History of New South Wales
From the Records
VOLUME 1 - GOVERNOR PHILLIP 1783-1789
G. B. Barton - 1889
PART I
Phillip And Exploration
PHILLIP's place in the ranks of Australian explorers seems to have been but faintly recognised in history. Notwithstanding the fact that his name stands first on the list, and that his discoveries were of very great importance, it has been his unhappy fate to have his name and memory associated so closely with the dismal days of the convict era that his achievements outside that gloomy circle have been almost ignored. When he told Sydney of the only consolation he had for his unpleasant position - the reflection that he was rendering a very essential service to his country by founding a colony destined to prove the most valuable acquisition Great Britain ever made, it did not occur to him that his career in it would be, in many minds at least, identified with so much of the least attractive portion of its history. It was no doubt with a sense of relief that he turned his steps away so frequently from the Camp at Sydney Cove towards the sea-coast or the bush, for the purpose of making himself acquainted with the character of his new dominions. However much he may have been impelled by that feeling, the love of travel and adventure must have been strong within him, for he was always moving from one point to another within the limited area of exploration then open to him (1). His energy and activity in the character of an explorer were conspicuously shown from the very day of his arrival. He had no sooner dropped anchor in Botany Bay than he set to work to examine its capabilities as a harbour; and then, turning his attention to the land, he endeavoured to satisfy himself as to its suitability for a settlement. A very slight inspection of the surrounding country was enough to convince him that a better site would have to be sought for at once. Point Sutherland was the only place that could be found for the purpose in the bay, but the ground about it was spongy, and swamps would necessarily prove unhealthy. To save time - mindful, no doubt, of Sydney's imperious injunction not to "delay the disembarkation of the establishment upon the pretence of seeking a more eligible place than Botany Bay" - instructions were given to have the ground cleared for landing, and he then sailed away in an open boat, regardless of his dignity as a Governor-in-Chief, for the nearest bay to the north, of which he knew nothing beyond what he had read about it in Cook's Voyage (2).
If Phillip had reason to congratulate himself on the good fortune which had so far attended his voyage, his heart must have rejoiced within him when his boats, after entering the heads of Port Jackson, began to work their way through its waters. As he passed from cove to cove, carefully examining each to ascertain its fitness for the site of a settlement, he no doubt experienced much the same sensations as the long-forgotten Portuguese navigator, Martin de Souza, when he discovered the other great harbour of the world - that of Rio de Janeiro - in 1531. Phillip, it is true, could not make any claim to the honour of being the discoverer as well as the explorer of Port Jackson; but he was the first European to gaze upon its waters and make them known to the world. Unfortunately, however, he left no record of his impressions as the novelty and grandeur of the scenery were displayed before him. In his despatch to Lord Sydney he contented himself with saying that he "had the satisfaction of finding the finest harbour in the world, in which a thousand sail of the line may ride in the most perfect security." Fresh from the great harbour of the Brazils, he had no doubt compared the two well in his own mind before pronouncing judgment so emphatically in favour of Port Jackson (3). The exploration of such a harbour - which removed at once every possible doubt with respect to the ultimate success of the expedition - was a signal triumph for Phillip and a rich reward for his labours; and at the same time it probably acted as a powerful stimulus to further exertions in the same direction. If the prospect of making some great discovery with which their names would be forever identified in history has stirred the ambition of so many explorers since his time, it may be safely assumed that he too was inspired with much the same feeling.That he was so influenced by this success in a field of action altogether new to him is evident from his despatches; and he lost no time in following up his first achievement. As soon as the ships had come round from Botany Bay, the people had been landed, the tents pitched, clearing begun, and the colony proclaimed, Lieutenant King was despatched to Norfolk Island for the purpose of occupying it; and Phillip then, on the 2nd of March, set off to explore Broken Bay, where Captain Cook, at sunset on the day on which he had passed Port Jackson, had noticed "some broken land that seemed to form a bay."
The immediate object of this excursion was "not only to survey the harbour, if any were found to exist, but to examine whether there were within it any spots of ground capable of cultivation, and of maintaining a few families (4)." Of the two purposes, the discovery of good farming land was much the more important; for up to that time no such land had been found either at the settlement or near it; and as Phillip had been told to look at the soil as a principle means of supporting his people, the necessity for getting a large area under cultivation as soon as possible had become urgent. He did not succeed in finding any land of the kind required, except near the southern entrance of the bay, where he came upon "the finest piece of water I ever saw" - which he immediately named Pittwater, after the great Prime Minister. There he found "some good situations where the land might be cultivated;" but they were not adapted for his purposes, although there was no want of water; "we found small springs of water in most of the coves, and saw three cascades falling from a height which the rains then rendered inaccessible." Phillip spent eight days in rowing about the three branches of the harbour and examining the coves; but "the almost continual rains prevented any kind of survey." The bay was afterwards surveyed by Captain Hunter, in August, 1789. It proved to be a very fine piece of scenery, spreading itself out in four large branches; but the entrance of the northern branch - now Brisbane Water - was obstructed by a sand-bar, "that had only water for small vessels." The rainy weather rendering it impossible to explore either the bay or its shores satisfactorily, Phillip was compelled to return sooner than he otherwise would have done; and "some of the people feeling the effects of the rain," he had to return by water instead of by land, and was thus prevented from examining "a part of the country which appeared open and free from timber."
During his interviews with the natives at Broken Bay he had many opportunities of observing their peculiar customs, which puzzled him a good deal - especially that of cutting off two joints from the little finger of the left hand among the women. He noticed also that the men had the right front tooth in the upper jaw knocked out, wore a piece of wood or bone in the nose, and were scarified about the breast and arms. Some of their graves were opened, and from the ashes found in them he "had no doubt but that they burn their dead."
The next expedition set out on the 15th of April, when Phillip endeavoured to explore the country of the sea-coast a little to the north of Port Jackson. Landing at Shell Cove, between Manly Beach and North Head (5), he found, further on, "a passage with deep water into a branch of the harbour that runs to the north-west." On examining this part of the country he came across "a run of fresh water that came from the westward," and a few days afterwards he proceeded to trace it up to its source. In the course of this journey a large lake was met with and examined, but not without great labour, as it was "surrounded with a bog and a large marsh, in which we were frequently up to our middle." This lake is known to excursionists of the present day as Lake Narrabeen, and is frequently visited by coach on the road from Manly to Pittwater. Here Phillip saw a black swan for the first time, and thought it "a noble bird." It took the party three days' hard work to get round the swamps and marshes which they met with on their way; but the traveller nowadays is not obstructed in that manner, the swamps and marshes having long since disappeared under the influence of drainage and cultivation. The result justifies the philosophic reflections indulged in on this subject by the editor of Phillip's Voyage, on "the great improvement which may be made by the industry of a civilised people in this country (6)."
Phillip made one or two other discoveries besides that of the lake on this occasion. When about fifteen miles from the coast he had "a very fine view of the mountains inland" - by which he meant the celebrated range afterwards known as the Blue Mountains. Those to the north he named the Carmarthen Hills, those to the south the Lansdowne, and one that rose up between them Richmond Hill - after some political celebrities of the time. While gazing at the distant range an idea occurred to him which led to one of his most important discoveries. "From the rising of these mountains I did not doubt that a large river would be found;" and in order to satisfy himself on that point he determined to make another exploration in a different direction.
