May 12.

The following day we pulled three or four miles up the river; on the way up two natives were seen in a canoe but on our approach they landed to avoid us and quickly disappeared.  The boat was kept in mid-stream and we passed by without taking any notice of them.  Half a mile further on we put ashore on the south bank and took bearings to fix the position of our station and the direction of the next reach upwards, which appeared to be about three miles long and half a mile broad.  We then returned to the cutter.

May 14.

And on the 14th Lieutenant Oxley and Mr. Roe accompanied me in one of our boats upon the examination of the river.

After reaching our former station on the south bank we proceeded up the long reach towards Black-man Point, on which a tribe of natives were collected:  the river is here divided into two streams; we followed that which trended to the westward as it appeared to be the most considerable.  At the end of the next reach the river is again divided into two branches, and as the southernmost was found upon trial to be the shoalest, the other was followed.  On our left was a small contracted arm, which probably communicates with the lagoon on Rawdon Island; here we landed to examine the trees which so thickly and beautifully cover both banks:  several sorts of large growth were noticed, among which was a tree of the trichillieae, natural order Jussieu (Trichillia glandulosa), which the colonists have flattered with the name of rosewood, and a ficus of gigantic growth, both of which are very abundant.  We landed at Point Elizabeth and walked a mile back through a fine open country, well timbered and richly clothed with luxuriant grass and apparently much frequented by kangaroos.

From the edge of the bank Mount Cairncross, a remarkable round-topped hill which is conspicuously seen from the coast over the entrance of the port,* appeared over the next reach, and formed a rich picturesque back-ground for the view.

(Footnote.  See Illustration:  View of the Entrance of Port Macquarie.)

After refreshing ourselves, we re-embarked, and passed on our right a shoal inlet, in which we saw a native’s weir, for the purpose of taking fish; it was formed by sticks stuck in the mud, and so close as to prevent the retreat of such as were inside:  three miles above this we landed on an open grassy spot on the south bank, and pitched our tent for the night.

About half an hour before we landed we heard the voices of natives in the woods; who, after we passed by, embarked in two canoes and followed us for some distance, but the near approach of night obliged us to look out for a convenient spot to encamp upon; so that the natives, finding they were unattended to, soon gave up their pursuit.

In the morning, before we embarked, our barica was filled at a water-hole close at hand; on walking about a quarter of a mile back, we came to the borders of a large circular plain, about one mile in diameter, covered with reeds and other indications of its being a morass or lagoon.