e to be navigable,
named it Port Macquarie, though one should imagine that he had become
tired of that name. The river was named the Hastings.

On October 12th, a toilsome march commenced, following the shore to the
southward. The wearisome interruptions of the many inlets and saltwater
creeks greatly fatigued and distressed his men. But at last they came
upon a boat, half-buried in the sand, which had been lost some time
before from a Hawkesbury coaster. This they cleaned and patched, and
carried with them, utilising it during the latter stages of this weary
journey to facilitate the passage of the many saltwater creeks and
channels that impeded their progress. It is owing to the possession of
this derelict boat that Oxley crossed the mouth of the Manning without
identifying it as a river. The blacks now harassed them greatly, and it
was during one of the attacks made upon the party that one of the men,
named William Black, was dangerously wounded, being speared through the
back and the lower part of the body. The care and conveyance of this
invalided man was now added to Oxley's other anxieties, and it was with
feelings of great satisfaction that on November 1st they caught sight of
the rude buildings of Port Stephens. Through much hardship and privations
he had brought his party back without loss.

Oxley sent Evans on to Newcastle with despatches to the governor, in
which he alluded to his sanguine anticipations at the time he had sent in
his last report, and their almost immediate collapse. But the discovery
of Liverpool Plains compensated in some degree for the disappointment
caused by the renewed failure that had attended Oxley's efforts to trace
an inland river.

In the following year, 1819, the Lady Nelson, with the Surveyor-General
on board, visited the newly found Port Macquarie and the Hastings River,
to survey the entrance; in which task he was assisted by Lieutenant P.P.
King in the Mermaid. On his return to Port Jackson, in the same year, he
made a short excursion to Jarvis Bay with Surveyor Meehan, when they were
accompanied by the explorer who was to win fame as Hamilton Hume. Oxley
returned by boat, his companions overland.

3.4. THE BRISBANE RIVER.

It was in October, 1823, that Oxley left Sydney on the expedition that
resulted in the finding of the Brisbane River, and the foundation of the
settlement at Moreton Bay. He was despatched on a mission to examine
certain openings on the east coast, and