excursions he was successful in tracing the course of the

Hawkesbury Eiver from Broken Bay to Richmond Hill;* and, intent as he was on the useful, he had vet an eye for the picturesque, and reported the wonderful charms of the river scenery. The ravages of past floods were visible in the lodgment of large logs in branches of trees, at a height of thirty to forty feet above the level of the river. In Phillip's efiiiiest exeurHinnH he had not discovered good land for cultivation. That at Parramatta was better than the Band of Sydney, bat it was poor. When the rich »soil at the Hawkesbury was known, the colonists were adscripti glelue elsewhere; and there was, moreover, some risk of attacks by the aborigines, the ill-treatment of whom, by the convicts and others, had aroused an unfriendly » feeling which Phillip and his wiser comrades vamly strove to remove. In April 1791 Philhp headed an exploring party of officers, soUliers, and convicts. Bennilong and another native accompanied liini, carrying their own provisions." Phillip intended to trace the Nepean Kiver, previously named by hini» but he had to return without seeing the Nepean. In June 1791 two officers, Tench and Dawes, and two soldiers, went to explore. Civilly treated by the natives-, they ascertained that the Nepean was an affluent of the Hawkesbury. Tench invited travellers

• • among polished nations to produce a brighter examjde of

disinterested urbanity than was shown by these denizens of a barbarous clime to a set of destitute wanderers on the side of the Ilawkesbury. While Phillip was gaining knowledge of the eastern {territory, a brother officer, Captain Vancouver, H^M.S. yiscoren/, found and named King George's Soimd in the 'west.^ Phillip was intelligently solicitous to establish '"In the sixteen days yse were then out sAl those brandies whie-li had any depth of water were traced as far as the boats could proceed." Phillip's fiespatch, I3tli Feb,, 1790. On this occasion he named the

• ^*Bhie Mountains."

" Writing from the Cape of Good Hope, Vaneoiiver toUl Lord Grenville: P'lt is my intention to fall in with the south-west cape of New Holland, Vnd should I liud the shores capable of being navigated without njucb hazard^ to range its coast and determine whether it and Van Dicmen a

1. and are joined, which from all information at. present exlsuvt, tt:i)^a.x%

Dmewhat (iottbtitiL ** His voyage was mainly tUrectetV to W *ia.tiSSwi