Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Botany Bay

BOTANY BAY, a bay of New South Wales, Australia, 5 miles S. of Sydney. It was discovered by Captain Cook, on his first voyage, in 1770, and named by him from the great number of new plants found in its vicinity. In 1787 it received England's first penal colony in the East; and, though it was supplanted the very next year by Port Jackson, yet it long continued to be the popular designation, not merely of this penal settlement, but of the Australian convict settlements generally.