purpose: we had a short conversation
with a party of the natives, who were exceedingly shy. During the
time we lay here, we sounded the bay all over, and found a
considerable extent of anchorage in four, five, six, and seven
fathoms water, but wholly exposed to easterly winds, and no
possibility of finding shelter from those winds in any part of
the anchorage.

We anchored on the north shore, off a sandy bay, which I think
as good a birth as any in the bay; Cape Banks bore
east-south-east, and Point Solander south-south-east, the ground
clear and good. The wind, either from the north-east or
south-east quarters, set in a prodigious sea. Higher up the bay
there is a spot of four fathoms, where a few ships might be laid
in tolerable security, but they must be lightened, to enable them
to pass over a flat of twelve feet, and that depth but of narrow
limits.

The day after my arrival, the governor, accompanied by me and
two other officers, embarked in three boats, and proceeded along
the coast to the northward, intending, if we could, to reach what
Captain Cook has called Broken-bay, with a hope of discovering a
better harbour, as well as a better country; for we found nothing
at Botany-bay to recommend it as a place on which to form an
infant settlement. In this examination, a large opening, or bay,
about three leagues and a half to the northward of Cape Banks,
was the first place we looked into: it had rather an unpromising
appearance, on entering between the outer heads or capes that
form its entrance, which are high, rugged, and perpendicular
cliffs; but we had not gone far in, before we discovered a large
branch extending to the southward; into this we went, and soon
found ourselves perfectly land-locked, with a good depth of
water.

We proceeded up for two days, examining every cove or other
place which we found capable of receiving ships; the country was
also particularly noticed, and found greatly superior in every
respect to that round Botany-bay. The governor, being satisfied
with the eligibility of this situation, determined to fix his
residence here, and returned immediately to the ships.

On the 25th, we received the time-keeper from the Supply,
which I am sorry to say, had been let down while on board her,
during the passage from the Cape of Good Hope; and the same day,
the governor sailed in the Supply, with a detachment of marines,
to the new harbour, which Captain Cook had observed as he sailed
al