INTRODUCTORY 21 



should at least have been associated with one of the prominent 

 features of our maritime highway, belongs the honour of being the 

 first white man to pass through Port Phillip Heads, the avant- 

 courier of those vast crowds that in after years poured through the 

 gateway to the Golden Land, sometimes to the extent of thousands 

 in a single day. 



Late in the evening of the 4th of February Bowen returned 

 triumphant from his mission, and reported his discovery of a good 

 channel, a mile and a half wide, with from six to ten fathoms of 

 water, opening into a magnificent harbour, " larger even than 

 Western Port, with many fine coves and the appearance and 

 probability of rivers ". Ten days elapsed after Bowen's return in 

 making preliminary arrangements, taking in wood and water, 

 patching up leaky boats and repairing the sorely strained and 

 damaged gear of the Lady Nelson, and then on the 15th, at 

 five A.M., she ran out from shelter of Phillip Island, and within 

 twelve hours, having successfully encountered the Rip, was safely 

 at anchor off the site of the present quarantine ground, " Swan 

 Island, bearing N.E. by N. five miles ". 



Murray was delighted with the appearance of the harbour, and 

 describes it as "in some places falling nothing short in beauty and 

 appearance from Greenwich Park," which seems a rather ludicrous 

 and cockneyfied comparison. He named it Port King, in honour 

 of the Governor of New South Wales, and the hill which rises on 

 the eastern shore behind Dromana he called Arthur's Seat, from a 

 fancied resemblance to the eminence of that name near Edinburgh. 

 Governor King, however, subsequently declined to immortalise him- 

 self in connection with the discovery, and ordered the capacious 

 bay to be named after Captain Phillip, the commander of the First 

 Fleet. 



The dilapidated condition of Lieut. Murray's outfit, partly due 

 to the severe weather he had encountered in the Strait, his leaky 

 boat and fast waning provisions prevented his pushing his discovery 

 to the full benefits that lay so near him. With some difficulty he 

 succeeded in finding a splendid supply of fresh water, between 

 Capel Sound and the foot of Arthur's Seat, but he seems to have 

 been unable satisfactorily to extricate his vessel from the shallows 



