- .EY^S EXPLORATIOXS.
the twelfth day after he left " Richmond Hill." Caley "^himself reported thus on the appearance of the country:
- ' On looking to the westward I saw no large valleys except the on»
L close to u«, from which the «^ roll ml uppareiitly kept riaiiig graduttUy as fu,i' && the eye could see. In a few njacefi there appeared awamps, in others no trees, and vevy scniliby. By these appearaaces It might Le imagined «asy to travel over that apace, provided the inaccessible valley close at hand was crossed. Yet there ts no doubt but what others of a similar nature would present themselves, an 1 am too well convinced | now of their ragged and im passable atate, which becomes at every step Uu Ha ! Ha !'* r Nature's gigantic hah-hah, where the fosse may be two thousand feet deep, abounds in the valleys and tributaries of the Grose, and Caley aptly described it. One of his muscular companions, seeing two crows dying over the desolation, exclaimed that the birds ** must have lost their way." Knowing the trust worfch}^ character of his envoy (whose name was often mentioned as Cayiey), King sadly wrote;
- I cannot help thiakiug that pBraevering in crossing these mountains,
which are a confused and liarreii assemblage of mountains with impassable i liasnia between, woidd be as chimertcal as useless. Few possess the liodily strength and enthusiastic miml which 1-alcy does to encounter such researcbea ; yet with theHc qualities within himself » being well eqnipperl, and having the strongest men in the colony to assist liim, nothing but his enthusiasm could have enabled him to porform that journey. From its ill ef!'eeta ho did not for some time recover/' I For a time '*Caley's repulse" was accepted as final- The secret of tlie mountains was not to be extorted by main strength. There had been two ways of obtaining it. By kindness to natives, such as Phillip enjoined, it could have been had for asking. By such astuteness as was displayed by Wentworth and iiis companions it was to be had with toil. After Philhp's departure there had l)een no man wise enough or firm enougli to secure the fii'st ami better way, which the Hawkesbury settlers had by ill-treatment of the natives made impossible. It is a melancholy thing that King, resolute in other | things, was incapable of restraining, or unwilling to punish, the brutalities of the whites. It is doubtless true that the increase of population and its distribution at more numerous I places rendered the task of Bupervision more dijfficult than it had been in the earlier days. But all was not done that could have been done to establish peace, and m.L"cfc. ^^.'^ w
