The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888 Part 3

"Having remained out three days, we returned to our quarters at Rose Hill with the pleasing intelligence of our discovery. The country we had pa.s.sed through we found tolerably plain, and little enc.u.mbered with underwood, except near the riverside. It is entirely covered with the same sort of trees as grow near Sydney; and in some places gra.s.s springs up luxuriantly; other places are quite bare of it. The soil is various; in many places a stiff, arid clay, covered with small pebbles; in other places, of a soft, loamy nature; but invariably in every part near the river it is a coa.r.s.e, sterile sand. Our observations on it (particularly mine, from carrying the compa.s.s with which we steered) were not so numerous as might have been wished. But, certainly, if the qualities of it be such as to deserve future cultivation, no impediment of surface but that of cutting down and burning the trees exists to prevent its being tilled.

"To this river the Governor gave the name of Nepean (after Captain Nepean, of the New South Wales corps). The distance of the part of the river which was first hit upon from the sea coast is about thirty-nine miles, in a direct line, almost due west."

In December, 1789, Governor Phillip dispatched a party, under Lieutenant Dawes, of the Marines, accompanied by Lieutenant Johnson and Mr. Lowes, to cross the Nepean and try to penetrate the range beyond. They discovered a ford in the river, and crossing, proceeded in a westerly direction. So rugged and difficult, however, did they find the country that in three days they had only covered fifteen miles. At a bill that they called Mount Twiss they turned back, having penetrated fifty-four miles in a direct line from the sea coast.

In August, 1790, Messrs. Tench, Dawes, and Morgan explored south and west of Rose Hill. They struck the Nepean higher up, nearer its source than on the former occasion, and remained out seven days, penetrating to a considerable distance in a south-west direction. Near the end of the same month, the same party made an excursion to the north-west of Rose Hill, and traced the Nepean to where it was first discovered by Tench's party in 1789.

In April, 1791, Governor Phillip, attended by a large company, numbering in all twenty-one persons, including two natives, set out on an expedition from Rose Hill to determine the ident.i.ty, or not, of the Nepean and the Hawkesbury. On the 12th of the month they struck the river, and followed it down for some distance, but did not accomplish the object they had in view.

In the following month, however, Messrs. Tench, Dawes, and two soldiers, again went out, and settled the vexed question.

About this time, although scarcely to be included in the tale of exploration, a number of convicts made a desperate attempt to proceed overland to China. They, however, only managed a very short stage of the journey--namely, to Broken Bay. Here they were attacked by the natives, and returned in a demoralised condition to Rose Hill and gave themselves up.

The impression these deluded men set out under was, that at a considerable distance to the northward there was a large river which separated this country from China, and when it was crossed they would find themselves amongst a copper-coloured people, who would receive and treat them kindly.

In 1793, Captain Paterson, who had already had some experience as an African traveller, started on an expedition to the Caermarthen Hills (by this time beginning to be known as the Blue Mountains), intending, if possible, to cross the range, or at any rate, penetrate some distance into it, He was accompanied by Captain Johnstone, and Messrs. Palmer and Lang. The party was well equipped, and provisioned for six weeks. Pulling up the Hawkesbury, they left the heavy boats at the fall that had formerly stayed the progress of Governor Phillip, and taking two light ones with them, they tried to ascend higher up the river. They managed to reach ten miles beyond the furthest point ever before visited, and then, their boats having suffered some damage, and there being a slight fresh in the river, they returned. The highest part of the river where they were they named the "Grose," and Paterson, who was a botanist, discovered several new kinds of plants.

Another determined effort to cross the range that seemed to defy all the attempts of the colonists was made by quarter-master Hacking, in 1794.

The party succeeded in pus.h.i.+ng out twenty miles further than any European had been, but their report was unfavourable. They reached the foot of the range, and after climbing over some eighteen or twenty ridges, formed of little else but precipitous rocks, they saw before them nothing but the same savage and inaccessible country. Tier after tier of ranges rose in view, divided by abrupt and impa.s.sable chasms and gorges. The only natives they saw fled at their approach, and, saving for the presence of some large red kangaroos, little sign of animal life was met with. Away to both north and south, the same iron range could be traced, showing no prospect of gap or pa.s.s, and they returned dispirited. The colonists now began to look upon the Blue Mountains as their western limit, and the extension of settlement in that direction was regarded as chimerical.

