resting on a bed of arenaceous marl.

Bathurst to Farewell Hill, 20 April-17 May, 1817.

20th. Sunday. We left the settlement this morning and proceeded on our journey westerly to the depôt at the Lachlan River. From the Plains we entered a valley, termed Queen Charlotte's Vale, of considerable length, and at this period very boggy, occasioned by the late heavy rains. The risings or ascents of the hills by which it is bounded were very soft and rotten, rendering the travelling very difficult and distressing to our burdened horses. In several places our saddle horses sunk up to their girths and hence it became necessary to dismount and lead them. A considerable portion of sand forms a component part of the soil of the hills which resting on a bed of clay is sufficient to retain the humidity near the surface. The herbage of these hills is a grass (Bromus) interspersed with Gnaphalium cricaefolium (Everlasting), and with Lotus major [Greater Bird's foot Trefoil] sparingly, all which plants are likewise abundant in the richer valleys.

Daviesia latifolia [Bitter leaf Bush] continues very abundant on the rising ground. In the wet bays in the valley I observed an Erodium allied to E. hymenoides [Heron's Bill], with leaves ternate, flowers blue.

We halted for the night at the usual resting place, 18 miles from Bathurst, near the extremity of the valley. Our people with the pack horses had arrived some hours before, and had pitched the tent. Eucalyptus cornuta, rising about 20 feet, with obovate leaves, at this period is just expanding its flowers on the sides of the hills.

21st. Monday. Fine weather. Resuming our journey about 8 o'clock, the road continues over a hilly country, in many places boggy, and heavy travelling for the horses. Among the brush or under shrub with which the hills are covered I discovered a singular species of Veronica, with glaucous leaves. A papilionaceous shrub allied to Oxylobium, with cordate villous leaves was in great abundance. Of the timber that species of Eucalyptus usually termed "Stringy Bark" with others common on the Eastern Coast, are common on the hills, and although fine lofty trees were apparently generally hollow and decayed at their base. The higher lands, which are stony, are nevertheless tolerable good grazing tracts. We stopped for the evening at the foot of a hill near a water hole, having travelled about 15 miles from our last night's encampment and about 321 miles from Bathurst. On the hill, which is covered with rugged fragments of granite, I saw the shrub of the order Rubiaceae which I noticed on Clarence's Hilly Range, and on its summit Banksia compar [= B. integrifolia] is very strong and abundant. It however ceases to exist beyond this hill westerly. On our left hand two remarkable points are to be observed. The one called Mount Antill, in honour of Major Antill (Major of Brigade of the 46th Regt.), and Mehan's Sugarloaf as a compliment to Mr. James Mehan, Deputy-Surveyor-General in New South Wales.

22nd. Tuesday. The frosts of the last night considerable. Water standing in our vessels throughout the night was covered with ice. A strong rime on all vegetation. Leaving our last night's halting place we continued our route over lands slightly elevated and grassy, thickly wooded with timber, Eucalyptus (Blue Gum) chiefly. In thickly brushy spots Daviesia latifolia prevails. The soil is a red sandy loam which was here and there thrown up by the roots of fallen trees. Throughout the whole of this day's journey there appeared an uniformity in the route observed, being exactly the same as seen yesterday. About noon we passed a wet grassy valley, from which Mount Lachlan bore northerly about 3 miles. Its summit appears very sterile having on it a few stunted trees. Ascending a hill, we had a noble view of a vast expanse of country to the westward, alternately hill and valley. Descending the eminence to the valley below, we climbed to the top of Mount Molle (so named in honour of a late Lieut-Governor), from thence the country already observed appeared to better advantage. Among the remarkable points noticed, Mount Lewin and Jamieson's Table Land were not the least conspicuous. In rocky fissures on Mount Molle I observed a small succulent plant of the genus Sedum. Descending the western side of the Mount (Molle) into a very rich and fertile valley, well watered by a running stream in a creek, we halted for the night. Among the plants seen here, the following are the most remarkable for the luxuriance of their growth. Lotus sp., suffruticose, allied to L. australis, flowers large and almost white. Lotus major with Sonchus oleraceus are very abundant also Linum usitatissimum. At a remarkable cascade near Mount Lachlan on the humid rocks is a slender shrub of the class Syngenesia, and is perhaps a Cacalia, leaves linear, which, with its branches, are smooth. Our dogs in chasing some kangaroo killed a large forest buck. Our journey this day was 16 miles. Afternoon fine, a slight incrustation of ice was on the water left in the pots at night.

