212 HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, ETC., 



after considered to be connected with the main land of Australia. 

 Finally, between 1766 and 1770, after an interval of a century, 

 during which no researches had been made, and some of the dis- 

 coveries already mentioned had been forgotten, Cook explored the 

 eastern coast, from Cape Home to Cape York, and called its whole 

 extent New South Wales. 



Researches were again suspended until after the establishment of 

 the convict colony, and in 1798 Flinders and Bass discovered the 

 straits which bear the name of the latter, which separate Van 

 Diemen's from the main land, and sailed around that island. To the 

 country adjacent to these straits, the name of Bass's Land was given ; 

 and in 1803, Grant explored the coast to the west of it. Flinders, 

 who was for several years engaged in making surveys on the eastern 

 coast, also connected the land discovered by Grant, with that of Van 

 Nuyt, and re-examined the latter. It is to Flinders that we owe our 

 most precise knowledge of the general geographical features of the 

 eastern and southern coast of Australia ; and since the close of his 

 labours, Captain P. P. King, of H. B. M. Navy, has been engaged, 

 and other officers are now assiduously employed, in surveying the 

 northern coast. The interior, as has been already stated, has been 

 made the subject of numerous exploring tours by the surveyors of 

 the colony, and other persons employed by the British government. 



The territory included under the name of New South Wales is the 

 eastern portion of Australia, and extends from the twenty-third to the 

 thirty-eighth degree of south latitude. The power of its governor, 

 however, extends further, and within his jurisdiction are included the 

 whole eastern coast, from Cape York to Wilson's Promontory, or 

 between latitude 10° 37' S., and 39° 2' S. ; with the country inland 

 as far as the meridian of 129° E. Moreton Bay on the northern, and 

 Port Philip on the southern coast, with Norfolk Island, and all 

 others between it and the coast, are also placed under his authority. 



The epoch whence the history of the colony dates, is the year 1787, 

 when the eastern coast was chosen by the British government as the 

 site of a penal colony ; the convicts hold so prominent a part in 

 the events which have occurred since that period, that their history 

 may be almost considered as that of New South Wales. 



Botany Bay, in consequence of extravagant ideas formed of its 

 excellence as a harbour, and the fertility of the country around it, 

 was the portion chosen for the settlement. The first gang of convicts 

 sent out was composed of six hundred male and two hundred and 



