Pretty
accurate and I trust will give the Commander-in-Chief some satisfaction.
"Wednesday, March 10th. For these last two or three days great numbers of
native fires have been seen all round the Port except between Arthur's
Seat and Point Palmer.
"Thursday, March 11th. At 7 weighed and made sail down the port by 8 A.M.
with a strong tide of ebb running out we got into the entrance carrying
all the way from 9 to 16 fathoms water, we then fell into such a ripple
that we expected every minute it would break on board - got clear and by
half-past the point of entrance bore north-east by east 4 miles and a
remarkably high nob of land (if not an island) west-north-west 4 or 5
miles, by noon the entrance north-east by west 9 or 10 miles.
...
Wednesday, March 24th. Fine weather though inclined to calm. At half-past
3 P.M. South Head bore south-south-west the North distant 4 or 5 miles.
At 4 P.M. passed Bradley's Head, at 6 passed Garden Island and by
half-past 6 P.M. came to an anchor in Sydney Cove with the best bower,
moored with the kedge. The Commander waited on His Excellency the
Governor and Commander-in-Chief."
Murray's voyage ended on March 24th, and on the same day he waited on
Governor King at Sydney, with the news that his orders had been carried
out. The Governor must have been greatly pleased, and the more so because
only a month later the French ship Naturaliste put into Port Jackson.* (*
The French ships Geographe and Naturaliste had left France in October
1800 on a voyage of discovery.) Hamelin, who commanded her, was, however,
in sore straits. He had parted from Commodore Baudin in a gale off Van
Dieman's Land and had traversed the whole of Bass Strait without meeting
the Geographe, his boats having visited Western Port* only a month after
Murray had left there. (* French Island preserves the memory of their
visit, but Murray's Chart shows that the English (contrary to Peron's
assertions) knew that this island was separated from the mainland before
the coming of the French.) Finding his provisions exhausted, in his
extremity the French Commander, although he knew that France and England
were at war, steered to Sydney. The English, we are told, received him
with noble and large-minded (grande et Loyale) liberality, and the sick
French sailors were received at the Government Hospital. Hamelin was
busily engaged in replenishing his ship when Captain Matthew Flinders
arrived in H.M.S. Investigator on May 9th and was able to give him news
of his consort which he had met in Encounter Bay. Flinders also informed
Captain Hamelin that Baudin had said that it was his intention to proceed
to the Isle of France.
