252 THE CHRONICLES 1793 Captain Hunter's book appeared as an oflScial publication in 1793 — a quarto, with maps and illustrations.* In every way it was a creditable production, abounding in evidence of its author's personal merit. Besides his own journal of Hunter's the voyago out with the First Fleet, of subsequent events at the settlement, and of his voyage to Batavia and England^ it includes Lieutenant King's journal kept during his resi- dence as Commandant at Norfolk Island in 1788, and also his journal of a voyage to Batavia and England; the his- tory of the colony from June, 1790, to December, 1791, compiled from Governor Phillip's despatches ; and it con- cludes with the journal of a voyage in the Supply from Sydney to England, written by her commander. Lieutenant Ball. Hunter's narrative of events from the founding of the colony to his departure in February, 1790, for Norfolk Island, where he was wrecked, is well written, and forms a valu- able chapter in the annals of that time. His skill in sketching is shown in the View of the Settlement on Syd- The first ^^Y Covo, Port Jacksou, 20th August, 1788, which faces syd^ey^' pago 77 of his volumc. It is of peculiar interest at the present day from the fact that it forms the earliest illustra- tion of the scene known to exist. Another sketch of his appears as a vignette on the title-page, representing an incident of the expedition to Broken Bay, in June, 1789, when the Hawkesbury River was discovered. A young native woman was found by the sailors hiding herself in the long grass, having been unable to make her escape with her friends when they were alarmed by the arrival of the white be hune in chains upon the small island which is situated in the middle of the harbour, and named by the natives Mat-te-wan-ye, a gibbet was accord* ingly erected and he was hung there, exhibiting an object of much greater terror to the natives than to the white people, many of whom were more inclined to make a jest of it; but to tiie natives his appearance was so friffhtful— his clothes shaking in the wind and the creakmg of his irons, added to their superstitious idea of ghosts (for these children of i^orance imagined that, like a ghost, this man might have the power of takme; hold of them by the throat) all rendering him such an alarming object to tnem — that they never trusted themselves near him, nor the spot on which he hung ; which, until this time, had ever been with them a tavourite place of resort."— Vol. ii, p. 10.
- Post, p. 584.
Cove. Digitized by Google