23rd. Wednesday. Crossing the creek we resumed our journey up a fine open forest, very little encumbered with timber, of a reddish loamy rich soil, and thickly clothed with grass. This has been termed Warwick Plains. Observed westerly, on some elevated grounds a brushwood presents itself, the timber is closer, and the view much circumscribed. I had often regretted that Southern Australia affords so very few parasitical plants, which in South America are so extremely beautiful. I this day observed a cluster of foliage hanging from a moderate sized Eucalyptus, having the appearance of young leaves that had been nipped by severe frost. It, however, proves to be a species of Loranthus, in good health but not in flower or fruit. In a chain of ponds, on the margin of which we travelled a considerable distance, I observed Ornithorhynchus paradoxus or water mole occasionally rising to the surface of the water for respiration and in an instant disappearing. Crossing these ponds at a rocky creek the country becomes again brushy and barren. I gathered specimens of the following among others of less moment in these scrubby tracts.

Grevillea sp., allied to G. Phyllicoides of the eastern coast, a fine flowering shrub of low stature. Bursaria sp. larger in all its points than B. spinosa (Cav.), young branches without thorns. Pullenaea ericaefolia (Dwarf Pultenaea), a handsome shrub. Hibbertia sp., discovered before, near Cox's Pass. Acacia obliqua (Persoon), a shrub about 3 feet high. Descending to the creek called Limestone Creek we halted and encamped on the opposite bank about 2 o'clock. I availed myself of the fineness of the day and the early hour and traced the creek through its various windings about a mile. Metrosideros saligna was fine in flower in the channel of the watercourse, accompanied by a new species of Crolon with cordate 3 lobed leaves which I have termed C. acerifolius, and Cystopteris, [Bladder Fern]. Ascending from the creek upon the rugged Limestone rocks I discovered a tree of very stunted growth forming a stem of about 30 inches in diameter or about 7½ feet circumference, which we suspected to be Sterculia. The same plant was shown us in June 1815, growing in the Palace Gardens at St. Paul, where it had grown to the height Of 30 feet but had not flowered. From the best information we could obtain, and that from a Colonel in the Portuguese Service (an Englishman lately deceased), I learned that the plant had been brought from New Holland with others by Captain Woodriffe (not Witherope), of the "Calcutta," and they were left at Rio de Janeiro on her passage to England in 1804. From Rio they were transmitted to St. Paul, and they were planted by the Colonel himself in the Conde de Palmas Garden in that city.

The trees on these rocks have no appearance of flowers or fruit. The habit and shapes of foliage in a seedling plant are very different from those of an old tree. Upon seeing some young plants with palmated leaves (which they lose by age) I now recollected having seen this Sterculia in some gardens about London and there considered a Crolon. In shaded damp situations I gathered specimens of some ferns viz: A crostichum sp., with the habit of an A dianium, another species with laciniated glandulose fronds, and a Pteris with simple fronds of slender habit. The Bursaria above referred to is the most common shrublet of these rocks, and a Clematis, before seen, is observed twining itself among the large stones and over the hanging brows of precipices (not in flower). It is a subject of regret that these limestone rocks are so far distant from the habitation of man as to be of no use to him. We are now 63 miles westerly of Bathurst. By way of experiment we produced some excellent lime by calcination:

24th. Thursday. We continued our journey in good time this morning over a fine, rich, grassy tract of country, which, however, has at this period rather a bare and naked aspect, having been fired by natives. Passing the burnt grass and entering thick wooded and high grassy lands we pursued our road, evidently upon the descent, until we came to a chain of ponds confined in a long winding deep gully and almost dry. Following these waterholes about 3 miles we came to a rocky hollow containing water, where we halted and pitched the tent. The soil throughout this day's journey is good and rich, but with not the least variation in the botany. The country abounds with emu and kangaroo, of the latter our dogs killed a fine doe. The emu, however, were too swift to be taken by dogs. Our journey to-day has been 13 miles.

25th. Friday. The land westerly from the rocky creek for the space of 6 miles is a continuance of rich forest country abounding in grass. From the summits of a rocky [hill] you had an extensive landscape of the Western country. A clear plain, free from timber, called Oxley's Plains, bear a few miles to the southward and westward of us. We had no difficulty in tracing the course of the Lachlan westerly, by the darkness of the verdure of the timber on its banks. This hill is covered with large fragments of fine granite. The Sterculia seen at Limestone Creek is on this eminence very common, but without signs of flower or fruit. From a large tree of this genus--at the base of the hill--that had been cut by a hatchet by way of a mark, I gathered some resinous gum which had oozed out from beneath the bark. It was whitish and of the taste of gum arabic. Continuing on the descent for about 6 miles due west, over a fine grassy forest land, the soil of which is a red loam, rather sandy, we made the right bank of the Lachlan River about 2 o'clock p.m. Tracing the river down its banks about 5 miles we arrived at the depo^t where the people and horses who form the expedition had been waiting our arrival some weeks. Its banks are very high and clothed with lofty timber of a species of Eucalyptus, commonly denominated by the colonists Black-butted Gum,[*] inclining inward so as to form in some places a kind of arch with the heads of the trees of the same species on the opposite bank. The flats on the lower grounds near the banks are exceedingly rich and excellent for every purpose of agriculture, with this exception that they are liable to inundation. The river had swollen to a very considerable height, and had previous to our arrival fallen 17 feet, still retaining a considerable fresh or flood above its usual level and a strong current.

