the command of Captain Phillip. After
a tedious voyage of thirty-six weeks, they reached Botany Bay in
January 1788.

Captain Phillip had been appointed Governor of all New South Wales,
that is from Cape York to Van Diemen's Land, still supposed to be part
of the mainland. But Phillip at once recognised that Botany Bay was
not a suitable place for a settlement. No white man had described these
shores since the days of Captain Cook. The green meadows of which Banks
spoke were barren swamps and bleak sands, while the bay itself was
exposed to the full sweep of violent winds, with a heavy sea breaking
with tremendous surf against the shore.

"Warra, warra!" (begone, begone), shouted the natives, brandishing
spears at the water's edge as they had done eighteen years before.
In an open boat--for it was midsummer in these parts--Phillip surveyed
the coast; an opening marked Port Jackson on Cook's chart attracted
his notice and, sailing between two rocky headlands, the explorer
found himself crossing smooth, clear water with a beautiful harbour
in front and soft green foliage reaching down to the water's edge.
Struck with the loveliness of the scene, and finding both wood and
water here, he chose the spot for his new colony, giving it the name
of Sydney, alter Lord Sydney, who as Home Secretary had appointed him
to his command.

[Illustration: PORT JACKSON AND SYDNEY COVE A FEW YEARS AFTER COOK
AND PHILLIP. From the Atlas to the _Voyage de l'Astrolabe_.]

"We got into Port Jackson," he wrote to Lord Sydney, "early in the
afternoon, and had the satisfaction of finding the finest harbour in
the world, in which a thousand sail of the line may ride in perfect
security."

"To us," wrote one of his captains, "it was a great and important day,
and I hope will mark the foundation of an empire."

But, interesting as it is, we cannot follow the fortunes of this first
little English colony in the South Pacific Ocean.

The English had not arrived a day too soon. A few days later the French
explorer, La Perouse, guided hither by Cook's chart, suddenly made
his appearance on the shores of Botany Bay. The arrival of two French
men-of-war caused the greatest excitement among the white strangers
and the black natives.

La Perouse had left France in 1785 in command of two ships with orders
to search for the North-West Passage from the Pacific side--a feat
attempted by Captain Cook only nine years before--to explore the China
seas, t