INTRODUCTORY 15 



immediate transfer of the entire convoy to the more convenient 

 and picturesque shores of Port Jackson, are incidents that belong 

 to the history of New South Wales. 



Ten years after the first settlement had thus been effected at Port 

 Jackson, Governor Hunter, who had succeeded Captain Phillip in 

 the administration of the young colony, being desirous of ascer- 

 taining the existence of a supposed strait between Van Diemen's 

 Land and the Australian continent, accepted the offer of Mr. George 

 Bass, a young surgeon of H.M. ship Reliance, to explore the southern 

 coast line. The enterprising and enthusiastic young doctor, whose 

 name goes down to posterity as the sponsor of Bass Strait, was 

 the first white man who voluntarily set foot in Victorian territory. 

 In February, 1797, a vessel called the Sydney Cove was wrecked 

 on the Furneaux Islands in this Strait, and the chief officer, the 

 supercargo and fifteen of the crew in their endeavour to reach 

 Sydney in the ship's launch were driven on shore in the neighbour- 

 hood of Cape Howe, where most of them perished. Only the 

 supercargo and two seamen reached Sydney, and it is difficult to 

 be certain from their narrative whether the scene of their disaster 

 was within the present limits of the colony of Victoria. 



Bass was provided by the Government with a substantial whale- 

 boat, victualled for six weeks, well fitted, and manned with a crew 

 of six men. With this light equipment he sailed out of Port 

 Jackson on the 3rd of December, 1797, and performed a journey of 

 over twelve hundred miles with a courage and readiness of resource 

 that entitles him to a high place in the ranks of maritime discoverers. 

 Buffeted about by tempestuous weather, detained for weeks to- 

 gether in hitherto undiscovered coves where he had to seek shelter ; 

 eking out his scanty commissariat with fish and salted petrels, and 

 losing much valuable time in the search for fresh water, he still 

 succeeded in carefully examining the coast from Twofold Bay 

 (which he was the first to enter) round Wilson's Promontory to 

 Western Port, which he reached on the 4th of January, 1798. He 

 carefully explored this harbour, remaining there a fortnight, and 

 giving his sorely strained craft a thorough overhaul. The difficulty 

 experienced in replenishing his provisions, already nearly exhausted, 

 compelled him most reluctantly to turn back when within a few 



