and ammunition failed, the diminution became dreadfully rapid.  Their last loss was of the chief mate and carpenter, who were killed by Dilba, and other savages near Hat Hill;* and Mr. Clarke, with a sailor and one lascar, alone remained when they reached Watta-Mowlee.  They were so exhausted, as to have scarcely strength enough to make themselves observed by a boat which was fishing off the cove; but were at length conveyed into her, and brought to Port Jackson.

[* This Dilba was one of the two Botany-Bay natives, who had been most strenuous for Tom Thumb to go up into the lagoon, which lies under the hill.]

Mr. Clarke gave the first information of the coal cliffs, near Hat Hill; and from him it was ascertained, that, besides the known bays, many small streams and inlets had interrupted his march along the shore, from Cape Howe to Watta-Mowlee; but that there were none which he had not been able to pass, either at the sea side, or by going a few miles round, into the country.  A journal of his route was published in the Calcutta newspapers, some time in 1798.

The colonial schooner Francis had made one voyage to Furneaux’s Islands, and brought from thence captain Hamilton, and part of his people and cargo.  The same vessel was about to proceed thither a second time, and I was anxious to embrace that opportunity of exploring those extensive and little known lands; but the great repairs required by the Reliance would not allow of my absence.  My friend Bass, less confined by his duty, made several excursions, principally into the interior parts behind Port Jackson; with a view to pass over the back mountains, and ascertain the nature of the country beyond them.  His success was not commensurate to the perseverance and labour employed:  the mountains were impassable; but the course of the river Grose, laid down in Plate VIII, resulted from one of these excursions.

SHORTLAND. 1797. (Atlas, Pl.  VIII.)

In September, a small colonial vessel having been carried off by convicts, lieutenant JOHN SHORTLAND, first of the Reliance,* went after them to the northward, in an armed boat.  The expedition was fruitless, as to the proposed object; but in returning along the shore from Port Stephens, Mr. Shortland discovered a port in latitude 33 deg., capable of receiving small ships; and what materially added to the importance of the discovery, was a stratum of coal, found to run through the south head of the port, and also pervaded a cliffy island in the entrance.  These coals were not only accessible to shipping, but of a superior quality to those in the cliffs near Hat Hill.  The port was named after His Excellency governor HUNTER; and a settlement, called New Castle, has lately been there established.  The entrance is narrow, and the deepest water (about three fathoms) close to the north-west side of the Coal Island; but no vessel of more than three hundred tons should attempt it.