Accordingly, he set off again a week afterwards, and having landed near the head of the harbour, tried to make his way through the country before him straight to the mountains. This might be called the first of the many attempts to explore the Blue Mountains made during a period of twenty-five years; for it was not until 1813 that the colonists succeeded in cutting a passage through them. Phillip had not gone far on his way before he was stopped by the scrub - which he called "a close cover" - and was obliged to return. On the following day a fresh start was made. By keeping along the banks of a small creek for about four miles the party managed to escape the scrub, and then came upon some unusually good country - "as fine as any I ever saw" - the trees growing from twenty to forty feet apart from each other, and no scrub, except where the soil was poor. It was this sort of country that charmed the eyes of Captain Cook and his friends when, "properly accounted for the expedition," they made their little "excursions into the country" at Botany Bay - finding in one direction "the face of the country finely diversified by wood and lawn," and in another "some of the finest meadows in the world." Phillip was so pleased with the undulating landscape before him, with its wildflowers and birds of brilliant plumage flitting through the trees, that he found ordinary English unequal to the expression of his feelings, and therefore gave it the name od Belle Vue - probably in recollection of some pleasant landscape in the old world.
But the river was not discovered; it had taken the party five days to make thirty miles, and there was yet no sign of it. The provisions they had taken with them would not last long enough to enable them to make any further attempt on that occasion to reach the mountains, and Phillip suffered so much from a pain in the side - brought on by sleeping for several nights on damp ground at Broken Bay - that he was obliged to return; but he did so with the intention of renewing the attempt in a few days. The good country they had seen, and the prospect of discovering a large river, "made everyone, notwithstanding the fatigue, desirous of being of that party;" and they were not a little encouraged to make another attempt by the traces of the natives which they had seen. Phillip says he "was surprised to find temporary huts made by the natives far inland, where they must depend solely on animals for food." He did not know then what their resources were, but took it for granted that when they laft the sea-coast wild animals were their only source of supply. His conjectures as to their habits at this time are not a little amusing. He could not understand how they could live at any distance from the coast, unless wild animals were very plentiful and easily caught; being under the impression that fish was their principal means of subsistence. "Whether they live in the woods by choice, or are driven from the society of those who inhabit the sea-coast, or whether they travel to a distant part of the country, I can form no judgment at present." Evidently he was still much more of a sailor than a bushman, and the idea of such savages living wholly in the bush all the year round seemed out of the question to him. It had not yet occurred to him that the bush maintained its tribes as well as the sea-coast, and that wherever the explorer might go in the interior he would be sure to meet with the natives. The only point on which he was quite clear was, that "when they go inland they certainly do not carry any fish to support them (7)."
The most helpful discovery inland made by Phillip during his first year of office was that of some good farming land near the head of the harbour, where he found "a tract of country running to the westward for many miles which appears to be in general rich, good land." The necessity for cultivating land largely in order to support his people had been daily making itself more felt, the land about Sydney Cove being found practically useless for the purpose. The first farm made in the colony was at Farm Cove - whence its name - and there nine acres were laid down in corn soon after the settlement was formed; but nine acres were obviously not enough to support over a thousand persons, and Phillip was consequently driven to explore the surrounding country in search of better soil. Hence his frequent journeys north, south, and west. The only available land which he succeeded in finding for some time was near the head of the harbour, at a place which he named Rose Hill - not knowing at the time that the native name was Parramatta. Here, in November, 1788, he commenced operations on a large scale, and with so much success that Rose Hill soon became an important establishment (8). His own experience as a gentleman farmer while settled at Lyndhurst, in the New Forest, was probably turned to some practical account here; at any rate, it lent some little attraction to his labours (9). When Captain Hunter visited the place in May, 1789, after his voyage to the Cape of Good Hope for provisions, he was surprised to find the little settlement in a very flourishing condition; and in July, 1790, Phillip "laid down the lines of a regular town" there; the principal street being one mile in length, with a breadth of two hundred and five feet. The regular town was afterwards named Parramatta by Phillip, on the 4th June, 1791 - that being the King's birthday.
The Rose Hill experiment led to other results besides an extension of farming operations. It convinced Phillip that the only means by which the cultivation of the soil could be carried on with permanent success, so as to render the colony independent of supplies from England, was to introduce free settlers, and supply them with convict labour on certain terms until they had established themselves. It was entirely owing to his repeated and emphatic representations on this subject that the Home Government consented, in 1792, to send out free settlers; and the method of dealing with convict labour, afterwards known as the Assignment system, is clearly traceable to the same source. The first settlers - there were only five of them - arrived early in 1793, after Phillip had left the colony; and each received a small grant of land "at the upper part of the harbour above the Flats," to which they gave the name of Liberty Plains. One of the conditions under which they engaged to settle in the colony was that "the service of convicts should be assigned to them free of expense, and those convicts whose services might be assigned to them should be supplied with two years' rations and one year's clothing." Such was the commencement of the Assignment system, of which so much was afterwards heard. Under Phillip's recommendation, it was originally limited to certain cases and conditions, for the purpose of inducing free settlers to reside in the colony and cultivate lands to be granted by the Crown. Subsequently, however, it was developed into a very different arrangement, under which the services of convicts might be obtained by anyone who could feed and clothe them; and it remained in force until the great abuses to which it naturally gave rise ultimately led to its extinction in 1838.
Another excursion was made on the 22nd August in the same year, when Phillip, who was accompanied by Lieutenants Johnston and Cresswell, Surgeon White, and six soldiers, set out to examine the coast between the North Head and Broken Bay. They landed at Manly Cove and proceeded northward along the coast for about six miles, when they were forced to halt until the tide had run out of a lagoon, so that they could ford it. The next day they reached the south branch of Broken Bay; but finding the country rather too rugged for them, they returned to the sea-shore, in order to examine the south part of the entrance into the bay. All along the shore they met parties of the natives, with whom they exchanged civilities. On the following day they returned to the branch of the bay which they had seen, making their way to it by means of a native path. At the head of it they found a freshwater river, which took its rise, a little above, out of a swamp. They made no discovery of any importance, but the trip served to increase their knowledge of the country in that direction, and enabled Mr. White to obtain several specimens of its natural history.
To remove all doubt as to the capability of Botany Bay for the purposes of settlement, and also to extend his knowledge of its branches, Phillip sailed round with a small party in boats, leaving Sydney on the 11th December, and remaining out for five days. During that time he examined the different branches of the bay, now known as Cook's River, George's River, and Woronora River. He left no account of his trip, and consequently we have no knowledge of the opinion he formed with respect to the country examined; but the result confirmed him in his first impression as to the impolicy of founding a settlement in that direction.
The next and perhaps the most important of Phillip's expeditions of discovery started from head-quarters on the 6th of June, 1789. Since his last visit to Broken Bay he had been compelled to defer his projected excursions to the north-west for several reasons. Not only had his health suffered from exposure, but the departure of the Sirius for the Cape of Good Hope in October of the previous year had deprived him of the society of Captain Hunter and his officers, as well as of the use of her boats and crew. The exploration of the large river of which he had been dreaming ever since he had found himself in full view of the Blue Mountains would require their assistance, as it would be necessary to ascend the river from its mouth, to take soundings and measurements, and to examine the country as they went on. The return of the Sirius in May, 1789, enabled Phillip to carry out his intentions, and accordingly a large party was at once organised for the purpose. Two boats were sent on to Broken Bay with provisions, and in a third were Phillip, Captain Hunter and two of his officers, Captain Collins the Judge-Advocate, Captain George Johnston of the marines - then aide-de-camp to the Governor, and afterwards a very conspicuous character in our history - and Surgeon White, "all armed with musquets, &c." They landed "on the north part of Port Jackson" - probably at Manly Cove - and proceeded along the coast towards Broken Bay, crossing many long sandy beaches and struggling through the bush on the hill-sides, occasionally meeting with a path "which the natives in travelling along the coast had trod very well down." These paths spared them a good deal of hard work in making their way through the rugged country in which they found themselves as soon as they began to face the hills (10).