[*Eucalyptus pilularis.]

Our people reported to us that a troop of natives were on the opposite bank. We immediately went down to the water's edge and beckoned to them to come over to us, and as an inducement offered them some meat. Thus tempted, they swam over, and we all went up to the higher grounds on which the depo^t was built. They were 13 in number, all males of different ages, from beardless youth to well advanced manhood, and their general outward appearance seemed to differ but little from those of Sydney. Their hair the same, but their beards are suffered to grow very long. Their bodies are regularly tattooed, particularly the breast and shoulders, which are strongly tubercled in a kind of systernatical diagonal style. Like those of the Eastern coast they perforate the cartilage of the nose, but I did not see any stick or reed worn through it. Their dress is simply a grass network, forming a cover to the head, and a belt of the same network fastened or tied round their loins, in which they have their "mogo," or stone hatchet, waddies, etc.

One or two had a mantle of the skin of the kangaroo-rat, sewed together with sinews of the leg, which reached from the shoulders to the middle of the back. Independent of this they were perfectly naked. They do not use the wamera in throwing their spears, which are made of a very hard wood and not of the Xanthorrhoea arborea as on the eastern coast. Their spears have lateral barbs, the one above the other, the whole is indurated by fire and is a most dangerous weapon. Although they swam across the river, in which they had to contend with a strong current, they had brought fire in their hands, and much time did not elapse before we could perceive the smoke from it issuing from the centre of the group in which they had formed themselves for mutual warmth. Our thermometer stood at 56° about this period.

By way of ornament they wore kangaroo teeth in their ears and cockatoo feathers in their hair. Those of them who were young men had their beards divided into three divisions and formed into plaited tails. Their language being very different from that of our Eastern Coast natives, we obtained from them the names for several things, particularly the parts of the body. I presented one of them with an English halfpenny having a hole drilled through it. It was, however, returned to me with clear signs that a piece of kangaroo flesh would be more acceptable. In fact they appear to appreciate the value of nothing so much as provisions, particularly flesh, and our iron hatchets, which would enable them to procure it much better and with more facility than those made of black jade. They were acquainted with fire-arms, and had (in an unguarded moment on the part of the soldiers stationed at the depo^t) run off with two muskets. The subsequent circumstances connected with this theft they still appear to rue! In an affair between the soldiers and these natives with a view of recovering the stolen muskets, a poor harmless lad forfeited his existence. Having abundance of kangaroo, we presented them with the half of a large buck, which was gratefully received, and with which they returned to their friends on the opposite side of the river. I gathered specimens of a Myoporum, smaller than M. ellipticum.

26th. Saturday. Having previously repapered my specimens and hung them out to dry, accompanied by a soldier (armed) I made an excursion down the river a few miles below the depôt. Croton acerifolius, Rubus sp., and Urtica dioica are very abundant on its immediate bank. The stony rising grounds abound with a plant of the Asperifoliae, allied to Lithospermum dichotomum. A dwarf shrub of the Epacridaceae, perhaps a Leucopogon, with a tomentose white calyx, and drupe, is now very fine in flower. A delicate species of Pullenaea microphylla, with small cuneated truncated leaves and axillary solitary flowers is found growing with a shrub advancing to the flowering state, which I suspect is Daviesia mimosoides of Hortus Kewensis. I likewise got here a specimen of an Aster with oblong crowded leaves, which are curved at the apex, flowers white. The summits of the hills are covered with the tree which is termed Pine by our people. It is in fruit, and proves to be a species of Callitris and may be the species termed C. australis by Persoon, and is said to be found on the north side of Port Jackson Harbour. It is from 30 to 70 feet high, particularly on the flats. I gathered specimens of a very singular species of Acacia, A. erythrocephala, = A. aspera with linear-lanceolate leaves. I discovered another shrub of the same genus, A. armata, with the flowers in axillary spikes. On the low flats near the river I discovered a species of Dalea with weak trailing stems; a species of Aster with oblong cuneated leaves. The smoke rising above the trees from the left bank of the river indicated the presence of natives.

7th. Sunday. It having been arranged by Mr. Oxley that our two boats (that had been built here and intended as an assistance to us in carrying the more heavy provisions of flour and pork on the river) should proceed down the stream this morning as far as the creek where Mr. Evans, who first discovered the Lachlan, had terminated his journey, having been ferried over by the boats, I visited the rocky hills on the left bank in company with C. Fraser of the 46th Regt., who had been sent as one of our party, in order to form a separate collection of seeds and specimens for Earl Bathurst. We were both well armed in case of attack from the natives. Fraser had been before on these hills, in his pursuits of the Flora (to which he is very much attached) during the period of time he had been at this depôt, viz: about one month. Having crossed the grassy flats near the River we ascended the rugged stony hills, where I found the following interesting plants.