The cattle that had escaped from the settlement had, with their usual instinct, wandered on until they had found suitable grazing land on the Nepean, and there had settled down. When discovered they had thriven well, and increased into a small herd. By the Governor's direction they were left unmolested, being but occasionally visited, and their run became known as the Cow Pastures.

Mr. Ba.s.s, the bold explorer of Ba.s.s Strait, in company with some other gentlemen, visited these pasture lands in 1797, and from Mount Taurus, on the Nepean River, took a straight course to the coast, where a whale boat was sent to meet them. Their .experience was of the usual kind. After leaving the fertile grazing lands appropriated by the cattle, they crossed a succession of barren ridges, gradually growing worse and worse until the sea was reached.

Ba.s.s had, before this, attempted to cross the range in 1796. His attempt was of the same character as all the others, failure and disappointment attending his steps, although the endeavour to obtain success was carried through, as might be expected, with his usual untiring energy and contempt for danger. It is sad to think that a career that opened so brilliantly should have been doomed to close miserably in the mines of South America.

Having become partially convinced that there was no high road to be found between Port Jackson and the Chinese Empire, some of the convicts (princ.i.p.ally the Irish prisoners) became possessed with the notion that a colony of white people existed three or four hundred miles in the interior, south-west of the settlement. This tale, highly embellished, was sufficient to inflame the imaginations of men condemned to servitude, and panting for liberty. The existing rumour being found out by the authorities, it proved on investigation that so far had this preposterous legend gained ground that written instructions had been issued for guidance to this Arcadia, accompanied with a paper having the figure of a compa.s.s drawn on it. The Governor, wis.h.i.+ng to save these foolish dupes from the punishment and probable loss of life that would necessarily ensue in carrying out such a wild project, wrote to a magistrate at Parramatta the following instructions. He was to go to Toongabbie, where most of these infatuated men were employed, and, knowing how impossible it would be to reason them out of their belief, he was to inform them that four picked men would be allowed to start out and satisfy themselves of the impossibility of any show of success attending their search, and that in order to ensure their safe return three experienced men would be sent as guides with them.

On receipt of this information so many a.s.sembled that stricter measures had to be taken, and sixteen of the number were arrested and sent to Sydney for punishment. Four men were then selected by the malcontents themselves, and were about to depart in search of the supposed colony when a treacherous plot was discovered. A scheme was on foot for a stronger party of convicts to abscond, and these meeting the explorers at a pre-arranged spot, should there murder the guides, and having possessed themselves of their weapons, the prisoners would be at liberty to prosecute their researches alone. Four soldiers were added to the party to resist any attempt of this sort, and on the 14th January, 1798, they left Parramatta in search of El Dorada.

Amongst the men chosen to act as guides was one James Wilson, who had for some time previously been living in the bush with the natives, and had even submitted to his body being marked and scarred after their fas.h.i.+on.

On his return from this nomadic existence, he stated that he had traversed the country for nearly one hundred miles in every direction around the settlement, and discoursed at length upon having seen large tracts of open country, and many strange birds and animals, unknown to the settlers. His stories were for the most part discredited, but it was thought that his experiences would be most useful to the party, and he was therefore selected.

Ten days after the explorers left, the soldiers returned with three of the delegates. On reaching the foot of the mountains, where it was arranged that the soldiers were to leave the party and return home, these three men were so thoroughly tired of their quest, and convinced of their folly, that they had begged to be allowed to go back.

On the 9th February the remainder of the expedition reached Prospect Hill more dead than alive. Wilson alone had kept heart, and managed to sustain the flagging spirits of his companions sufficiently to enable them to stagger in to the settlement.

Their report of the surroundings of the colony contained little more than what was already known or guessed at. They described the country pa.s.sed over as alternating between barren, rocky ridges and s.p.a.cious meadows.

Running creeks had been crossed, and they turned back on the bank of a river which they described as being as large as the Hawkesbury, with level country in view on the opposite side.

They had seen but few natives, and those they saw were clothed in skins from head to foot. Amongst other novelties they had noticed the blue-gum trees, the mountain wallaroo, which had drawn their attention from being larger and fatter than those formerly familiar to them, a kind of pheasant, as they described it, now known as the lyre-bird, a specimen of which the brought back with them, and a kind of mole, the modern wombat, one of which formed their last meal before reaching the settlement. These accounts corroborated the former reports made by Wilson. This expedition was, however, of not much service from a geographical point of view, from the unreliability of the course kept.

