7 6 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



to adopt a new line of conduct." In 1813 he wrote to the Secretary of State that 

 " free people should consider they are coming to a convict country, and if the)- are too 

 proud or too delicate in their feelings to associate with the population of the country, 

 they should consider it in time and bend their course to some other country." He 

 added that " free settlers in general, who are sent out from England, are by tar the 

 most discontented persons in the country, and that emancipated convicts, or persons 

 become free by servitude, made in many instances the best description of settlers," 

 Macquarie's policy in this respect produced such unpleasant complications, that at last the 

 Home Government was obliged to interfere. They sent out a Special Commissioner to 

 conduct an inquiry into all matters connected with his Administration, and the result of 

 the inquiry led to his recall. 



Macquarie was pre-eminently the building Governor. He devoted a great deal of 

 attention to the construction of roads and public buildings, on which convict labour was 

 largely employed ; and many of the principal edifices erected in his time still remain 

 peculiar though useful monuments of his architectural taste. Many of our most important 

 public institutions were established in his day, among them being the first Supreme 

 Court, the Bank of New South Wales, and the Infirmary ; St. James's Church was 

 erected, the foundations of St. Mary's Cathedral were laid, and the first wharf, called 

 the King's Wharf, was constructed at the Circular Quay. 



Mrs. Macquarie contributed her share towards the adornment of Sydney, and her 

 name has been perpetuated in connection with the beautiful reserve on which " Mrs. 

 Macquarie's Chair" was cut in one of the rocks overlooking the Harbour, the winding 

 carriage-road round the inside of the Domain which leads to this spot having been 

 planned by her. She also planted Norfolk Island pines in the Botanical Gardens. 



But the great achievement of Macquarie's day was the discovery of a passage over 

 the Blue Mountains. Governor Phillip, Captain Tench, Lieutenant Dawes and others 

 had made repeated efforts to enlarge the area of settlement by crossing this formidable 

 barrier, but all without success. Bass, surgeon of the Reliance, whose name is connected 

 with some of the most daring exploits yet recorded in the annals of discovery, tried to 

 force his way through the tangled scrub and rocky defiles, and after incredible labour 

 succeeded in reaching the summit of a high spur, from which, however, he could see 

 nothing beyond but a succession of still higher ranges, and he also retired from the 

 struggle. Until 1813, these mountains had been regarded as impassable, all previous 

 attempts to penetrate them having failed. 



The infant colony was thus deprived of all natural means of expansion, and the 

 belief had almost become general that its resources were confined within the narrow 

 limits of the county of Cumberland. But on the nth of May in the year 1813, when the 

 land was suffering from a prolonged drought, and the stock was dying for want of 

 fodder, an expedition formed by Gregory Blaxland, Lieutenant Lawson and William 

 Charles Wentworth, with four servants, four horses and five dogs, started from 

 South Creek, near Penrith, with six weeks' provisions, for the purpose of exploring the 

 country. They crossed the Nepean River at Emu Plains, and were soon on the ascent ; 

 they were, however, forced to clear a track through the thick scrub, to clamber up and 

 down the rocky gorges, and to find their way across the gloomy chasms and the 



