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CHAPTER III.
PHILLIP'S EXPLORATIONS.
Of the physical geography of the territory which he was to govern Phillip was entirely ignorant. The explorations of Cook had been confined to the coast. From the natives it was difficult to procure information. La Perouse had fired upon them while at Botany Bay, and the English convicts provoked them by assault and theft.
Phillip's settlement was established upon a rocky and sandy site, altogether unfavourable to agriculture. The virgin soils, which needed no enrichment, on alluvial flats, had yet to be discovered; and, when discovered, to be cleared of the forests and undergrowth which shrouded them. Even at Sydney there was a rugged covering of eucalyptus, banksia, and straggling underwood. The Hawkesbury River was not known until the energies of the colonists had been bound down to the barren soil close to them; and westward of the Hawkesbury the Blue Mountains of the cordillera effectually barred them from the plains of the interior.
As early as in March, 1788, Phillip commenced his explorations with boats, and examined Broken Bay, at the mouth of the Hawkesbury River. The south branch, which he thought "the finest piece of water he had ever seen," he called Pitt Water, in honour of the great Prime Minister. In April he made an inland incursion towards the mountains, but was unable to reach them in the time at his disposal; and, during his brief absence, five ewes and a lamb were killed at Sydney by dogs. After several other