The party also reported coming across a hill of salt, and in the month of March, Henry Hacking was sent out to inspect it. He was accompanied by Wilson and another man, who were supplied with provisions and directed to penetrate as far into the country as their supplies would permit. Hacking found that several veins of salt existed, and the two men stated that they had succeeded in getting 140 miles S.W. by W. from Prospect Hill.

During their journey they had travelled over many varieties of country, crossing a number of narrow creeks and rivers with which the land was intersected. They pa.s.sed through much promising country and much that was unpromising. From the summits of some of the higher hills that they ascended, they had extensive views to the westward, and as usual, saw mountain rising upon mountain in that direction. They brought back another specimen of the lyre-bird.

In the year '97 preceding this trip, some convicts had boarded and seized a colonial-built boat, called the c.u.mBERLAND, during her pa.s.sage to the Hawkesbury. The crew were landed at Pitt Water, and making their way from there overland gave information of the piracy. Two boats under Lieutenant Shortland started in pursuit. One returned in a few days, but Shortland with the other went as far north as Port Stephens without, however, seeing anything of the pirates. His voyage was not by any means dest.i.tute of result, as on his return he found a river; "into which he carried three fathoms of water in the shoalest part of its entrance, finding deep water and good anchorage within. The entrance of this river was but narrow, and covered by a high rocky island, lying right off, so as to leave a good pa.s.sage round the north end of the island between that and the sh.o.r.e. A reef connects the south part of the island with the south sh.o.r.e of the entrance of the river. In this harbour was found a very considerable quant.i.ty of coal of a very good sort, and lying so near the water's side as to be conveniently s.h.i.+pped; which gave it, in this particular, manifest advantage over that discovered to the southward.

Some specimens of this coal were brought up in the boat." In the foregoing description, the Hunter River and the present harbour of Newcastle will be easily recognised.

In July, of the year '99, Flinders was instructed by the Governor to examine the two large openings marked by Cook on the east coast, namely, Gla.s.s House Bay and Hervey Bay. Gla.s.s House Bay--now Moreton Bay--was so called after some remarkable peaks that were visible on the north side.

These peaks Captain Flinders made an excursion to examine, and from the summit of one obtained an extended view over the surrounding country, nothing novel, however, being seen. At Hervey's Bay, too, the only additional information gained, was of a nautical character, the natives seeming to be the most interesting objects met with.

Wilson, whose career amongst the natives, and as an explorer is most notable, now met his death in a sufficiently tragic, if appropriate, manner. This man had served the term of his transportation, and both as a convict and a free man had pa.s.sed a great part of his time wandering through the bush with the aboriginals. He had been suspected, justly or unjustly, of prompting the blacks to attack the settlers; aiding them with his knowledge of the habits of the whites, and the best season for carrying out their designs. At any rate, his long intercourse with the natives had rendered him careless of consequences, and a flagrant violation of their customs led to his being speared.

During the governors.h.i.+p of Captain King, Ensign Barraillier came to the front as an explorer. He was notably an accurate and painstaking surveyor, and although his expeditions were circ.u.mscribed by the ever present barrier of the Blue Mountains, he was evidently an indefatigable worker in the cause of science. From a letter of Governor King's, addressed to Sir Joseph Banks in May, 1803, we learn something of Barraillier, and also of the petty private squabbles that prevailed amongst the colonists, even in the highest quarters. Governor King writes:--

"As our maritime surveying is now turned over to Captain Flinders, who has the LADY NELSON with him, by the Admiralty's direction, I had begun making discoveries in the interior by means of Ensign Barraillier. He has been one journey, and went twenty miles from the first range of hills, till his further course was interrupted by a river running north, which is a curious circ.u.mstance, being in the mountains. He described it as wide as the Thames at Kingston. Some native iron he found, and also an imperfect limestone, and the dung of an unknown animal. Samples of everything he there found will be sent by the GREENWICH (whaler), and I did hope to have been able to add something farther from another journey he was about undertaking, and for which purpose I had established a chain of depots of provisions, to further his return.

"Cayley is just gone on an excursion, and you will see by his letters he is undertaking a still longer one. As he keeps all his knowledge to himself, I am hopeful you are benefited by it, and I hope much good will result from his journeys, which he is now determined on persevering in. I informed you of the refusal he gave me and Mr. Brown to his going in the INVESTIGATOR."

George Cayley was a botanist sent out by Sir Joseph Banks to collect for Kew Gardens. He was industrious and painstaking in his vocation, but sadly overburdened with vanity. He made one important journey to the Blue Mountains, with the usual result. He erected a cairn of stones at the furthest point he reached, which Governor Macquarie afterwards christened "Cayley's Repulse."