When they had reached the shores of Broken Bay, where they found the boats waiting for them, they proceeded to explore the various branches of it which had been partially examined on Phillip's previous visit. Two days were devoted to this work, and on the third, while sailing up the north-west branch, they saw a point of high land which had the appearance of an island (11). Being determined to satisfy themselves on that point, they proceeded to examine it, and while doing so they were led into a branch which had not before been discovered. Following that up, they found a good depth of water and every other indication of the opening of an extensive river. The whole of the day was spent in rowing up the stream, and in the evening they landed on a low marshy point, where they pitched their tents for the night. Their progress next morning was delayed by fogs until ten o'clock, when the sun enabled them to find their way up the windings of the river. The day was passed in a careful examination of the tides and the general character of the river and surrounding country; but they could go no further then for want of provisions, and were compelled to return when evening came. They had gone about twenty miles from the entrance of the south-west branch; but the banks of the river were so very steep where they were that "there was not a spot on which we could erect a tent except where it was marshy ground." The only landing-place they could find was "a parcel of rocks," and there they passed the night. The next day they had a fair wind, blowing fresh, and consequently were able to sail down to Pittwater, where they camped, and afterwards remained a few days in order to recruit.
Phillip's satisfaction at this point may be easily imagined; his confident prediction of the year before that a great river would be found flowing from the distant mountains was now confirmed; and if he had had a doubt remaining in his mind as to the ultimate success of his settlement, it left him here. For a large river meant a large stretch of fertile country on its banks, of a very different character from that at Rose Hill or any other place in its neighbourhood, with easy carriage for produce by water. As soon as the river banks could be occupied and farmed - especially if free settlers could be sent out for the purpose - there would be an end to all fears as to the supply of food for the people at Sydney Cove; nor would there be any necessity for sending the Sirius to the Cape or the Supply to Batavia for the purpose of obtaining provisions. This was the point which he had so long been struggling to reach; and having at last arrived at it, he lost no time in following up his latest discovery.
As soon as he had got back to Sydney Cove, he gave orders for the preparation of another expedition, being determined to trace the river to its distant sources in the Blue Mountains. The party included the same men as before, with an addition of five marines, numbering altogether about forty, "all well armed and capable of making a powerful resistence," in case they should be attacked by the natives. They left Sydney Cove on the 28th of June, one boat being sent on to the south branch of Broken Bay. The land party walked, as before, from the north part of Port Jackson to Pittwater, which they reached in five hours - very good time, considering that each man had to carry his knapsack and gun, and that the country they had to pass through was very rough. No boat having made its appearance when they arrived at Pittwater, they had to walk round all the bays, woods, and swamps between the head and the entrance of that branch of the bay, in order to meet the boats; and then they found the day so far gone that there was nothing left to do but to pitch their tents for the night.
The next morning they set off in the boats at daybreak; passed Mullet Island - so named from the quantity of mullet and other fish they had caught there on their last visit to it - and then got into the river, reaching a point within three or four miles of the place at which they had turned back three weeks before. There they camped for the night. On the following day they started again at daybreak, and after they had gone a very short distance they found the river divided into two branches, one leading to the north-west and the other to the south. Following the former, they rowed all day up the stream, the banks of which were generally "immense perpendicular mountains of barren rock;" in some places "low marshy points covered with reeds or rushes" intervening between the banks and the mountains. Having found a tolerably dry spot at the foot of one of these hills, they camped for the night.
Their progress next day was considerably checked by large trees which had fallen from the banks, reaching almost across the river. It was now so narrow as hardly to deserve the name; and at last they found they had scarcely room for the oars or water enough to float the boats. Nothing was left but to go back; their estimated distance at this point from Mullet Island being thirty-four miles. Continuing their way down, they entered the southern branch of the river by six o'clock in the evening, and then camped. Proceeding up this part of it next day, they found it again divided into two other branches. Taking the one to the north, they found the water gradually becoming shoally, the depth being four to twelve feet; but Phillip, thinking that "it might lead to a good country, determined to go as high as the boats could find water." They followed the windings of the stream as far as they could go, and managed to cover about thirteen miles of it; the banks being much the same as those of the last, "high, steep, and rocky mountains, with many trees growing down their sides from between the rocks, where no one would believe there could be any soil to nourish them." Here Captain Hunter found the height of the opposite shore to be two hundred and fifty feet perpendicular above the level of the river, which was thirty fathoms wide at that point.
Passing next day into the second southern branch of the river they found deeper water, and rowed for thirteen or fourteen miles before camping for the night; but the country around them "wore a very unpromising aspect, being either high rocky shores or low marshy points." On the following day they went up about fourteen miles, the banks of the river being low and covered with trees which they called pine-trees, from the resemblance of its leaf to that of the European pine. The banks at this part of the river had the appearance of being ploughed up, "as if a vast herd of swine had been living on them." When they went on shore to examine the ground they found "the wild yam in considerable quantities, but in general very small, not larger than a walnut." The natives had done the ploughing.
While the boats were passing through a reach of the river, the great range of mountains, of which they had caught distant glimpses on former occasions, seemed suddenly quite close to them - as if a veil of clouds had rolled away in a moment. Phillip, generally happy in his selection of names, called them the Blue Mountains (12). No doubt he began to realise, while gazing at the stupendous masses of rock split up into numberless gorges densely covered with timber, how difficult a task lay before the man who should venture to explore them. But his present purpose was not to force a passage, like another Hannibal, through the Alpine range before him, but to trace the river he had found to its source, and ascertain as far as possible how far the neighbouring country would serve the pressing needs of the settlement.
After passing the night at the foot of a hill, they continued their voyage up the river at daybreak on the following day, still finding deep water and a wide channel. But as they went on the water gradually became shallow and the channel narrow, showing that they were not very far from the source in the mountains. Towards evening they found themselves at the foot of a mountain covered with lofty trees, but free from scrub; the country all around being pleasant to look upon, rich with grass, and without any of those rocky patches which met their eyes so often in other directions. The charms of the scenery led them to move some distance up the hill before they camped. In the stillness of the night they were startled by the roar of distant waters falling over rocks, and concluded at once that there was a cataract in the way which would stop their progress up the river.
In order to satisfy themselves on that point, they walked to the top of the hill next morning, when they saw an immense range of mountains only five or six miles off; between this range and the hill on which they stood - which Phillip had named Richmond Hill - lay a deep valley; while in the range itself they distinctly saw "a remarkable gully or chasm" about five miles away. On each side of this gigantic gap stood two hills, which Phillip had named the Carmarthen and Lansdowne Hills. After they had done justice to the scenery here, they descended the hill towards the river; but as it was low water and the boats could hardly float in it, they determined to wait for the next tide, and to spend the intervening time in exploring the country. They found it perfectly clear of scrub, the trees standing wide apart and all of a great height. The soil, too, was good; a small patch of it was turned up under Phillip's instructions, and a few potatoes, some Indian corn, melon, and other seeds were sown. It is pleasant to learn that it "was a common practice when a piece of ground, favourable from its soil and being in an unfrequented situation, was found, to sow a few seeds of different kinds (13)," and leave them to the kindly influences of nature. Some of the little gardens which had thus been planted in the wilderness were afterwards visited and found to be thriving, while others showed no return for the labour. This little instance of carefulness and forethought is characteristic of Phillip. Some of our subsequent explorers adopted a similar practice during their journeys in the far interior. It was on the same principle - suggested probably by Sir Joseph Banks - that Captain Cook used to leave pigs on the islands he visited; but in none of these cases were the benevolent anticipations realised, either as to the pigs or the gardens.
