“Bilboa’s ecstacy at the first sight of the South Sea could not have been greater than ours when, on gaining the summit of this mountain, we beheld Old Ocean at our feet.  It inspired us with new life; every difficulty vanished, and in imagination we were already home.”

The descent was attended with many perils:  Oxley says that at one period he would willingly have compromised for the loss of one-third of the horses to ensure the safety of the remainder.  But the men with him were tried and steady, and the thick tufts of grass and the loose soil afforded them help in securing a surer footing, of every chance of availing themselves of which the men skilfully took advantage, so that both men and horses reached the foot of the mountain —­ now called Mount Seaview —­ without mishap.

They had reached the head of a river running into the Pacific, and proceeded to follow its course down with more or less difficulty until they reached the mouth, when Oxley, judging the entrance to be navigable, named it Port Macquarie, though one should imagine that he had become tired of that name.  The river was named the Hastings.

On October 12th, a toilsome march commenced, following the shore to the southward.  The wearisome interruptions of the many inlets and saltwater creeks greatly fatigued and distressed his men.  But at last they came upon a boat, half-buried in the sand, which had been lost some time before from a Hawkesbury coaster.  This they cleaned and patched, and carried with them, utilising it during the latter stages of this weary journey to facilitate the passage of the many saltwater creeks and channels that impeded their progress.  It is owing to the possession of this derelict boat that Oxley crossed the mouth of the Manning without identifying it as a river.  The blacks now harassed them greatly, and it was during one of the attacks made upon the party that one of the men, named William Black, was dangerously wounded, being speared through the back and the lower part of the body.  The care and conveyance of this invalided man was now added to Oxley’s other anxieties, and it was with feelings of great satisfaction that on November 1st they caught sight of the rude buildings of Port Stephens.  Through much hardship and privations he had brought his party back without loss.

Oxley sent Evans on to Newcastle with despatches to the governor, in which he alluded to his sanguine anticipations at the time he had sent in his last report, and their almost immediate collapse.  But the discovery of Liverpool Plains compensated in some degree for the disappointment caused by the renewed failure that had attended Oxley’s efforts to trace an inland river.

In the following year, 1819, the Lady Nelson, with the Surveyor-General on board, visited the newly found Port Macquarie and the Hastings River, to survey the entrance; in which task he was assisted by Lieutenant P.P.  King in the Mermaid.  On his return to Port Jackson, in the same year, he made a short excursion to Jarvis Bay with Surveyor Meehan, when they were accompanied by the explorer who was to win fame as Hamilton Hume.  Oxley returned by boat, his companions overland.