Pimelea linifolia, scarcely in flower, a slender gigantic shrub 5 or 6 feet high. Epacridea,: Leucopogon sp., differing from the species I discovered yesterday in having a smoother calyx. Campanula sp., or a var. of C. gracilis.

Bossiaea sp., with the habit and appearance of B. microphylla.

Hibbertia sp., allied to H. ovata, leaves sharper and lanceolate, with a minute asperity, as in H. ovata. The flowers are decandrous. Aster sp., herbaceous, flowers blue, leaves filiform. Aster echinatus, a shrub with linear leaves glandularly echinated on the upper surface...flowers white. Acacia obliqua is very common on these sterile hills. Persoonia sericea, with leaves oblong, cuneated, which, with fruit and branches, are covered with silky hairs. Epacrideae: a shrub of same genus as above, flowers red. I likewise discovered a new Acacia, allied to A. albiflora, the icaves are triangular, and the head of flowers is rounded; and another species with elongated oblong leaves, attenuated at base, flowers in axillary spikes.

Gompholobium latifolium is frequent with the above. In the rich flats, upon my return to the boat, I gathered some grasses, among which is a Phleum and in low inundated situations a singular dwarf plant, which I could not detect in flower, it appears to be Adiantum and is remarkable for its 4-lobed fronds.

Our boats being loaded with the Government Rations of flour and pork we sent them down the river with the intention of overtaking them to-morrow afternoon. By observation taken by Mr. Oxley the site of the dep6t is in lat. 33°39'48" S., and Long. 148°39' E. By barometrical observation it was ascertained that we were not above 650 feet above the level of the sea, and that we had descended from Bathurst Plains upwards of 1300 feet. This small elevation, contrasted with the great distance we were from the nearest point of the south-west coast, immediately suggested to us the great improbability of the Lachlan River running to the sea, and its soft muddy banks and general appearance and character of a periodical stream affording an outlet to the great body of rain falling on the Blue Mountains, seemed to coincide in the idea. When Mr. Evans first discovered it in June 1815, which was a dry season, he crossed it nearly dryshod on the trunk of a fallen Eucalyptus.

28th. Monday. Previous to my leaving the eastern coast I had provided myself with a quantity of peach stones of two qualities, some quince pips or seeds, and a few acorns, with an intention of committing a few of each to the earth at any remarkable situation where the soil was tolerably good and suitable for the growth of them. I sowed some of each at the depôt in the very rich soil on the bank.

This morning about 9 o'clock the following persons, who composed this grand Western Expedition, left the last human habitation westward in order to survey the river downwards and trace it to its supposed junction with the Macquarie, and the disemboguence of their union on the south-west coast:--Oxley Esqre. Surveyor-General; Mr. G. W. Evans Assist. do.; Charles Fraser of 46th Regt., as collector for Lord Bathurst; S. Parr, a boat builder; and seven persons as loaders of pack horses, and myself. Thirteen in all, with 14 horses and 2 boats.

We passed over the fertile flats, which have been inundated as we ascertained from the marks of flood on the timber, and stubble having been washed against the large Eucalypti, with which the banks are clothed. Travelling about 7 miles we arrived at a creek running in a serpentine form from the river in a north-easterly direction. As our baggage horses would not overtake us for some hours, we proposed to halt and pitch our tent on the opposite side of the creek for the night. The soil of the higher lands at a short distance from the river is of a stiff loam, and in some situations rocky and sterile, but the lower grounds are rich and covered with strong grass.

Between the depôt and the creek, which Mr. Oxley had named Lewis's Creek, Lotus australis, Swainsona coronillaefolia, and a creeping Hedysarum are occasionally to be met with. The marsh mallow is very abundant, Callitris australis is now very common on the hills, although of no size or bulk. Casuarina stricta (usually called Swamp Oak) is likewise very fine and large on the muddy banks. By the assistance of our boats we conveyed our baggage over the creek, which although not above 12-10 feet wide is very deep, and swam over our horses. I took a walk on the rocky barren hills in the neighbourhood and discovered the following plants:--Grevillea sp., a beautiful shrub, with a calyx covered exteriorly with a ferruginous tomentum, and smooth and green in colour inside; Ajuga sp., with large blue flowers and much of the habit of A. pyramidalis; Phyllanthus sp., a low shrubby plant; another species with narrow, obtuse, cuneated leaves, revolute at the margins; Bidens sp.; Dodonaea cuneata, with cuneated leaves; and Astroloma humifusum, a trailing plant, is abundant in flower and fruit. We gathered on the hills some fine specimens of crystallized quartz, some fine crystals, and some dark specimens of granite. Mr. Oxley wrote to the Governor upon the subject of the river. Richard Lewis, a superintendent at Bathurst, who accompanied us to the creek which takes his name, returned to that settlement. Our people caught some fine large fish of the same kind as those before noticed.

