settlements, and is flourishing beyond the expectations of those who founded the settlements on its shores.
2. Bateman's Bay, in
the county of St.Vincent, in latitude 36 degs. south, 170 miles from
Sydney. It receives the waters of the Macleay river, which divides the
district of Macleay from the county of Macquarie. On its banks is a
great extent of available land. The town of Kempsey stands on this
river, which receives also the waters of the Clyde.
3. Jervis Bay.—A
fine harbour in the county of St Vincent, situated in latitude 35 degs.
6 min. south. The entrance to the bay is two mile3 wide, and the
harbour extends for about twelve miles inland. The port, which is about
eighty miles from Sydney, is easy of access, safe, and commodious,
affording shelter from all winds, and having room for 200 sail of
ships, with plenty of wood and water. Jervis Bay was discovered by
Lieutenant Bo wen in 1791.
4. Botany Bay, in
the county of Cumberland.—This was the first spot at which Captain Cook
landed on the 28th of April 1770, early on the morning of which day he
anchored under the south shore, about two miles from the entrance. The
harbour lies in latitude 34° S., long. 151° 14'E., and is about five
miles long. It is fourteen miles to the southward of Sydney Heads, and
is wide, open, but unsheltered for vessels, which was the reason why
Captain Phillip rejected it as the locality for the first colony, as
narrated in the preceding chapter. The bay receives the waters of
Cook's and George's rivers, but is of no account as a shipping harbour,
the few aSvantages it has being eclipsed by its magnificent rival Port
Jackson. The country in the vicinity of the bay is remarkable for its
sterile appearance, and yet for the diversity of its vegetation, from
which the naturalists of Cook's expedition gave it the name of Botany
Bay. Beyond the interest attached to it as the originally destined
locality of the first settlement, the harbour is not entitled to much
consideration.
5. The next harbour to the northward is the far-famed Port Jackson, so called, as previously narrated, from a seaman of
