Page:Admiral Phillip.djvu/131

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CHAPTER VIII


KING SENT TO NORFOLK ISLAND—THE EXPLORATIONS OF PHILLIP AND HIS OFFICERS—TENCH'S DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY SEEN—HIS POOR OPINION OF IT—THE BLUE MOUNTAINS—KING AND HIS ISLAND COLONY—PLOT AND DISASTER—THE HARVEST—PHILLIP'S FARM AT ROSE HILL—A HOPEFUL LETTER HOME


In the annals of Australian exploration, the stories of attempts to find a way over the Blue Mountains, and of terrible journeys across the deserts in the heart of the continent, Phillip has no place—these hazardous adventures came after his day. When he landed in 1788, his only map was Cook's chart of the continent, and on its eastern boundary line from north to south the famous navigator had surveyed the whole sea coast so thoroughly that the names he gave crowd one another upon the chart. But here, upon the edge. Cook's work ended and Phillip's began.

On the map as it was after the first Governor had marked all his discoveries upon it, the piece cut out of the big territory is very small indeed, but to win

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