Note Footnote a: — INTRODUCTION.

Without disparagement to the adventurous foreign navigators who for centuries earlier than the British occupation had suspected the existence of "Terra Australis," the "fifth continent" of the globe, and had done their best to discover it, it may be safely contended that the honour of the delineation of the coast-line belongs to Englishmen, the chief of whom were William Dampier and James Cook. In 1688 Dampier, as super-cargo of the "Cygnet," a trading vessel whose crew had turned buccaneers, landed on the north-west coast of Australia in lat. 16 deg. 50 min. S. In the year 1699 he again visited the coast in charge of H.M.S. "Roebuck," landing at Shark Bay, and sailing thence northward to Roebuck Bay.a Afterwards Captain James Cook, in voyages which extended until 1777, delineated the eastern coast-line, and opened up the continent to European enterprise and settlement. On 29th April, 1770, Cook, in the little barque "Endeavour," 370 tons burthen, entered Sting-ray Harbour (Botany Bay), remaining there until 6th May, when he sailed northwards, and, not entering Port Jackson, named Port Stephens, "Morton Bay," Bustard Bay, and Keppel Islands, landing at several places for the purpose of obtaining fresh water and making observations. Thus, coasting along for nearly 1,300 miles, on 11th June he narrowly escaped the total loss of his vessel when north of Trinity Bay by striking a coral reef. After enduring great hardships, and jettisoning all surplus gear, the vessel was sailed into the mouth of the Endeavour River, and there careened. During the succeeding two months she was thoroughly repaired. In August the captain set his course again for the north; and on the 23rd of that month, after navigating among the dangerous rocks of the Barrier Reef Passage, he safely reached open water and landed on Possession Island, near Cape York. There he took formal possession, "in right of His Majesty King George III.," of the land he had discovered from lat. 38 deg. S. to lat. 10 deg. 30 min. S. Sailing through Torres Strait, Cook reached the English Channel in the "Endeavour" on 18th June, 1771b. It was not until 7th February, 1788, however, that Captain Phillip, as Governor-General of the vast territory then called New South Wales, read to the people whom he had brought to Port Jackson in the first fleet his commission proclaiming British sovereignty over the whole of the eastern coast of Australia and Tasmania, and also over the then unknown southern coast as far west as the 135th degree of E. longitude.c On 2nd May, 1829, Captain Fremantle, hoisting the British flag on the south head of the Swan River, took possession of all those parts of Australia not included in the territory of New South Wales.