BY JAMES B. WALKER. 101 



Australia was not * — had been little more than a 

 geographical expression. Parts of the INorthern and 

 Western coasts, and one ominous Bay of Storms at the 

 South, were laid down more or less vaguely on the maps 

 from the reports of Dutch navigators of the preceding 

 century, and those old and infrequent voyagers had 

 brought back only reports of forbidding shores and 

 desolate territory. The right to these dreary coasts was 

 conceded without dispute to the Dutch, for it was a land 

 that no man desired. The English had no i)art in its 

 discovery. One Englishman, indeed, and one only — 

 William Dampier — had touched on the Western coast 

 in the year 1688, had found a barren sandy soil, inhabited 

 by wretched savages, with no redeeming advantage, and 

 had left it gladly, thinking it the most miserable spot on 

 the face of the earth. Such was the state of affairs when 

 Cook appeared on the scene. In 1770, on his return from 

 the observation of the Transit of Venus at Tahiti, and in 

 pursuance of instructions to try to solve the mystery of the 

 great South Land, the Endeavour, after rediscovering and 

 surveying the islands of New Zealand, sailed west till the 

 eastern shore of New Holland was sighted. Cook 

 explored the coast from Cape Howe to Cape York ; 

 lauded at Botany Bay, hoisted the English flag, took 

 ])ossession of the country hi the name of King George, 

 and returned home to report the existence of a fine and 

 fertile territory in a temperate climate, well suited for 

 English settlers. At home the growth of feeling in favour 

 of a milder penal code had rendered it necessary to devise 

 some scheme for disposing of criminals, and Pitt and the 

 English Government resolved to choose Botany Bay as 

 the field for a project which should relieve English diffi- 

 culties, and lay the foundation of a new colony. The first 

 fleet sailed from England, and in January, 1788, Governor 

 Phillip planted the first settlement in New Holland, sub- 

 stantially on the lines indicated in detail by the French 

 President more than a quarter of a century before. 



* Quiros (1G06) named his discovery Aufitrialia del Esi)intu 

 Santo, ill honor of Pliilip of Austria. Purchas, in his Enjrlish 

 translation of Qiiiros' voyafrc (1625) called it Austmlia Incognita— 

 (Sec Petlierick's Bi1)liograi>iiy of Australasia). Dalryniple. in his 

 Collection of Voyages (1770) susrgests the name, and Tlinders 

 revived it in the "introduction to his Voyage to Terra Australis, 

 1811, p. iii. 



