further exploring it. Having first brought up in Neutral
Bay, that we might be reported to the governor, we proceeded some miles
up to Sydney Cove, where we anchored in excellent holding ground about
half-pistol-shot from the shore. Sydney had already begun to assume the
appearance of a town of some consideration, and contained fully 5,000
inhabitants, though still called the camp by some of the old settlers.
It is divided into two parts by a river which runs into the cove, and
affords it unrivalled advantages of water communication. Several
settlements in the country had already been established, among the chief
of which were Paramatta and Hawkesbury. The latter settlement was about
six miles long, and about forty miles from Sydney; vessels of two
hundred tons could ascend by the river up it a distance of at least
forty miles. The town, such as it then was, covered about a mile of
ground from one end to the other, and already gave promise of becoming a
place of considerable extent. A wise and active governor,
Lieutenant-Colonel Lachlan Macquarie, had ruled the settlement for about
a year, during which period it had made rapid progress. The previous
governor was the notorious Captain Bligh, whose tyrannical conduct when
in command of the _Bounty_ produced the disastrous mutiny which took
place on board that ship. The same style of conduct when governor of
New South Wales, especially in his treatment of Mr John McArthur, the
father, as he was called, of the settlement, induced the colonists to
depose him. The officers and men of the New South Wales corps marched
up to the Government House, and, after hunting for him for some time,
found him concealed under a bed. His person and property were, however,
carefully protected, and he was shortly afterwards put on board the
_Porpoise_ sloop-of-war, and sent off to England. The settlement,
however, quickly recovered from the mismanagement of this unhappy man,
and was at the time of my visit in a flourishing condition.

I was fortunate in disposing of the larger part of the cargo under my
charge at good prices. Hassall and I agreed, however, that more might
be done for our owners, and we proposed, therefore, visiting some of the
islands in the Pacific, and either returning home the way we had come,
or continuing on round Cape Horn. We had not been long in harbour
before O'Carroll made his appearance on board. He had brought the ship
of which he had taken charge in s