29th. Tuesday. Continued our journey westward on the right bank of the river and, travelling from point to point rather than follow the stream through all its abrupt windings, I found the plants to be nearly the same with little variation as those observed some days previously. The following are the specimens collected in this day's route:--A drooping melancholy shrub of the genus Stenochilus, which I have termed S. longifolius, now presents itself in brushy sterile tracks near the river. Gnaphalium sp., much allied to G. carnatum, is common among the grass; and Podolepis rugata, the peduncles of which near the insertion in the calyx are scaly. On the immediate bank of the river I gathered seeds and specimens of a species of Viola, with leaves on elongated pitioles; also a shrub of the order Rubiaceae, 4 feet high, branching, diffuse, leaves oblong, seeds covered with an arilla. Persoonia spathulata, discovered first on the S.W. coast, is now in fruit on the rocky hills. On ascending a rugged height covered with loose fragments of stones and hence rendered difficult of ascent, we had an extensive view of the western country commanded by such an eminence. The country appeared exceedingly low and flat with a few hills or ascents scattered on its surface. On this elevation I discovered a new species of Acacia, forming a small tree 25 feet high, the leaves are linear-lanceolate, and the flowers are in axillary spikes, which are cylindrical. It is much allied to A. longifolia, except in the shape of the foliage and their gray colour. From the circumstance of this tree being the wood of which the natives in the Western Country make their spears (which I have proved), and of which I shall state more particulars hereafter, I have called it A. doratoxylon. It is scarcely in a flowering state. Cupressus australis is common on these heights. Hovea sp., this is a slender shrub, frequent on the mount.

Mr. Oxley having taken the necessary bearings, we all descended to the river and traced it down about three miles, halting for the night a few miles short of our intended resting place at the creek where Mr. Evans terminated his journey westerly in June 1815. The river now began to show its true character. Our boat's people found it shoaly and narrow in some places, and in consequence of its numerous and very abrupt windings they did not overtake or arrive at the spot on the immediate bank of the river where we were encamped till a late hour. I gathered specimens on the flats of a fine species of Bromus, and these plains were covered with clumps of Acacia decurrens [Queen Wattle].

The rocky hills are covered with a twining shrub, a Bignonia but it was not in flower fit for examination. With it I observed a plant with the habit of an Aster, resembling A. argophyllus [= Olearia argophylla], but without that musty scent with which their leaves are furnished. Our people shot a long-necked water bird like a cormorant. Eucalyptus robusta or Brown Gum disappears, and chiefly Stringy Bark (Eucalyptus sp.) and Blue Gum prevail. A beautiful species of Acacia, a small tree with bipinnate leaves, and flowers in elongated spikes; the whole plant has a glaucous hue. In consequence of its beautiful appearance I have called it A. spectabilis [Mudgee Wattle].

April 30th. Wednesday. Having sent our baggage horses forward and despatched our boats down the river directing them to stop at the creek that runs from the river on its right bank, we struck across the country a few miles, in order to examine some Callitris, said to be abundant on the lands distant from the river, which Mr. Evans had noticed on his tour before referred to. These Cypress trees we found of various sizes and dimensions from seedlings, generally growing in clumps, to lofty trees of about 60 feet, and about 3 feet in diameter at the base. It has been suggested that stems might be procured that would form good spars or booms, it is, however, much to be feared that in consequence of the many knots on its trunk or stem it would be found extremely brittle and short.

A species of Xerotes, with round filiform leaves, common on Bathurst Plains, is frequent among the grass. The standing waters abound with an Actinocarpus [Water star] remarkable for its capsule. Returning in a westerly direction we made the creek which has taken the name of Byrne's Creek, and we traced it up to its mouth at the river. Here I discovered a new plant of the liliaceous family of the genus Pancratium. The flowers are small, of a whitish flesh colour, varying to a bluish and light orange colour. They are when fresh, May or White-thorn scented. It is now in flower, and is viviparous, producing a small bulb instead of a capsule, which in time falls to the ground and taking root ensures the future offspring. It being a new species I have named it P. Macquaria [= Calostemma purpureum][*] in honour of His Excellency Lachlan Macquarie, Esqre., our worthy and much respected Governor, during whose arduous administration the colony of New South Wales has been enlarged and beautified in an eminent degree, and by whose meritorious and praiseworthy exertions the western part of the Continent has been laid open, as well to the labours of the industrious agriculturalist as to the no less laudable research of the unwearied naturalist. This species of Pancratium delights in a low damp situation, its bulbous roots were with some difficulty dug up, being so very deep in the rich black soil on the banks of the river. The woody lands are alternately grassy and bushy, with slight inundations.

[* The name Pancratium macquaria is only mentioned in the "Botanical Magazine," under Calostemma purpureum, at t. 2100, as a synonym of that plant.]