On the rising of the tide, the explorers returned to the river in the hope that they would soon be able to trace it to its source. They had not gone more than half a mile beyond the foot of Richmond Hill when they found the stream again dividing into two narrow branches, from one of which the water came down with a rush over a fall of stones apparently lying across its entrance. They now understood the noise of falling waters which had attracted their attention while lying round their camp fires on the previous evening. Notwithstanding the noise, however, there was not depth enough for the boats to proceed any further; they were therefore obliged to give up the search, and with it the hope of tracing the river to its source in that direction. The next five days were occupied in the return to Mullet Island, many of the smaller branches being examined on the way.
While they were looking about them at the falls they were surprised to observe the signs of recent floods in the river; and further examination revealed to them the immense force of a mountain torrent descending from such a range as that before them. They saw large logs of timber, which had been lodged from thirty to forty feet above the level of the river, caught on their way down by the clefts in the branches of trees which had been strong enough to resist the onward sweep of the current. All these trees had been bent by the irresistible power of the flood; but most of them had been laid level with the ground on which they stood, "with their tops pointing down the river, as much as I ever saw a field of corn after a storm." The capacity for working wreck and ruin possessed by this little mountain torrent was evident enough even twelve or fourteen miles lower down, where the same sort of flood-marks were visible at twenty-eight feet above the surface of the water; although the common rise and fall of the tide did not appear to be more than six feet. But it was left for later colonists to learn at their cost what "a flood in the Hawkesbury" might mean at times.
The return of the explorers to Sydney Cove was marked by an incident, graphically described by Captain Hunter (14), which shows how very difficult it was in those days to move about the country, even in the neighbourhood of the settlement. When they had arrived at the north part of Port Jackson - somewhere near Manly - they were unable to reach the settlement, no boat having been sent to meet them; and consequently they had to choose between walking round Middle Harbour to the cove in which the Sirius was lying, or walking back to Broken Bay, where they had left their boats. They were rescued from this dilemna by two of the men swimming across a narrow part of Middle Harbour, and thence making their way to Sirius Cove. "I cannot help here remarking," says Captain Hunter, "how providential it was that we did not all agree to walk round the north-west harbour;" and he then proceeds to describe their meeting with the unfortunate sailmaker of the Sirius, who had been four days lost in the bush, and was nearly dying from hunger and exhaustion. The picturesque places about the harbour, now so easily visited by holiday parties in the course of a day, were then traversed with very great fatigue and no little danger of being lost in the bush and starved to death (15). The little journeys undertaken by Phillip from time to time may seem very small performances at the present day; but the difficulty of penetrating the country even for twenty or thirty miles inland can only be understood when we have fully realised the struggles of our hardy pioneers to reach the great barrier which blocked the way to the unknown plains of the west. It was only by repeated efforts to reach the mountains that the nature of the task was really comprehended. How little was known of it in the first instance may be seen in Captain Tench's unsuspecting allusion to it:-
At the distance of sixty miles inland, a prodigious chain of lofty mountains runs nearly in a north and south direction, further than the eye can trace them. Should nothing intervene to prevent it, the Governor intends shortly to explore their summits; and I think there can be little doubt that his curiosity will not go unrewarded (16).
It took twenty-five years, and many painful efforts, to reach those summits. Phillip seems to have satisfied himself during his exploration of the Hawkesbury that in his weakened state of health the task was beyond his powers; at any rate he made no serious attempt to scale the mountains himself. But in December, 1789, a few months after his return from his last expedition, he despatched a small party under Lieutenant Dawes (17) for that purpose. They were out for nine days, and were then obliged to return; for in that time they had done nothing beyond struggling through the gullies and up the rocky hills which met them everywhere. Dawes calculated that he had reached within eleven miles of the range, and seemed to think that he had done something in getting so far - as no doubt he had; but the mountains were practically as far off as ever. Collins (p. 89) gives the following account of this expedition:-
Early in the month, Lieutenant Dawes, with a small party, taking with them just as much provisions as they could conveniently carry, set off on an attempt to reach the western mountains by and from the banks of the freshwater river, first seen some time since by Captain Tench, and supposed to be a branch of the Hawkesbury. From this excursion he returned on the nineth day without accomplishing his design, meeting with nothing after quitting the river but ravines that were nearly inaccessible. He had, notwithstanding the danger and difficulty of getting on through such a country, reached within eleven miles of the mountains, by computation. During his toilsome march he met with nothing very remarkable, except the impressions of a cloven foot of an animal, differing from other cloven feet by the great width of the division in each. He was not fortunate enough to see the animal that had made them (18).
Another important discovery - that of the Nepean River - was made by Captain Tench in June, 1789. Having been placed in command of the redoubt at Rose Hill shortly before that date, he was unable to join the expedition which resulted in the discovery of the Hawkesbury; but the success achieved on that occasion inspired him with the ambition of acquiring some distinction in the capacity of an explorer. "Stimulated," as he put it, "by a desire of acquiring a further knowledge of the country," he set out from Rose Hill at daybreak on the 26th June, accompanied by the assistant surgeon of the settlement, the surgeon's mate of the Sirius, two marines, and a convict. They directed their march to a hill five miles off, in a westerly direction, which commanded "a view of the great chain of mountains called Carmarthen Hills, extending from north to south further than the eye can reach." Here they paused, gazing for a time at "the wild abyss" of impassable ranges which rose up before them, and considering the direction they should take. After some consultation, they determined to steer west and by north by compass, the make of the land in that quarter indicating the existence of a river. They continued their march all day -
through a country untrodden before by an European foot. Save that a melancholy crow now and then flew croaking overhead, or a kangaroo was seen to bound at a distance, the picture of solitude was complete and undisturbed. At four o'clock in the afternoon we halted near a small pond of water, where we took up our residence for the night, lighted our fire, and prepared to cook our supper - that was, to broil over a couple of ramrods a few slices of salt pork and a crow we had shot. At daylight we renewed our peregrination; and in an hour afterwards we found ourselves on the banks of a river, nearly as broad as the Thames at Putney, and apparently of great depth, the current running very slowly in a northerly direction. Vast flocks of wild duck were swimming in the stream; but after being once fired at, they grew so shy that we could not get near them a second time. Nothing is more certain than that the sound of a gun had never before been heard within many miles of this spot.
They followed the course of the river for the rest of that day, making slow progress "through reeds, thickets, and a thousand other obstacles, over course sandy ground which had been recently inundated, though full forty feet above the present level of the river." They came upon many traces of the natives, "sometimes in their hunting-huts - sometimes in marks on trees which they had climbed - or in squirrel-traps - or in decoys, for ensnaring birds." Having remained out for three days, Tench returned to Rose Hill "with the pleasing intelligence of our discovery." The river was then named the Nepean by Phillip, after his friend Evan Nepean. The country they passed through was described as tolerably plain and little encumbered with underwood, except near the river side (19).
The next attempt to penetrate the country was again made by Tench in August, 1790. In company with Dawes and Worgan, formerly surgeon of the Sirius, he proceeded in a south-west direction as far as a hill which he called Pyramid Hill. They cam upon a river - "unquestionably the Nepean at its source" - to which they gave the name of the Worgan. Towards the end of the month, the same party made another excursion to the north-west of Rose Hill, when they again fell in with the Nepean, and traced it to the spot where Tench discovered it fourteen months before. No discoveries were made on these occasions, but something was added to the knowledge of the country (20).
