shores of the port are mostly rocky, particularly on the north side; but there is no want of grass or wood; and without doubt there are many culturable spots on the sides of the streams which descend, apparently from the inland mountains, into the uppermost branch. Two natives came down to us in a friendly manner, and seemed not to be unacquainted with Europeans. Their language differed somewhat from the Port Jackson dialect; but with the assistance of signs, we were able to make ourselves understood.
After sounding the entrance of Port Hacking in going out, and finding 3½ fathoms water, we steered N.E. by E for Cape Solander; and the same evening Tom Thumb was secured alongside the Reliance in Port Jackson.
In this little expedition, I had no other means of ascertaining the situations of places than by pocket-compass bearings and computed distances; which was done as follows:
South lat. East lon.
° ' ° '
Cliffy south extreme of Cape Solander, lies in 34 2.5 151 12
From thence to Port Hacking, a low curving
shore, mostly beach, lies S. W. b. W. 6 miles +3.4 -6
------------------
Situation of Port Hacking 34 5.9 151 6
From Port Hacking to Watta-Mowlee; low cliffs,
but rising gradually to the head of the cove;
S. S. W. 3½ miles +3,2 -1,6
-----------------
Situation of Watta-Mowlee 34 9,1 151 4,4
Thence to the end of steep cliffs, nearly
straight S. S. W. 4½ miles +4,2 -2,1
To the end of coal cliffs, and commencement of
Hat-Hill beach; mostly a high shore, sometimes
cliffy, with small beaches at intervals;
S. by W. l0 miles, +9.8 -2.4
From thence to Red Point; a curving sandy beach
with small rocky points; S.¾ E. 6½ miles +6,4 + 1.1
-----------------
Situation of Red Point 34 29.5 151 1
From Red Pt. to the entrance of Tom Thumb's
lagoon; a low, curving sandy beach; S.W. 5 miles +3.5 -4.3
-----------------
Situation of the entrance to Tom Thumb's lagoon 34 33.0 151 56.7
-----------------
CLARKE. 1797 (Atlas, Pl. I.)
After this expedition, the duties of the ship, and a voyage to the Cape of Good Hope by the way of Cape Horn, suspended our projects for some time. On the return of the Reliance to New South Wales, we found there the supra-cargo of the Sydney Cove, a ship from India commanded by Mr. G. A. Hamilton, which, having started a butt end, had been run on shore at Furneaux's Islands and wrecked. Mr. Clarke had left the ship, with the chief mate and others, in the long boat, designing for Port Jackson, in order to procure means for transporting the officers and people, and such part of the cargo as had been saved, to the same place; but being overtaken by a heavy south-east gale, their boat had been thrown on shore near Cape Howe, three-hundred miles from the colony, and stove to pieces.
There was no other prospect of safety for Mr. Clarke and his companions, than to reach Port Jackson on foot; and they commenced their march along the sea shore, scantily furnished with ammunition, and with less provisions. Various tribes of natives were passed, some of whom were friendly; but the hostility of others, and excessive fatigue, daily lessened the number of these unfortunate people; and when the provisions and ammunition failed, the diminution became dreadfully rapid. Their last loss was of the chief mate and carpenter, who were killed by Dilba, and other savages near Hat Hill;* and Mr. Clarke, with a sailor and one lascar, alone remained when they reached Watta-Mowlee. They were so exhausted, as to have scarcely strength enough to make themselves observed by a boat which was fishing off the cove; but were at length conveyed into her, and brought to Port Jackson.
[* This Dilba was one of the two Botany-Bay natives, who had been most strenuous for Tom Thumb to go up into the lagoon, which lies under the hill.]
Mr. Clarke gave the first information of the coal cliffs, near Hat Hill; and from him it was ascertained, that, besides the known bays, many small streams and inlets had interrupted his march along the shore, from Cape Howe to Watta-Mowlee; but that there were none which he had not been able to pass, either at the sea side, or by going a few miles round, into the country. A journal of his route was published in the Calcutta newspapers, some time in 1798.
The colonial schooner Francis had made one voyage to Furneaux's Islands, and brought from thence captain Hamilton, and part of his people and cargo. The same vessel was about to proceed thither a second time, and I was anxious to embrace that opportunity of exploring those extensive and little known lands; but the great repairs required by the Reliance would not allow of my absence. My friend Bass, less confined by his duty, made several excursions, principally into the interior parts behind Port Jackson; with a view to pass over the back mountains, and ascertain the nature of the country beyond them. His success was not commensurate to the perseverance and labour employed: the mountains were impassable; but the course of the river Grose, laid down in Plate VIII, resulted from one of these excursions.
SHORTLAND. 1797. (Atlas, Pl. VIII.)
In September, a small colonial vessel having been carried off by convicts, lieutenant JOHN SHORTLAND, first of the Reliance,* went after them to the northward, in an armed boat. The expedition was fruitless, as to the proposed object; but in returning along the shore from Port Stephens, Mr. Shortland discovered a port in latitude 33°, capable of receiving small ships; and what materially added to the importance of the discovery, was a stratum of coal, found to run through the south head of the port, and also pervaded a cliffy island in the entrance. These coals were not only accessible to shipping, but of a superior quality to those in the cliffs near Hat Hill. The port was named after His Excellency governor HUNTER; and a settlement, called New Castle, has lately been there established. The entrance is narrow, and the deepest water (about three fathoms) close to the north-west side of the Coal Island; but no vessel of more than three hundred tons should attempt it.
[* Afterwards captain of the Junon. He was mortally wounded, whilst bravely defending his Majesty's frigate against a vastly superior force; and died at Guadaloupe.]
BASS. 1797.
In December, Mr. GEORGE BASS obtained leave to make an expedition to the southward; and he was furnished with a fine whale boat and six weeks provisions by the governor, and a crew of six seamen from the ships. He sailed Dec. 3., in the evening; but foul and strong winds forced him into Port Hacking and Watta-Mowlee. On the 5th, in latitude 34° 38', he was obliged to stop in a small bight of the coast, a little south of Alowrie. The points of land there are basaltic; and on looking round amongst the burnt rocks scattered over a hollowed circular space behind the shore, Mr. Bass found a hole of twenty-five or thirty feet in diameter; into which the sea washed up by a subterraneous passage.
Dec. 6., he passed a long sloping