Near the river we fell in with a large and spacious lagoon of considerable length and breadth but not deep. On its surface were swimming great numbers of waterfowl, such as swan, duck, teal, which we fired at in vain. Such was the steepness and muddiness of Byrne's Creek that it became indispensably necessary to form a kind of sloping road for our horses to descend to the water. Our boats having carried over our horse-cargoes, we swam the animals over and pitched our tent on the bank.[*] About a mile down the creek, in shallow water, we saw a bark canoe, and the remains of small fires in the woods adjoining are indications that the natives had recently visited this part of the country.

[* Near Eugowra.]

1817. May 1st. Thursday. Mr. Evans having finished his surveys in 1815 at this creek on its right bank, Mr. Oxley commenced his labours in that department from the left bank down the river. As previously arranged, Mr. Evans accompanied by a person with the perambulator proceeded forward, taking the bearings of all remarkable points, windings and curvatures of the river, as he advanced, endeavouring to cut off any deep bight by stretching from angle to angle and steering as direct a course as the nature of the country would admit. About 2 o'clock in the afternoon we had penetrated about 10 miles, when it was deemed advisable to halt for the day. The latter part of this day's journey being difficult, on account of the lofty brome-grass with which the low lands near the river abound. In swamps, tracks, and low inundated spots, great abundance of a species of Lobelia was observed, of the habit of L. purpurascens, but larger, and not purple beneath the leaf. It is in flower and capsule. In such situations I gathered specimens of an Achyranthes, with flowers around a quadrangular stalk. Lythrum sp., before observed, much allied to L. salicaria, grows very strong, with all the preceding.

The higher grassy lands furnished me with seeds of Aster sp., with blue flowers and oblong spathulate leaves. In sterile brushy situations I detected the following plants. Pimelea sericea allied to P. curviflora; Cotula sp., much allied to Bellis, is in flower.

Bellis sp., a shrubby plant with cuneated 3-5 toothed leaves, whose flowers are ornamental and blue. The seeds of this plant are furnished with 2 small aristae which are minutely barbed. I gathered specimens in fruit of another species of Callitris, different from the species discovered in the country near Lachlan Depôt in having a larger round fruit, branchlets and leaves finer and of a glaucous hue, a tree of the same height as its congener.

Dodonaea cuneata and Acacia obliqua are frequent. Some small lagoons, supplied from the inundation of the river, prevented us from travelling always on its immediate banks. The direction of the stream at the commencement of our journey is southerly. This however is counterbalanced by its winding round to the north towards the close, making a true west course. The freshly cut bark from some of the large gum trees (Eucalyptus) informed us that the natives had recently passed by.

2nd. Friday. We advanced westerly from our fires about 9 o'clock through grassy flats, passing to the left of a large winding lagoon, which from general appearances we had taken for the river, nor were some of us convinced otherwise until we found it terminated in a swamp covered with Arundo phragmites and other lofty grasses. Tracing the river down upwards of 10 miles, which had run somewhat northerly, we stopped for the day and pitched our tent.

On some barren rising ground I gathered specimens of a Xerotes, remarkable for its slender juncous leaves, from the angles of which membranceous threads are produced. A species of Saturcia is common in low lands; like other species of Ibis genus it has a mild aromatic penetrating taste, and is in common use as tea among our people. With the preceding, I gathered specimens of a weak herbaceous species of Justica. Some tolerable specimens of Callitris glauca that we passed in this day's route assumed much the habit of Pinus sylvestris. The timber is the Eucalyptus usually called Blue Gum. Near the river I collected the following grasses:--Panicum sp., a slender plant; a Cenchrus, a Phleum, and a species of Imperata, allied to Saccharum.

3rd. Saturday. Leaving our last night's resting place and following the river southerly, the country we travelled over is occasionally grassy, wooded, and has the same flat character as that already passed. The soil at a small distance from the river is poor and barren and covered with brushwood. Callitris glauca is a much finer, handsomer tree than we have hitherto had, and, accompanied by Casuarina (swamp oak), approaches very near the river. We now find from experience that 10 miles is a fair day's journey, therefore having made good that distance we halted on the bank of the river, which ran nearly west.

A very considerable portion of this day's stage is through a barren tract of brushwood, presenting to us many plants frequently seen in similar situations, among which I distinguished the following new plants. Jasminum sp., leaves opposite and alternate, forming a scandent or reclining shrub. Scaevola sp., bearing fleshy drupes, one seeded. Acacia homalophylla, leaves lanceolate, flat and smooth, flowers axillary, a tree 25 feet high. Pittosporum sp., a new and slender shrub in fruit. Myoporum strictum, leaves lanceolate and stiff, flowers solitary and pendulous. Some parts of the river were extremely shoaly and narrow, and having numerous bends and obstructions of fallen timber its navigation was rendered extremely difficult.