The unsuccessful attempts made by Dawes and others to reach the Blue Mountains did not, however, deter Phillip from making an effort to do so; and for that purpose he equipped another expedition, which set out from Rose Hill on the 11th April, 1791 (21). The party comprised, besides himself, Tench and Dawes, Judge-Advocate Collins and his servant, three convicts who were considered good shots, eight soldiers with two serjeants, and Surgeon White; provisions for seven days being taken with them. "Every man (the Governor excepted)" - Tench tells us - "carried his own knapsack, which contained provisions for ten days; if to this be added a gun, a blanket, and a canteen, the weight will fall nothing short of forty pounds. Slung to the knapsack are the cooking kettle and the hatchet, with which the wood to kindle the nightly fire and build the nightly hut is to be cut down." Two friendly natives, Colebe and Ballederry - the latter had been living at Phillip's house for some time - being anxious to go with them, were allowed to do so, as "much information was expected from them." This was the first occasion on which convicts and blacks were employed in the work of exploration; but they were frequently taken on subsequent expeditions. The line of march taken by Phillip was from Rose Hill to the Hawkesbury, opposite Richmond Hill, then across the river, and so on to the mountains. Forseeing that a few hours' rain at that time of year might flood the river and so render their return a difficult matter, he proposed to cross it with only half-a-dozen persons, leaving the rest to construct a raft of lightwood for the purpose of punting them over on their return; or if no wood could be found for that purpose, to help them across with lines which were taken with them. The first day's travelling was directed towards the north-west, so as to cross a part of the country which had not yet been explored. After passing several deep ravines and going round the heads of others, over a barren but well-timbered country, they found some good land before them, but it did not last long; for after a few hours walking they came to a dry, arid soil, mostly covered with loose stones. Having met with some pools of good water towards evening, they made their fires near them and laid down for the night. During the day they had seen large numbers of kangaroos - of which there were two varieties, a large grey one (patagorang), and a small red one (baggaray). So plentiful were these animals that in one herd alone there could not have been less than forty.
Starting again the next morning, a few hours brought them to the river, which at that point was about three hundred feet wide, with high banks; the soil about it being a light sand, extending several hundred yards from the river, and covered with fine straight timber. They were now eighteen and a half miles from Rose Hill. As the current in the river was running down, they set off to follow its windings; a man being told off to count his paces as he went, in order that "they might always know their situation in the woods, and the direction it would be necessary to take when they returned across the country." The party marched in Indian file, "the person who went first always falling into the rear whenever he found himself fatigued." During the day they saw "several good situations," as Phillip termed them - meaning sites for farms - on both sides of the river. As they moved along its banks, wild ducks were seen in great numbers on the water, but they were too shy to give anyone a shot at them. In the afternoon, they came upon a creek which they found too deep to cross, and were therefore obliged to leave the river in order to pass round the head of the creek; when they had done so, "they found themselves on the borders of a river not more than eighty feet wide," with low banks covered with brush. The land rose so much on their right that they could not see more than a hundred yards about them, and what they did see was not pleasant to look upon, being mostly a poor stony soil. The country through which they were moving was not by any means easy walking for men carrying their own provisions, so that they did not object to halt at four o'clock and make their fires for the night.
On the third day they continued following up the creek, which had now dwindled into a good-sized ditch, until they reached the head of it, where they were able to cross over. They then struck for the north-west in order to get to the river again; but they were soon stopped by a deep gully. On ascending a hill to their left, they saw the country open towards the west, and thought they could distinguish Richmond Hill - the southern extremity of the range - apparently about thirteen miles distant. To the little hill on which they stood Phillip gave the name of "Tench's Prospect Hill," that officer having then seen Richmond Hill from it for the first time. Here they seem to have found themselves in a difficulty, not knowing in what direction they should proceed. At last they determined to return to the point at which they had made the river the day before, and then to trace it westward until they had got opposite Richmond Hill. So they trudged back again to the head of the creek which they had crossed at noon; and when they had reached it they thought they had taken quite enough exercise for that day, and accordingly sat down to tea round their camp fires.
They did not make a very early start next morning, as it was half-past seven when they crossed the creek. They then had some easy walking through a country full of timber and pleasing to the eye, but with a poor soil covered all over with stones. The next thing they came to was a swamp, where they had a little duck-shooting before they crossed it; after which they had no difficulty in reaching that part of the river where they had turned off from it on the second day of their journey. Thus they had not much to congratulate themselves upon for their four days' exertions. At this point, however, fortune befriended them in the shape of an old native, whom they saw paddling his own canoe in the river. They made their two natives coo-ee to him and invite him to come over, which he did without any hestitation, happening to know one of them. The stranger followed the explorers up the river in his boat; but as soon as he saw that they did not know how to save themselves unnecessary fatigue in walking, he was kind enough to leave it at once and take the lead, quickly bringing them into a path made by the natives along the river. Here they moved along easily; and after they had camped for the night they were joined by another native with a lively little boy, who soon became friendly with them, intimating their intention to stay, though they had left their families on the opposite bank of the river. In return for a biscuit, the old man who had acted as a guide gave an exhibition of his agility in climbing a tree - the finest exhibition of the kind which Phillip had yet seen.
On resuming the journey next day, the party continued to follow the natives' path along the bank until they came to another creek - too wide to be crossed by cutting down a tree, and too deep to be forded. They had no choice, therefore, but to follow its windings until they supposed themselves at the head of it, and then they made for the river again. But they had not gone too far before they found they had only rounded a small branch of the creek; so that they had to follow up the principal branch of it - a task which occupied them for the rest of the day and gave them infinite labour to do it. In the afternoon they found it divide again into two branches, either of which might have been crossed on a tree; but by this time they were all worn out with fatigue, and therefore decided to take rest - especially as it threatened to rain heavily and they had no tent.
Here two natives, who had been grumbling a good deal during the last day or two, began to grumble in a still louder key. One of them talked pathetically about his absent wife and child; while the other, when he saw the rain coming, reminded Phillip that there were good houses at Sydney and Rose Hill, but none there; no fish and no melon. They would not have felt any remorse in leaving the party had they not been afraid to return by themselves, knowing the danger of hostile spears. They had joined the expedition in the belief that it was a hunting excursion, got up for the purpose of shooting ducks and patagorangs; but when they saw that Phillip did not stop at the places where good sport might have been had, they began to wonder why he had left Rose Hill, and pressed him to return. The two natives were not the only members of the party who were dissatisfied with the results of the expedition. It was clear to all of them that their chance of exploring the Blue Mountains was a very poor one, seeing that they could not do a day's journey without being stopped by a creek or a gully, compelling them to go round it, and thus bringing them back to the place from which they started. Finding that the next two days would be taken up in getting to the opposite side of a creek not one hundred feet wide, Phillip determined to return at once to Rose Hill, sixteen miles from their camp. The next morning they started on their homeward journey and reached the settlement in the afternoon.
