LIST OF THE NAMES AND DESIGNATIONS OF THE SEVERAL PERSONS PROCEEDING ON THE EXPEDITION OF DISCOVERY, UNDER THE COMMAND OF JOHN OXLEY, ESQ., SURVEYOR GENERAL OF LANDS.
1 John Oxley, Esq., chief of the expedition. 2 Mr. George William Evans, second in command. 3 Mr. Allan Cunningham, King's botanist. 4 Charles Fraser, colonial botanist. 5 William Parr, mineralogist. 6 George Hubbard, boat-builder. 7 James King, 1st boatman, and sailor. 8 James King, 2nd horse-shoer. 9 William Meggs, butcher. 10 Patrick Byrne, guide and horse leader. 11 William Blake, harness-mender. 12 George Simpson, for chaining with surveyors. 13 William Warner, servant to Mr. Oxley.
(Signed,) L. MACQUARIE.
Sydney,
March 2,1, 1817.
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No. II
Government House, Sydney,
June 10, 1815.
Mr. Cox having reported the road as completed on the 21st of January, the governor, accompanied by Mr. Macquarie, and that gentleman, commenced his tour on the 25th of April last, over the Blue Mountains, and was joined by Sir John Jamison, at the Nepean, who accompanied him during the entire tour. The following gentlemen composed the governor's suite: Mr. Campbell, secretary; Captain Antill, major of brigade; Lieutenant Watts, aid-de-camp; Mr. Redfern, assistant surgeon; Mr. Oxley, surveyor general; Mr. Meehan, deputy surveyor general; Mr. Lewin, painter, and naturalist; and Mr. G. W. Evans, deputy surveyor of lands, who had been sent forward for the purpose of making farther discoveries, and rejoined the party on the day of arrival at Bathurst Plains.
The commencement of the ascent from Emu Plains, to the first depot, and then to a resting-place, now called Spring Wood, distant twelve miles from Emu Ford, was through a very handsome forest of lofty trees, and much more practicable and easy than was expected. The facility of the ascent for this distance excited surprise, and is certainly not well calculated to give the traveller a just idea of the difficulties he has afterwards to encounter.
At a farther distance of four miles, a sudden change is perceived in the appearance of the timber, and the quality of the soil; the former becoming stunted, and the latter barren and rocky. At this place the fatigues of the journey may be said to commence; here the country became altogether mountainous, and extremely rugged. Near to the eighteenth mile mark (it is to be observed the measure commences from Emu Ford), a pile of stones attracted attention; it is close to the line of road, on the top of a rugged and abrupt ascent, and is supposed to have been placed by Mr. Caley, as the extreme limit of his tour; hence the governor gave that part of the mountain the name of Caley's Repulse. To have penetrated even so far, was an effort of no small difficulty. From hence forward to the twenty-sixth mile is a succession of steep and rugged hills, some of which are almost so abrupt as to deny a passage altogether; but at this place a considerably extensive plain is arrived at, which constitutes the summit of the western mountains, and from thence a most extensive and beautiful prospect presents itself on all sides to the eye. The town of Windsor, the River Hawkesbury, Prospect Hill, and other objects within that part of the colony now inhabited, of equal interest, are distinctly seen from hence. The majestic grandeur of the situation, combined with the various objects to be seen from this place, induced the governor to give it the appellation of the King's Table Land. On the south-west side of the King's Table Land, the mountain terminates in abrupt precipices of immense depth; at the bottom of which is seen a glen, as romantically beautiful as can be imagined, bounded on the farther side by mountains of great magnitude, terminating equally abruptly as the others; and the whole whole thickly covered with timber. The length of this picturesque and remarkable tract of country is about twenty-four miles, to which the governor gave the name of the Prince Regent's Glen. Proceeding hence to the thirty-third mile, on the top of a hill an opening presents itself on the south-west side of the Prince Regent's Glen, from whence a view obtained particularly beautiful and grand: mountains rising beyond mountains, with stupendous masses of rock in the fore ground, here strike the eye with admiration and astonishment. The circular form in which the whole is so wonderfully disposed, induced the governor to give the name of Pitt's Amphitheatre to this offset or branch from the Prince Regent's Glen. The road continues from hence for the space of seventeen miles, on the ridge of the mountain which forms one side of the Prince Regent's Glen, and there it suddenly terminates in nearly a perpendicular precipice of six hundred and seventy-six feet high, as ascertained by measurement. The road constructed by Mr. Cox down this rugged and tremendous descent, through all its windings, is no less than three fourths of a mile in length, and has been executed with such skill and dexterity as reflects much credit to him: the labour here undergone, and the difficulties surmounted can only be appreciated by those who view this scene. In order to perpetuate the memory of Mr. Cox's services, the governor deemed it a tribute justly due to him to give his name to this grand and extraordinary pass, and he accordingly called it Cox's Pass. Having descended into the valley at the bottom of this pass, the retrospective view of the overhanging mountain is magnificently grand.
Although the present pass is the only practicable point yet discovered for descending by, yet the mountain is much higher than those on either side of it, from whence it is distinguished at a considerable distance: when approaching it from the interior, and in this point of view, it has the appearance of a very high distinct hill, although it is in fact only the abrupt termination of a ridge. The governor gave the name of Mount York to this termination of the ridge: on descending Cox's Pass, the governor was much pleased by the appearance of good pasture land, and soil fit for cultivation, which was the first he had met with since the commencement of his tour. The valley at the base of Mount York he called the Vale of Clwyd, in consequence of the strong resemblance it bore to the vale of that name in North Wales: the grass in this vale is of a good quality, and very abundant; and a rivulet of fine water runs along it from the eastward, which unites itself at the western extremity of the vale with another rivulet, containing still more water. The junction of these two streams forms a very fine river, now called by the governor Cox's River; which takes its course, as has since been re-ascertained, through the Prince Regent's Glen, and empties itself into the River Nepean; and it is conjectured from the nature of the country through which it passes, that it must be one of the principal causes of the floods which have been occasionally felt on the low banks of the River Hawkesbury, into which the Nepean discharges itself. The Vale of Clwyd from the base of Mount York, extends six miles in a westerly direction, and has its termination at Cox's River. Westward of this river the country again becomes hilly, but is generally open, forest land, and very good pasturage. Three miles to the westward of the Vale of Clwyd, Messrs. Blaxland, Wentworth, and Lawson, had formerly terminated their excursion; and when the various difficulties are considered which they had to contend with, especially until they had effected the descent from Mount York, to which place they were obliged to pass through a thick brushwood, where they were under the necessity of cutting a passage for their baggage horses, the severity of which labour had seriously affected their healths—their patient endurance of such fatigue cannot fail to excite much surprise and admiration. In commemoration of their merits, three beautiful high hills, joining each other at the end of their tour at this place, have received their names in the following order, viz., Mount Blaxland, Wentworth's Sugar Loaf, and Lawson's Sugar Loaf.