4th. Sunday. We had determined to rest ourselves and horses the whole of this day, and were the more particularly obliged so to do on account of the detention of our boats, occasioned by the difficulties of working them in the shallow windings choked up with decayed fallen trees, which it was found literally necessary to clear away in order to form a passage for the boats. The larger boat had unfortunately been stove by a sunken stump. Fearing to advance further after dark, and not knowing where we were, our boatmen had stopped the preceding evening about 4 miles at least short of our encampment. It was well advanced in the afternoon before they were able to drop down to that part of the river on the bank of which our tent was pitched. Hubbert, our boat-builder, soon repaired the damage sustained by the boat. About half a mile northward of our tent is a large lagoon forming a fine and spacious sheet of water, thickly clothed with gum trees on its margin, and abounding with swans, ducks, etc. I gathered seeds and specimens of Actinocarpus sp., growing in company with Potamogeton natans. In a little excursion I made westerly from the tent I discovered the following:--Tetrandria, a spreading twiggy small tree 10-20 feet high. Pentandria, a shrub with oblong narrow leaves. Myoporum sp., Pittosporum lanceolatum, duplicate seed. Gathered seeds of Acacia pendula, nova sp., a tree 25 feet high, with much the habit and growth of Salix babylonica, leaves simple, lanceolate, the whole tree has a gray hue; common on the low flats near the above mentioned lagoon. From the summit of a gentle rising hill we could just distinguish a very lofty range to the northward and eastward. A remarkable point on this range we have called Mount Sorrell, after the Lt. Governor of Van Diemen's Island. This hill is covered with a reddish slaty stone, and the soil is a light loam. Some large specimens of Cupressus australis were observed on it, with Casuarina macrocarpa, a new species, a tree about 30 feet high. Our hunters brought in a fine young buck kangaroo.

5th. Monday. We departed from our last encampment about 9 o'clock, and having crossed a small creek which intersected our course, we ascended the gentle rising hill which I had visited yesterday. The view even on this eminence being much confined, Mr. Oxley took bearings of the most remarkable ranges of hills around it at a distance from the top of a lofty Callitris. Descending to the flats we were again deceived by a long chain of ponds or lagoons which we fell in with, but perceiving our mistake we crossed it in a dry situation and came to the banks of the Lachlan. Such was the confusion created by this mistake that we were all scattered and divided and taking different courses. Our people in the boats fired guns to inform us of their situation.

Calling to one another we were answered by strange voices, which left us in no doubt of natives being near us. It was a great point we should all join again, which at length we did, after some of us had passed over several miles on a cross-course, the labour of which might have been saved. Our people came up with seven or eight of the natives, who were clothed with mantles of skin reddened with a pigment from the river. There appeared not the most distant symptoms of hostility among them! They evidently had seen a horse before, and could pronounce some words of English, such as bread, and they had every appearance of having been with those at the Lachlan Depôt, from which we are now 54 miles west. From the columns of smoke ascending from the trees to which these harmless beings were advancing there is no doubt of their encampment being there situated, and it might be inferred that their gins or wives were there, from their evident objection to our people attempting to accompany them to their fires. The delay and loss of time occasioned by the above adventure had allowed our boatmen to work themselves through all the numerous windings of this intricate river and overtake us.

We all started again in a body, travelling immediately on the river bank about 4 miles, when we were stopped by a deep muddy creek connecting the river with the chain of ponds above alluded to. We passed this gully with considerable difficulty, being obliged to unload our horses. Accompanied by Mr. Oxley I went to an extensive open plain about half a mile N.W. of our course, which we found of very considerable extent. It is a flat that receives the inundations of the Lachlan; it is of a light loamy soil and at this time very damp and slimy, in consequence of the recent rain.

This plain, which is clear of timber and is skirted by Acacia pendula we have called Solway Flats, from its slight similarity to a place of that name in North Britain.

The following are the plants discovered on it:--Salsola sp., leaves linear, with the habit of a Mesembryanthemum. Mimulus sp., leaves oblong-ovate, peduncle filiform, one-flowered. Richea sp., agreeing with this genus in the plumose pappi with which the seeds are crowned. Loranthus nutans, leaves ovate-oblong, obtuse, peduncle axillary, 2-3 flowered, parasitical on Acacia Pendula. I gathered a few good seeds of this singular Acacia. The purple Bromus, a diminutive Panicum, and a small purple-flowering Arthropodium, frequent on the Eastern Coast, are common on these flats. Pancratium macquaria [= Calostemma purpureum], delighting in such situations, is scattered over the whole of the boggy plains.

The dimensions of the visible part of these plains are four miles by seven. I here observed a thick dense bushy shrub, of the Atripliceae, probably a Rhagodia. It is, however, not in flower or fruit. Continuing our journey southward of west, over a broken bad country of low scrubby aspect, having hollows filled with putrid water, we entered a thick sterile brush about four miles from the plains, and halted for the day in a situation where our horses could provide themselves with but little grass! No variation in the timber. Our boats were aground several times, such is the shallowness of the river, which together with difficulty of clearing sunken timber renders the navigation dangerous. We made ten miles clear on a northerly course. The course of the river is southerly.