During this excursion they had a good opportunity for observing the singular precautions adopted by the natives when meeting each other unexpectedly in the bush; and as it was probably owing to neglect of similar precautions on the part of Europeans that many of the unfortunate collisions took place with the natives, it is worth while to give Phillip's account of them. Soon after their campfires were lighted on the first evening they were out, the voice of a native calling his dog was heard in the bush; and as their natives wished to interview him, they cooeed, and were answered by him. As his voice grew nearer, they desired the party to lie down and keep silence. They then advanced a little from their camp; but as the stranger approached they retreated, and as they advanced he was equally cautious. Meanwhile a light was seen moving towards them; they went forward to meet it, and on coming up to the bearer of it a conversation, at a respectable distance, took place between the parties. The fire - a piece of lighted bark from the tea-tree - was carried by a little boy who was made to walk in front, so that the man behind could see if the others were armed or not, while he kept himself behind the trees. When the friendly natives came up to him they told the boy their names and that of the tribe to which they belonged; the boy in return giving similar information on his side. The stranger then making his appearance, they gave him the names of the party, who were still at the camp-fire. On Phillip's approach the boy ran away but the man stood his ground, evidently not much at ease when he saw four or five white men near him - though none of them had arms in his hands. They were all introduced to the stranger by name (22), and invited him to come to their fire, some fifty yards off; but he declined to do so on the plea that he had left his family behind him.
After the discovery of the Nepean in June, 1789, a question had arisen among the explorers whether that river and the Hawkesbury were really separate streams, or whether one was merely an affluent of the other. In order to settle the matter, Tench and Dawes - who seem to have interested themselves greatly in the work of exploration - made two excursions, one in August, 1790, which proved fruitless so far as this question was concerned; and the other in May, 1791 (23). The two officers, accompanied by two soldiers, started from Rose Hill, intending to make for that part of the river opposite Richmond Hill at which Phillip's party had arrived. The journey resulted in their ascertaining that the two rivers were in reality one (24). Tench's narrative of this expedition is distinguished by a sympathetic expression of his gratitude towards certain natives whom they met on their arrival at Richmond Hill. Finding it necessary to cross the river at that place, they were obliged to seek their assistance; and so far from taking advantage of helpless strangers, they cheerfully helped them out of their difficulty. After the party had been ferried across the river, the natives brought over the knapsacks and guns which had been left behind, and delivered them to their owners without making any attempt to seize or even handle them:-
During this long trial of their patience and courtesy, in the latter part of which I was entirely in their power from their having possession of our arms, they had manifested no ungenerous sign of taking advantage of the helplessness and dependence of our situation, no rude curiosity to pry into the packages with which they were entrusted, and no sordid desire to possess the contents of them; although among them were articles exposed to view of which it afterwards appeared they knew the use and longed for the benefit. Let the banks of those rivers "known to song;" let him whose travels have lain among polished nations, produce me a brighter example of disinterested urbanity than was shown by these denizens of a barbarous clime to a set of destitute wanderers on the side of the Hawkesbury.
This is a well deserved tribute to the merits of the aboriginal character; but it is not more emphatic than similar expressions of opinion on the part of Tench's contemporaries. It is well worthy of note that all who were at all qualified to form an opinion - especially Phillip, Hunter, and Collins, as well as Tench - seem to have formed a high opinion of the natives they met with, and to have been animated by the kindliest feelings towards them, notwithstanding their occasional outbreaks of savagery. As to their mental capacity, Tench did not hesitate to declare that "the natives of New South Wales possess a considerable portion of that acumen, or sharpness of intellect, which bespeaks genius (25)."
In following the course of Phillip's explorations - which are not always easily made out from the only records of them that have come down to us - the reader will find considerable assistance in a chart of the country constructed by Lieutenant Dawes, bearing date March, 1791. It will be seen that the whole extent of the country of which Phillip and his contemporaries had acquired any knowledge lay between Botany Bay and Broken Bay, and was practically bounded to the west by the rivers Hawkesbury and Nepean. The country beyond the Nepean had been penetrated, in December, 1789, as far as the hill marked Mount Twiss on the chart; but the difficulties attending any attempt to explore in that direction are amusingly indicated by the remarks which Dawes has sprinkled over his map. Beyond Mount Twiss another mountain was seen, named Round Hill; and we are told that "of this hill the Governor desired that the summit might be attained, if possible; but on arriving at the western brow of it, a rugged country between it and Round Hill appeared." At another part we read that "all this country, as far as the eye can reach from very high hills, appears very mountainous and covered with trees." Statements of this kind may be taken to represent all that was then known of the country between the rivers and the Blue Mountains. But of Phillip's energy and determination to gain a satisfactory knowledge of the country some idea may be formed by the dotted lines marked on the chart, running from Rose Hill and Prospect Hill to the banks of the Hawkesbury and the Nepean. Dawes tells us that "the dotted lines show where it is intended to travel in the course of the winter months ensuing, of May, June, July, and August." From which it may be seen that plans had been formed for a thorough examination of the country lying between those boundaries.
ABOVE: Published Sept. 22nd 1792
Some portion of this work had been carried out in August, 1790; for it appears from the chart that an expedition had set out from Prospect Hill on the 1st August in that year; had passed beyond the "probable course of the river" (Nepean) to within a short distance of Pyramid Hill to the south on the 3rd; had then turned back towards the river, crossed it, and moved in a north-east direction, where it came on the 5th to a "country of coppices," and thence homewards to Prospect Hill. Another expedition seems to have started from that point later in the same month, travelling north-west till it came to "a lake of muddy water about thirty feet wide, apparently deep; in flood it rises twenty feet; the opposite bank rises beautifully to the height of about fifty feet." Thence the party struck off towards the Hawkesbury, passing through "swampy country" till it reached the river at a point above Richmond Hill; then following along the banks, where they found that "this bank is very sandy," and again, "sandy, the opposite bank is the same;" turning off towards home and passing through country described as "land various; in some parts very good, in others indifferent;" further on meeting with some better soil, "here the land in many places is very good;" and finally reaching home on August 27. It was in this way that the early settlers got to know the nature of the country round about them.
The last effort at exploration made by Tench and Dawes was in July, 1791, when they went in search of a large river supposed to exist a few miles to the southward of Rose Hill. They did not succeed in finding anything better than a salt-watered creek running into Botany Bay, and on its banks they passed a miserable night from want of water to quench their thirst; for as they believed that they were going to a river they "thought it needless to march with full canteens." The most noticeable event on this occasion was the extraordinary degree of cold experienced on the road, when they were six miles south-west of Rose Hill. Tench's description of the scene is of sufficient interest to deserve quotation:-
The sun arose in unclouded spendour, and presented to our sight a novel and picturesque view; the contiguous country as white as if covered with snow, contrasted with the foliage of trees flourishing in the verdure of tropical luxuriance. Even the exhalation which steamed from the lake beneath contributed to heighten the beauty of the scene. Nothing but demonstration could have convinced me that so severe a degree of cold ever existed in this low latitude. Drops of water on a tin-pot, not altogether out of the influence of the fire, were frozen into solid ice in less than twelve minutes. Part of a leg of kangaroo, which we had roasted for supper, was frozen quite hard, all the juices of it being converted into ice. On those ponds which were near the surface of the earth, the covering of ice was very thick; but on those which were lower down, it was found to be less so in proportion to their depression; and wherever the water was twelve feet below the surface (which happened to be the case close to us), it was uncongealed (26).
Such is the history of exploration during Phillip's time. The narrative of his little excursions may provoke a smile at the present day, when contrasted with the exploits of later explorers who succeeded in crossing the continent from north to south and from east to west, in face of all the difficulties and dangers presented by mountain ranges, sandy deserts, flooded rivers, and sometimes hostile savages. There is no more comparison between Phillip's achievements and theirs, in one sense, then there is between a harbour excursion and an ocean voyage. But a little consideration will be enough to show that any such conclusion would be unjust to the founder of the colony. If his performances will not bear comparison with those of his more distinguished successors in the same field, it is because the difficulties in his path were, after all, as great in their way as any that others had to contend with. We have only to realise the position in which he was placed in order to see that, under the conditions he had to contend against, it was scarcely possible that the work of exploration could be attended with any marked success. The only means by which it could be accomplished at that time was by boats; for the moment that an exploring party set out to face the bush their progress was checked at every step. They took no horses either to ride or to carry provisions; consequently every man in the party had to walk, carrying his own supplies as well as his arms and ammunition; and as no one could possibly carry more than enough to supply him for eight or ten days, the limits of their exploring powers were very soon reached. If we add to all this the extreme fatigue of travelling in such a manner, without any means of fording a river or even a creek, without even a tent to sleep in at night, and with the constant apprehension of an attack from the natives, it will be seen that exploration under such circumstances was all but hopeless.
