Already has the nascent colony of New South Wales excited the cupidity of la grande nation; for it is clearly evident that the sole object of Bonaparte in dispatching Peron and Baudit on a pretended voyage of discovery round the world, was to observe what our colonists were doing, and what was left to the French to do, on this great continent, in the event of a peace; to find some port in the neighbourhood of our settlements, which should be to them what Pondicherry was to Hindostan; to rear the standard of Napolean, then First Consul, on the first convenient spot; and, finally, to gratify his vanity by snatching the merit of discovery from its rightful possessors, and imposing his name on nine hundred leagues of coast! It is a subject of honest exultation to Britons, that their language, their customs, and laws, are established in the extreme parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa; that they have given existence to an empire in America; and that their infant colonies in the southern continent will probably preserve the name, the spirit, and the literature, of their forefathers, after the existence of Britain in Europe shall have been involved in the common fate of all human establishments. In whatever point of view we consider the subject of the following work, it appears highly interesting. Without anticipating the destiny of the new world, there are sufficient matter to excite the liveliest curiosity, in contrasting the actions of two distinct sets of people; the one the children of rude uncultivated nature entering upon the stage; the other the disci : ples of vice, in its most refined state, driven from more polished scenes. The materials have been carefully selected and arranged from the voluminous writings of those enterprizing adventurers which have visited this new and distant country; and comprehends every particular which could convey either information or amusement to the general class of readers. The simple enumeration of the different authorities to which the editor has referred, would be a sufficient proof of the labour expended in the compilation, and this shall be given at the conclusion. Trusting to the discernment of an enlightened public for remuneration, the publishers usher, with confidence, this little work into the world; a work perhaps unequalled for the uncommon scenes which it exhibits, and with which very few are acquainted. THE HISTORY OF NEW SOUTH WALES, &c. CHAP. I. First Discoveries of the Coast of New Holland-General View of the Country. BEFORE we commence the history of the infant settlement on the east coast of New Holland, it will be proper to give a brief narrative of the progressive discoveries that have been made on the coasts of that extensive country. Leaving the enquiry how far the density, or weight, of land and water, are able to counterpoise each other, to the researches of the philosophic mind, we shall only remark, that from the time of the discovery of America, it was a pretty generally received opinion, among geographers, that there was some vast undiscovered continent ranging up towards the South Pole, to balance those amazing tracts of land that abut upon the North Pole; and that it has, for two hundred years, been the ambition of the intrepid navigator to explore such continent. : The first account we have of this country, is in a memorial delivered to the court of Spain, by Don Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, in 1609, in which he asserts, that, patronized by the Viceroy of Peru, he had spent fourteen years, and travelled 20,000 leagues by land and sea, in prosecuting discoveries. In this memorial he solicits for the necessary means to settle those countries he had discovered, which he called a continent, equal in bigness to Europe and the Lesser Asia; he describes the country as well supplied with the necessaries of life, yielding gold, silver, spices, and pearls, and filled with inhabitants of different colours. He also mentions the discovery of a clump of about twenty islands, which he first supposed to be all one country. Those lands, agreeable to the custom of that age, he took possession of under the name of La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo, and lays them down as in and about 15 degrees of south latitude. When we consider the length of time that Don Pedro spent in this service, that he took his departure from the coast of Peru, and that his course was to the west, there is little doubt that the islands he mentions were those now called the New Hebrides; and that falling in with the north side of New Guinea, a country nearly answering his description, both for produce and population, and being ignorant of the strait that divides it from New South Wales, he might consider those two places, together with new Holland, as one vast continent. From the time of De Quiros to the middle of the 17th century, we have no authentic relation of any discoveries of the Australis, or Southern Continent. We only know in general, that a Dutchman, in 1616, fell in with a part of its west coast, between 24 and 25 degrees south latitude, to which he gave the name of Eendraght Land. That in 1618, another part of this coast, nearly 15 deg. south, was discovered by Zeachen, who gave it the name of Arnheim and Diemen. In the following year, Jan Van Edels gave his name to a southern part of it, and another part of the coast received the name of Leuwen. In 1627, Peter Van Nuyts gave his name to a coast which communicates with Leuwen's Land to the west; and about the same time, a great part of the west coast, near the tropic of Capricorn, received the name of De Wits. In 1628, Peter Carpenter, a Dutchman, explored the great gulph on the north coast, named the gulph of Carpentaria, which intersects the country near eight degrees of latitude. In June, 1629, Captain Francis Pelsart was wrecked on the west coast, in about 28 deg. south latitude, and his ship's company were left in the greatest distress, upon these small islands, until he could go back to Batavia for succours, to which place the majority of them happily returned. There is no doubt but the greater part of those commanders made some discoveries in the country; but whatever they were, they were suppressed, most probably, by order of the Dutch East India Company. In the year 1642, Captain Abel Jansen Tasman, was sent from Batavia for the express purpose of making a perfect survey of this country, which by this time had received the name of New Holland. That this task was faithfully performed, we have no reason to doubt, as the map of New Holland, delineated on the pavement of the Stadt-house at Amsterdam, was made from the lights afforded by his journal. The journal was never published entire, and probably was never intended to be published at all. About 40 years after Captain Tasman's discoveries in Van Dieman's Land, Captain Dampier successfully explored part of the northern coast, about 17 degrees latitude. In consequence of the reputation Captain Dampier had acquired by this voyage, he was fixed on to command a ship fitted out purposely to prosecute discoveries in the Southern Ocean; and sailed from England on that design, January 14, 1699, in his Majesty's ship Roebuck, mounting 12 guns, the ship's company consisting of fifty men and boys. On the 5th of August in the same year, he again fell in with New Holland, B |