ation in
the northern district of New South Wales, Moreton Bay was found to
receive the waters of a large and important river. His success was, at
least in part, due to accident. Among the blacks, on the shores of the
bay, was a naked man, who was seen to be white. This man was taken on
board. He had sailed in an open boat from Sydney, with three others,
about a year before, but had been driven by gales out to sea and far to
the north. They had landed and had been well received by the blacks. The
rest had started to walk along the shore to Sydney, but one man, named
Pamphlett, had remained with the natives; and it was he who now was
rescued by Oxley, to whom he gave the information that, when roving
inland with the tribe among whom he was living, he had seen a fine river
of fresh water. Under the guidance of Pamphlett, Oxley left his little
vessel in the bay, and with a boat entered upon the broad current of the
stream. Before sunset he had ascended about twenty miles, and had been
delighted by the richness of the scenery and the magnificence of the
timber. On the following day he proceeded thirty miles farther up, and
throughout the whole distance found the stream to be broad and of
sufficient depth to be navigable for vessels of considerable size. Oxley
was justly proud of his discovery, and wished to penetrate still farther
into the forests that lay beyond; but his boat's crew had been so
exhausted by their long row under a burning sun that he could go no
farther, and found it necessary to turn and glide with the current down
to his vessel, which he reached late on the fourth night. To the stream
he had thus discovered he gave the name of the Brisbane River.

#2. Convict Station.#--On his return he recommended this district as a
suitable position for the new convict station, and during the following
year (1824) he was sent to form the settlement. With a small party,
consisting of convicts and their guards, he landed at Redcliff, now
known as Humpy Bong, a peninsula which juts out into Moreton Bay a few
miles above the mouth of the Brisbane. Here the settlement remained for
a few months, but afterwards it was moved twenty miles up the river to
that pleasant bend which is now occupied by the city of Brisbane. Here,
under Captain Logan, the first permanent commandant of the settlement,
large stone barracks for the soldiers were erected, and lines of gaols
and other buildings for the convicts. And in these for twelve or