But for the discovery of the Hawkesbury, it would hardly have been possible to have made any way at all into the surrounding country. It was almost equivalent to the making of a road. Followed as it was shortly afterwards by the discovery of the Nepean, it enabled Phillip to gain some insight into the character of the country inland. Had the work of exploration been understood in his days, the advantage thus gained might certainly have been turned to better account. A depôt, for instance, might have been established at the foot of Richmond Hill, which would then have become a basis for further operations; and from that point excursions might have been made to the north-west with much less difficulty than when starting from Rose Hill. But neither Phillip nor any of his officers had yet learned the art of making their way through an unknown country, such as that which lay around them. They could not go five miles into the bush without running the risk of losing themselves. When they went on an overland expedition, one man of the party was told to count his paces in order that they might have some idea as to where they were and how far they had travelled; a small pocket compass being the only instrument they had to guide them. Exploring in that fashion was mere groping in the dark. The explanatory notes made by Lieutenant Dawes on his map - the first exploring map constructed in the colony - show how much the land lay in darkness before him, with here and there a ray of light breaking through it. It was a matter of common occurrence for men to lose themselves in the bush, even in the neighbourhood of Sydney Cove and within sight of the harbour; so much so that the annual returns of casualties included a column under the heading - "Lost in the Bush."
The work actually accomplished by Phillip in this direction during his five years of office was nevertheless of the highest importance. Apart from the elaborate surveys of Botany Bay, Port Jackson, and Broken Bay, which were made by Captain Hunter under his direction - his exploration of the Hawkesbury and of the country which lay between it and Sydney Cove not only rescued the settlement from the peril of ultimate failure, but it may be said to have laid the foundation of all subsequent discoveries. No one can read the journals of Australian explorers without observing how much they were all indebted to the labours of those who had successively gone before them. If Oxley paved the way for Cunningham, Sturt, and Mitchell, they in their turn acted as unseen guides to Eyre and Grey, who again inspired Leichhardt, Burke, Stuart, and others with the hope of penetrating the continent from sea to sea. But Oxley, with whom the history of scientific exploration may be said to have begun, could not have accomplished what he did if Lawson, Blaxland, and Wentworth had not succeeded in finding a way for him over the Blue Mountains four years before he started from Bathurst Plains to trace the Macquarie and the Lachlan. Nor again could they have performed that task had it not been for the exertions of those who went before them in opening up the country to the banks of the Nepean and the Hawkesbury. Even the men who absolutely failed in their attempts to cross the mountains - Bass, Bareiller, and Caley, to say nothing of those who preceded them - may be said to have materially assisted Lawson and his party in solving the problem which had defied their own painful efforts. It was in this spirit that Forrest, who crossed from Perth to Adelaide round the Great Australian Bight, acknowledged that "the records of Eyre's expedition were of the greatest service to me, by at least enabling me to guard against a repetition of the terrible sufferings he endured (27)."
NOTES:
(1) "Phillip's journeys were almost continuous; in fact, as long as there was a question unsolved, or a hill in sight which he had not visited, he was always exploring." - Woods, History of the Discovery and Exploration of Australia, p. 65.
(2) The bay referred to was not Port Jackson, as generally supposed, but Broken Bay. "The day sfter my arrival, the Governor, accompanied by me and two other officers, embarked in three boats, and proceeded along the coast to the northward, intending, if we could, to reach what Captain Cook has called Broken Bay." - Hunter, Journal, p. 42; post, p. 268 n.
(3) La Pérouse thought that "the Bay of Avatscha (in Kamschatka) is certainly the finest, safest, and most commodious that is possible to be found in any part of the globe." He added:- "Its entrance is narrow, and ships would be obliged to pass under the guns of the forts that might be erected. The bottom is mud, and excellent holding ground. Two spacious harbours, one on the east and the other on the west, are capable of receiving the whole of the French and English navies." It was in September, 1787, that the Boussole and the Astrolabe were lying in the bay of Avatscha; and on the 26th January of the following year they dropped anchor in Botany Bay. La Pérouse remained there till the 10th of March, but never felt sufficient interest in Port Jackson to visit it, although he heard many descriptions of it from Lieutenant King and the other English officers whom he met while at Botany Bay.
(4) Collins, p. 19.
(5) There is another Shell Cove in Middle Harbour, between Hunter's Bay and the Spit; and a third between Mossman's Bay (formerly called Great Sirius Cove) and Neutral Bay, so named by Phillip when he directed that all foreign ships entering the harbour should anchor there. "The Governor, thinking it probable that foreign ships might again visit this coast, and perhaps run into this harbour for the purpose of procuring refreshments, directed Mr. Blackburn to survey a large bay on the North Shore, contiguous to this cove; and a sufficient depth of water being found, his excellency inserted in the Port Orders that all foreign ships coming into this harbour should anchor in this bay, which he named Neutral Bay, bringing Rock Island to bear S.S.E., and the hospital on the west side of Sydney Cove to bear S.W. by W." - Collins, p. 64.
(6) Voyage, p. 98; post, p. 288.
(7) "On the coast fish make a considerable part of their food, but when that cannot be had, it seems hardly possible that, with their spears, the only missile weapon yet observed among them, they should be able to procure any kind of animal food." Phillip's Voyage, p. 102.
"The sea-coast, we have every reason at present to believe, is the only part of this country which is inhabited by the human race; the land seems to afford them but a very scanty subsistence." - Hunter, p. 65.
On the other hand, Vancouver, not finding and fish-bones or oyster-shells about the native camps at King George's Sound, concluded that the coast natives went inland for food. - Voyage, October, 1791.
The difficulty suggested by such casual observations as Vancouver's about the oysters is explained by the following passage from Eyre's Journals, referring to the oyster-beds he met with at Streaky Bay:- "Many drays might easily be loaded, one after the other, from these oyster-beds. The natives of the district do not appear to eat them, for I never could find a single shell at any of their encampments. It is difficult to account for the taste or prejudice of the native which guides him in his selection or rejection of particular kinds of food. What is eaten readily by the natives in one part of Australia is left untouched by them in another; thus the oyster is eaten at Sydney, and I believe at King George's Sound, but not at Streaky Bay. The unio or fresh-water muscle is eaten in great numbers by all the natives of New South Wales and South Australia, but Captain Grey found that a Perth native, who accompanied him on one of his expeditions, would not touch this kind of food even when almost starving. Snakes are eaten by some tribes, but not by others; and so with many other kinds of food which they make use of." - Journals, vol. i, p.195.
"No part of the country is so utterly worthless as not to have attractions sufficient occasionally to tempt the wandering savage into its recesses. In the arid, barren, naked plains of the north, with not a shrub to shelter him from the heat, not a stick to burn for his fire (except what he carried with him), the native is found, and where, as far as I could ascertain, the whole country around appeared equally devoid of either animal or vegetable life. In other cases, the very regions which, in the eyes of the European, are most barren and worthless, are to the native the most valuable and productive. Such are dense brushes or sandy tracts of country covered with shrubs, for here the wallabie, the opossum, the kangaroo rat, the bandicoot, leipoa, snakes, lizards, iguanas, and many other animals, reptiles, birds, &c., abound; whilst the kangaroo, the emu, and the native dog are found upon their borders, or in the vicinity of those small grassy plains which are occasionally met with amidst the closest brushes." - Eyre, Journals, p. 351.
