Contents. ix
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sent to, and report unfavourably of, Western Port — Idea of settlement there or at Port Phillip falls through — Oxley's observations about Bass's Straits — Death of Governor King — Oxley's Macquarie and Lachlan expeditions result in sweep- ing condemnation of country — Extracts from despatches — Oxley proves to demonstration the non-existence of real facts — Country first officially named Australia — William Went- worth volunteers as an explorer — Letters of Sir Robert Peel and Sir Humphrey Davy — An amusing suggestion — "A comfortable provision for a fast-increasing family " , , 171 CHAPTER XI. HUME AND HOVELl/s OVEBLAND EXPEDITION. Question as to point reached — Earliest statements — Hume's letters to Governor Brisbane, Earl Bathurst, and the " Sydney Moni- tor " — Early chart of expedition — Its evidence as to point reached — What was thought at the time in Sydney — Conflict- ing statements of the explorers — Hovell sent to Western Port to clear up doubt— Journal of overland expedition — Crossing of the Murrumbidgee described — Sudden sight of Snowy Mountains — The Hume discovered — Crossed with dif- ficulty — The Ovens and Hovell — Mount Disappointment — Coast reached — Return journey 188 CHAPTER XII. WEIGHT AND WETHEBALl/S ATTEMPTED SETTLEMENT AT WESTERN POET IN 1826-27. Reasons for making settlement — Correspondence between Gover- nor Darling and Colonial Office — Designs of the French ap- prehended — Letters of Captains Wetherall and Wright — Their description of Western Port and the settlement — Gover- nor Darling's unfavourable opinion of place — HovelTs explo- rations and report — Governor Darling assigns latter as reason for recalling expedition — Different view taken at Colonial Office— Settlement abandoned notwithstanding . . . 219 Digit zed by GoOgk