To return to Barraillier. Governor King, in the same, letter, further writes:--

"I have informed you in my several letters of the great use Ensign Barraillier, of the New South Wales Corps, was to me and the public.

First, in going to the southward, and surveying the coast from Wilson's Promontory to Western Port, next, in surveying. Hunter's River, where he went twice, and since then in making useful observations about the settlement, and in making a partial journey to the mountains, which was introductory to his undertaking the journey he afterwards performed, but which I was obliged to effect by a ruse, as Col. Paterson had very ill-naturedly informed me that officers being at all detached from their regimental duty was contrary to some instructions he had from the Duke of York. In consequence I was obliged to give up his services after this unhandsome claim, but claimed him as my AIDE-DE-CAMP, and that the object of discovery should not be relinquished, I sent him on an emba.s.sy to the King of the Mountains."

This idea of an emba.s.sy to the King of the Mountains is about as unique an incident in the history of exploration as can be imagined. Whether Barraillier reached this fancied potentate or not we are left in ignorance. Governor King says:--

"He was gone six weeks, and penetrated one hundred and thirty-seven miles among the mountains beyond the Nepean. His journal being wrote in such an unintelligible hand, I have not been able to get it translated or copied, but have sent it open under your address to Lord Hobart... . I have not had time to decipher and read it, but am satisfied from what M.

Barraillier has done and seen, that pa.s.sing these barriers, if at all practicable, is of no great moment to attempt any further at present, as it is now well ascertained that the cattle have not, nor cannot, make any progress to the westward, unless they find a pa.s.sage to the northward or southward of those extensive and stupendous barriers. I intend sending M.

Barraillier to Port Jarvis very soon, to penetrate into the interior from thence, if Col. Paterson is not advised to prevent it."

From this it will plainly be seen how completely the colonists had given themselves up to the dominion of the overshadowing range that stayed their western progress. It required the stern hand of necessity to compel them to at last force that "stupendous barrier," as King terms it.

Meanwhile, the presence of the French s.h.i.+ps under Baudin, had created uneasiness in Governor King's mind, rumour and gossip had magnified their intentions into a sinister claim being about to be established upon Van Dieman's Land or the south coast of New Holland. In 1802, King had sent home to Sir Joseph Banks his idea of the importance of King's Island, and the adjacent harbour of Port Phillip.

"Port Phillip is also a great acquisition, and as I have urged the fixing of a settlement in the latter place, I am anxious to begin it, but unfortunately I have no person I can send there equal to the charge.

Policy certainly requires our having a settlement in these Straits."

No lack of zeal for the future supremacy of the British flag in these seas can be charged upon the founders of the colony, in fact, Governor King sent a small schooner under command of a mids.h.i.+pman after M. Baudin, with secret orders to watch their movements, and, if necessary, hoist the King's colours and land a corporal's guard at any place where the French appeared likely to make a demonstration.

Port Phillip was discovered by Lieutenant Murray, of the Lady Nelson, in 1802. Surveyor-General Grimes went there with him, and during the survey he made, is reported to have camped on the spot where Melbourne now stands. The port was discovered three times independently in the same year. First by Murray, next by Baudin, and again by Flinders. Colonel Collins, formerly of Norfolk Island, was dispatched in the year that Governor King wrote his letter (1803) to found a towns.h.i.+p. He at once declared the country unfit for settlement, with scarcely any examination; and it was immediately abandoned in favour of Van Dieman's Land.

The results of efforts at inland discovery were now but slight. Flinders on the south coast had sailed up Spencer's Gulf, and from Mount Brown at the head a fine view was obtained, but nothing more.

"Neither rivers nor lakes could be perceived, nor anything of the sea to the south-eastward. In almost every direction the eye traversed over an uninterruptedly flat, woody country; the sole exceptions being the ridge of mountains extending north and south, and the water of the gulph to the south-westward."

Compared with the great size of the island continent, it will be seen that but an insignificant portion had, by the end of the eighteenth century come under the sway of colonisation. The rivers Hawkesbury, Nepean, and Grose, with other minor tributaries in the neighbourhood of Sydney. To the north, the river Hunter, and to the south, the district now known as the Illawarra. This was the sum total of the known country inside the coastal line; and with all the wish to extend their knowledge of their wide domain, the administrative demands of the little colony pressed too heavily on the authorities to permit them to devote much time to extended exploration.