(8) "The month of November commenced with the establishment of a settlement at the head of the harbour. On the 2nd, his excellency the Governor went up to the Crescent with the Surveyor-General, two officers and a small party of marines, to choose the spot, and to mark out the ground for a redoubt and other necessary buildings; and two days after a party of ten convicts, being chiefly people who understood the business of cultivation, were sent up to him, and a spot upon a rising ground, which his excellency named Rose Hill, in compliment to G. Rose, Esq., one of the Secretaries of the Treasury, was ordered to be cleared for the first habitation. The soil at this spot was of a stiff clayey nature, free from that rock which everywhere covered the surface of Sydney Cove, well clothed with timber, and unobstructed by undergrowth." Collins, p. 45.
(9) He had luckily brought out with him from England a man-servant who, according to Collins (p. 64), "joined to much agricultural knowledge a perfect idea of the labour to be required from, and that might be performed by, the convicts; and whose figure was calculated to make the idle and the worthless shrink if he came near them." This man was said to be the only frr person in the colony who had any knowledge of farming; post, p. 351.
(10) Frequent reference is found in the Journals of subsequent explorers to the native paths met with in the interior, and which frequently proved of essential service in leading them to water. Captain Sturt came upon the Darling River while following a track made by the natives:- "As the path we had observed was leading northerly, we took up that course, and had not proceeded more than a mile upon it when we suddenly found ourselves on the banks of a noble river." - Two Expeditions, p. 85. Eyre was indebted to these paths on several occasions for water while making his way among the sand-drifts along the Great Australian Bight to King George's Sound.
(11) Hunter, p. 143.
(12) "Called by the Governor the Blue Mountains." - Hunter, p. 150.
(13) Hunter, p. 152; Captain Grey made an elaborate attempt to introduce plants, seeds, and animals in this manner during his expedition to the north-west coast in 1837. A large stock was collected by him in England, at Teneriffe, the Cape, and Timor. On leaving Hanover Bay, where he had made a garden, he wrote:- "I considered what a blessing to the country these plants must eventually prove, if they should continue to thrive as they had yet done; and as I called to mind how much forethought and care their transportation had occasioned, I would very gladly have passed a year or two of my life in watching over them, and seeing them attain to a useful maturity. One large pumkin plant in particular claimed my notice. The tropical warmth and rain, and the virgin soil in which it grew, had imparted to it a rich luxiriance; it did not creep along the ground, but its long shoots were spreading upwards amongst the trees. The young cocoa-nuts grew humbly amidst the wild plants and reeds - their worth unknown. Most of these plants I had placed in the ground myself, and had watched their early progress; now they must be left to their fate." Eleven Timor ponies were turned out at the same place:- "Two good mares which were among them might possibly be the means of giving a very valuable race of horses to this country. The companions of our weary wanderings were turned loose, - a new race upon the land; and, as we trusted, to become the progenitors of a numerous herd." - Journals, p. 236. Planting vegetables on the islands they called at was a common practice among the whalers; Memoirs of Joseph Holt, vol. ii, p. 353.
(14) Post, p. 518.
(15) "In many of these arms (of the harbour), when sitting with my companion at my ease in a boat, I have been struck with horror at the bare idea of my being lost in them; as, from the great similarity of one cove to another, the recollection would be bewildered in attempting to determine any relative situation. It is certain that if destroyed by no other means, insanity would accelerate the miserable end that would ensue." - Collins, p. 69.
(16) Narrative, p. 118.
(17) Then in charge of the observatory which had been put up on Point Maskelyne - so named after Dr, Maskelyne, the Astronomer Royal of the time - but afterwards called Dawes' Point, "to receive the astronomical instruments which had been sent out by the Board of Longitude for the purpose of observing the comet which was expected to be seen about the end of this year." - Collins, p. 15. Dawes was also "directed in public orders to act as officer of artillery and engineers; in consequence of which the ordnance of the settlement, and the constructing of a small redoubt on the east side, were put under his directions;" p. 26. The small redoubt was long afterwards known as Dawes' Battery.
(18) Captain Grey came upon similar tracks while exploring in the north-west, between Hanover Bay and the river Glenelg:- "I have to record the remarkable fact of the existence in these parts of a large quadruped with a divided hoof. This animal I have never seen, but twice came upon its traces. On one occasion I followed its track for above a mile and a half, and at last altogether lost it in rocky ground. The foot-marks exceeded in size those of a buffalo, and it was apparently much larger, for where it had passed through brushwood, shrubs of a considerable size in its way had been broken down, and from the openings there left I could form some comparative estimate of its bulk. These tracks were first seen by a man who had joined me at the Cape, and who had there been on the frontier during the Caffre war; he told me that he had seen the spur of a buffalo, imagining that they were here as plentiful as in Africa. I conceived at the time that he had made some mistake, and paid no attention to him until I afterwards twice saw the same traces myself." - Journals, p. 242.
(19) Complete Account, p. 27.
(20) Ib., pp. 52, 53. Péron, the naturalist of the French Expedition of 1801, wrote an amusingly accurate account of these excursions:- Ce ne fut qu'au mois de décembre 1789 que le Gouvernement lui-même crut devoir s'occuper, d'une manière particulière, des montagnes de l'ouest. Le Lieutenant Dawes partit, à l'effet de les reconnôitre, avec un gros détachment de troupes et des vivres pour dix journées de marche; mais, après neuf jours de fatigues et de dangers, il revint au Port Jackson, sans avoir pu s'avancer au delà de neuf milles dans l'intérieur des montagnes. D'après son rapport, il avoit été arrêté par des ravins impracticables, par des chaînes de rochers très-hautes, très escarpées et bordées de précipices.
Huit mois après l'expédition du Lieutenant Dawes, c'est à dire au mois d'aôut 1790, le Capitaine Tench partit lui-même avec une forte escorte de soldats et tous les objets necessaries pour tenter de nouveau le passage des montagnes bleues; mais cette excursion ne fut pas plus heurense que la première. - Voyage, vol. i, p. 390.
(21) Hunter, p. 512; Tench, Complete Account, p. 112.
(22) The custom of introducing strangers by name, individually, was general among all the tribes. Cook relates that, while his ship was lying in the Endeavour River - 12 July, 1770 - "three Indians ventured down to Tupia's tent, and were so well pleased with their reception that one of them went with their canoe to fetch two others whom we had never seen; when he returned, he introduced the strangers by name, a ceremony which, upon such occasions, was never omitted."
(23) Tench, Complete Account, p. 127; Hunter, p. 530.
(24) "The Nepean or Cowpasture River is a fine stream, rising a few miles north of Berrima and flowing in a northerly direction through a fine agricultural district into the Hawkesbury River, between Penrith and Richmond, or at the confluence of the Grose River. The Nepean is, in fact, only another name for the upper end of the Hawkesbury. It is fed by numerous tributary streams, the principal of which are the Wattle, Mount Hunter, Stonequarry, and Myrtle Creeks; and the Warragamba, Bargo, Cordeaux, and the Cataract Rivers. The Nepean flows past the townships of Picton, Riversford, and Camden." - Whitworth, New South Wales Gazetteer.
(25) Complete Account, p. 188.
(26) Complete Account, p. 130.
(27) Forrest, Explorations in Australia, p. 11.
