Last evening we suspected that we had been watched by the natives. I saw
some of them, and our resting-place was surrounded by their smokes; they
however did not attempt to molest us. Stopped in an acacia pendula brush,
having travelled about twenty miles.
July 15. - It came on to rain in the night, and continued all this day.
Our journey was dreadfully bad and marshy; yet on the whole the country
had a better aspect, not being so much overrun with the plant called
atriplex as usual. On my track out, plains, brushes, indeed almost the
entire surface was covered with it, until within a few miles of
Arbuthnot's Range. After going about three miles, we again fell in with
and forded the river crossed on the 11th instant: it was here not quite
so wide as when first seen, but deeper. Halted, having gone about ten
miles.
July 16. - I altered my course from south-west to west, 80 degrees south,
and had an extremely tedious and unpleasant day's journey, through a wet
and dreary country; continued rain. Travelled fifteen miles.
July 18. - Arrived at the hut about one o'clock, p.m., having travelled
yesterday and to-day about thirty-seven miles.
(Signed) G. W. EVANS.
* * * * *
No. V.
GOVERNMENT, AND GENERAL ORDERS.
Government House, Parramatta,
December 5, 1818.
CIVIL DEPARTMENT.
The sanguine hope which his excellency the governor was induced to
entertain, that, by pursuing the course of the Macquarie River, which had
been discovered running in a north-west direction by John Oxley, Esq., on
his return last year from tracing the course of the Lachlan to the
south-west, would have amply compensated for the disappointment sustained
on that occasion; and his excellency having in consequence accepted the
farther services of Mr. Oxley, on a second expedition; the party
consisting of John Oxley, Esq., surveyor general; John Harris, Esq., late
surgeon of the 102nd regiment, (who most liberally volunteered to
accompany the expedition); Mr. Evans, deputy surveyor general; and Mr.
Charles Fraser, colonial botanist; together with twelve men, having
eighteen horses and two boats, and provisions for twenty-four weeks, took
their final departure on the 4th of June last, from a depot prepared
for the occasion in the Wellington Valley, at about ninety miles west of
Bathurst; and those gentlemen, and the entire party, having a few days
since arrived at Port Jackson by sea, from the northward, his excellency
is happy in offering his most cordial congratulations to John Oxley,
Esq., the conductor of this expedition, and to John Harris, Esq., Mr.
Evans, and Mr. Fraser, on their safe return from this arduous
undertaking.
The zeal, talent, and attention manifested by Mr. Oxley, considering the
perils and privations to which he and his party were exposed, in
exploring a tract of country so singularly circumstanced in its various
bearings, are no less honourable to Mr. Oxley than conducive to the
public interest; and although the principal object, namely, that of
tracing the Macquarie River to its embouchure, has not been so favourable
as was anticipated, yet the failure is in a great degree counterbalanced
by other important discoveries made in the course of this tour, which
promise, at no very remote period, to prove of material advantage to this
rising colony.
Whilst his excellency thus offers this public tribute of congratulations,
he desires to accompany it with expressions of his high sense and
approbation of Mr. Oxley's meritorious services on this occasion; which
his excellency will not fail to represent to His Majesty's ministers, by
the earliest opportunity.
The personal assistance and support so cheerfully and beneficially
afforded to Mr. Oxley by the gentlemen associated with him on this
expedition, demand his excellency's best acknowledgments, which be is
happy thus publicly to request them to accept.
The following letter received from Mr. Oxley on his arrival at Port
Stephens, on the 1st of November last, is now published for general
information on the interesting subject of this tour.
By his excellency the governor's command,
J. T. CAMPBELL, Secretary.
* * *
Port Stephens, November 1, 1818.
Sir,
I have the honour to inform your excellency, that I arrived at this port
to-day, and circumstances rendering it necessary that Mr. Evans should
proceed to Newcastle, I embrace the opportunity to make to your
excellency a brief report of the route pursued by the western expedition
entrusted to my direction.
My letter, dated the 22nd of June last, will have made your excellency
acquainted with the sanguine hopes I entertained, from the appearance of
the river, that its termination would be either in interior waters, or
coastwise. When I wrote that letter to your excellency, I certainly did
not anticipate the possibility, that a very few days farther travelling
would lead us to its termination as an accessible river.
On the 28th of June, having traced its course without the smallest
diminution or addition, about seventy miles farther to the
north-north-west, there being a slight fresh in the river, it overflowed
its banks, and although we were at the distance of near three miles from
it, the country was so perfectly level that the waters soon spread over
the ground on which we were. We had been for some days before travelling
over such very low ground, that the people in the boats finding the
country flooded, proceeded slowly; a circumstance which enabled me to
send them directions to return to the station we had quitted in the
morning, where the ground was a little more elevated. This spot being by
no means secure, it was arranged that the horses, with the provisions,
should return to the last high land we had quitted, a distance of sixteen
miles; and as it appeared to me that the body of water in the river was
too important to be much affected by the mere overflowing of its waters,
I determined to take the large boat, and in her to endeavour to discover
their point of discharge.
