of water, well sheltered, that we remember to have seen.  Within the Bay the water was, compared to our late tossing in the boiling and foaming waters outside, as smooth as a mill-pond, and our little bark floated gently along like a sleeping gull.  I shall, however, take this opportunity to remark that it will be desirable to enter its mouth only at the times of the tide running in.  We continued our course down the bay, and found the country everywhere of the same richly-grassed character.

May 30th. Robinson Crusoe was never better pleased with the appearance of the first ship which arrived, and rescued him from his desolate island, than I was with the vessel which proved the means of thus opening to view a country capable of supporting a future nation, and which, we trust, will be the means of relieving the Hobart Town country of its over-stocked cattle, and the Mother Country of her surplus and half-starved peasantry.  Futurity must develop this prophecy!  Further travelling and examination only added to my pre-conceived estimate of this extremely interesting and extensive territory; consisting of plains or downs at least twenty miles long by a width of 10 miles, and the distance may have been greater, but for the interruption of hills more than ordinarily high, which broke the horizon in different directions.  One of these vistas, which I have at present in view, cannot form a less area than 100,000 acres.  Its general character presents that of cultivated pasture for centuries past; the few trees appear as though they owed their plantation to the hand of man.  All the high hills are covered with grass to their summits.

I discovered the fires of the natives or aboriginal inhabitants of this marvellously fertile country, and felt delighted beyond expression that the task of its discovery should have devolved upon myself.

June 2nd. My Sydney natives came on board this morning for the purpose of assisting in packing up, and otherwise making preparations for our contemplated expedition into the interior.  As it continued to rain heavily and a heavy bank of fog prevailed, and prevented our seeing any distance, I proposed, rather than lose time to go with the vessel to the river (Saltwater), and from thence take my departure for the bush.  We made the river by 3 p.m., and observed that the whole of the coast at the head of the bay was clear of timber, and a constant plain covered with grass.

Near the head of the river, on the point, was a plantation of she-oak.  We endeavoured to sail up the river, but found the water not more than a fathom deep....  To-morrow, weather permitting, I intend taking my departure up the river.