HISTORICAL REVIEW OF VICTORIA. 



323 



the Strait, Grant reached Sydney on the i6th of that month. Thus the Lady Nelson was 

 the first vessel to go "sounding on a dim and perilous way," along a route which is now 

 traversed by a fleet of ocean and coasting steamers and merchantmen, laden with the pro- 

 duce of all nations ; and compared with the magnitude and importance of her commander's 

 achievements the exploits of Jason and his companions in the Argos when in search of 

 the "Golden Fleece," or those more famed of Telemachus' sire, fade into insignificance. 



On the 8th of March, 1801, the Lady Nelson sailed from Port Jackson on a second 

 exploring expedition, passing Wilson's Promontory on the 2Oth of that month. Grant 

 saw and named Cape 

 Paterson, entered 

 Western Port, cleared 

 and planted a garden 

 upon Churchill's 

 Island, and after sur- 

 veying twenty miles of 

 the coast between the 

 inlet and Wilson's Pro- 

 montory returned to 

 Sydney on the i4th of 

 May, 1 80 1. Grant left 

 Sydney for England, 

 and was succeeded in 

 the command of the 

 Lady Nelson by his 

 chief officer, John 

 Murray, who in the 

 following December 

 reaped the first Vic- 

 torian harvest from the 

 grain which had been 

 sown by his predeces- 

 sor. The little brig quitted Port Jackson on the i2th of November, 1801, and after visiting 

 Western Port left there on the 5th of January, 1802, intending to explore the coast which 

 trended to the north-westward. Beaten back by baffling winds, and unable to enter what 

 appeared to be the inlet to an estuary, Murray sent round his first mate, Bower, with 

 five seamen in a launch to examine this inlet. Rounding the promontory, which the 

 Lieutenant designated Point Nepean, the launch was carried through "The Rip" on the ist 

 of February, and the adventurous crew saw a great inland sea expand before them. 

 They remained in it until the fourth of the same month, when they returned to the 

 Lady Nelson to report the important discovery they had made. Eleven days later the 

 brig herself sailed through the Heads. 



The natives on shore must have looked with mingled feelings of wonder and con- 

 sternation on that strange apparition, shaped like a fish, but winged like a bird, which 

 skimmed over the surface of the water, and contained within its capacious body a 



LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR COLLINS. 



