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CHAPTER III.
PHILLIP'S EXPLORATIONS.
Of the physical geography of the territory which he was to j^'o%'prn Phillip was entirely ignorant. The explorations of 1 heen confined to the coast, lilt to pro(iin*e information. From the natives it La Perouse had fired iI)on them while at Botany Bay, and the English convicts prt)Voked them by assault and theft.
Philllp*8 settlement was established upon a rocky and ndy site, altoj^ether unfavourable to agricultiu-e. The gin soils, which needed no enrichment, on alluvial flats, ha*i yet to be discovered; and, when discovered, to be tdeared of the forests and undergrowth which shrouded them. Even at Hydney there was a rugged covering of Bucalyptus, banksia, and straggling underwood. The flawkeshmT lliver was not known until the energies of the t!olonists had heen bound down to the barren soil close to them: and westward of the Hawkesbury the Blue Mountains t>l the Cordillera effectually barred them from the plains of the interior.
As early as in March^ 1788, Phillip commenced his explorations with boats, and examined Broken Bay, at the mouth of the Hawkesbury Eier. The south branch, liich he thought *nhe tint^st piece of water he had ever n," he called Pitt Water, in honour of the great Prime Minister. In April he made an iidand incursion tow^ards the moimtaius. but was unable to reach them in the time i*r his disposal: and, during his brief absence, tive ewes and limb irere kilkd at Sydney by dogs. After several other