6th. Tuesday. The country through which we penetrated this day has the same character and appearance as that already passed. The timber is the same, with not the smallest diversity of scenery, a gloomy sameness pervading the whole of the solitary woods near the river. At 3½ miles on our journey our progress was again stopped by a small, trifling, but deep gully filled with water, the drainings of the land.

Passing this creek, having been obliged to unload the pack horses on this occasion, our course led us through high grassy and in some spots swampy land of difficult penetration, until we came out upon a bend of the flats discovered yesterday, which is bounded by a rugged but most romantic picturesque rocky range of hills. A change of scenery was very agreeable at this period. Crossing the flats, we arrived at the base of this elevated range, and ascending to the summit of this hill a most extensive panoramic view of the country around us presents itself, of which the following ranges have been named:--A range of lofty hills to the northward and eastward of us, of which Mount Sorrell is a part, we have called St. Andrew's Range. A second range to the southward and eastward we term St. Patrick's Range. The range we are now upon (which is singularly divided allowing the river to run through it) Mr. Oxley distinguishes by the name of St. George's Range. The bluff headland points on each side the river; the one on the right bank is called Mount Stewart, and that on the left side of the river has been nominated Mount Amiott, after two gentlemen in the Secretary of State's Office. The whole three ranges, bending round, form a crescent like a half moon, of which the two last mentioned mountains are its horns. It has been entitled Queen Charlotte's Crescent. Some extensive plains on the left side of the river, not seen before, Mr. Oxley has called Hamilton's Plains, in honour of Wm. Hamilton Esqre. the Under Secretary of State, and are contrasted with Solway Flats on its right bank.

The country for upwards Of 50 miles is flat and low, and to the westward a distant range of hills with singular bluff abrupt terminations have been distinguished by the name of St. David's Range, of which Mount Melville and Mount Cunningham are the most remarkable. To the southward of us is the point of a range termed Mount Gill, in honour of Captain Gill of the 46th Regt. and civil engineer at Sydney. The river (as Mr. Oxley had suspected from its appearance and observations taken by him on the morning of yesterday) runs between the rugged Mounts Amiott and Stewart, and takes a course generally southerly of west. We are now only 425 feet above the level of the sea, which was ascertained by our barometer. Mount Stewart is composed of large blocks of granite, and the following are plants discovered on its elevated summit:--Persoonia scabra, a species first discovered on the S.W. Coast, in fruit. Persoonia spathulata, observed before in such situations. Persoonia curvifolia, a remarkable curling-leaved shrub, Styphelia sp., allied to S. tubiflora, the flowers of which are very deciduous, and a Leucopogon, Cryptandra sp., differing from C. ericaefolium, by its floral bracts being deciduous. Tecoma Oxleyi (nova sp.), leaves pinnated; leaflets lanceolate, entire; flowers white with purple striae, and bearded inside. The capsule is oblong and cylindrical, as in Tecoma, which, with several remarkable species at present termed Bignonia, discovered in Brazil, constitute as many genera of the Bignoniaceae. This new and beautiful species I have presumed to dedicate to the memory of our worthy and persevering chief in the present expedition.

The eye is much relieved, from the sterility of the overhanging rocks grey with lichens, by the great profusion of flowers which this ornamental shrub produces. Phyllanthus revolutus is common here. A delicate-leaved Eriostemon, scarcely in flower, grew very profusely, accompanying a shrub of the same natural order of Rutaceae, the flowers of which were scarcely expanded. It is a glandulous shrub, with scattered obcordate leaves, silvered beneath, flowers terminal and yellow. Cupressus australis, with some common Mimosa, particularly Acacia doratoxylon, are abundant on this mount, but stunted in growth.

Our lat. is 33°23'0" S. and long. 148° W. or thereabouts. Following the windings of the river on its high grassy banks about 2 miles, we halted about 4 o'clock, having travelled 12 miles in the course of the day. A curious species of Fungi, Agaricus, of a yellowish colour, which upon being broken and exposed to the air immediately assumed a blue tint. Our fishermen were uncommonly successful; they caught from 190-200 lbs. weight, consisting of 13 fish, of which the largest weighed 70 lbs. with the entrails and 65 lbs. gutted. Its length was 3 feet 5 inches, curve of shoulder 2 ft. 6 in. Fin to fin over the back 1 ft. 5 in.; breadth of tail when expanded 1 ft. 1½ in., and depth of mouth a foot. It may be considered as the largest that has been caught.

7th. Wednesday. We rested our horses and selves the whole of this day, which gave me an opportunity of repapering my specimens and drying my seeds. Desirous of examining Mount Amiott, I, accompanied by two of our party, crossed the river by one of our boats and directing our course to the base of the range we arrived at its foot about 1 o'clock. The botany of this point is nearly the same as that observed on Mount Stewart. I, however, gathered specimens of a species of Prostanthera, with linear leaves, in capsule, affording me seeds. A species of Azorella with ovate leaves, found on the Eastward coast is likewise common here. Goodenia sp., a shrubby plant (specimens).