must be more than twenty of them, of which I understand the greater number have not been opened. The two causeways spoken of by Herodotus take a direction from the pyramids, one to the north-east, and the other considerably to the eastward of south-east, and are astonishing works. I followed them with my eye towards the Mokuttum mountain, till lost in the distance. "The line which bounds the cultivation and the desert is seen most perceptibly from this height, and the crop of green corn is not two yards from the burning sand; thus marking the utmost extent of the yearly inundation. The desert extends to the westward, till, in the horizon, it is blended with the sky. As it has been customary for travellers to inscribe their names on the summit, I chose a place for mine on the same stone on which Lord Belmore had inscribed his, that of his lady, and that of his Lordship's brother, Captain Corry. There was also the name of Rosa on the stone, which I concluded was that of some enterprising damsel, and gave her all due credit for her successful attempt; but have since learnt that it was the cognomen of her Ladyship's lap-dog. The calcareous stone is very soft, and I found great facility in carving mine, though a very long one. I looked for the names of the various persons who had previously visited it. I found that of Lord Hutchinson, with the date 1801; and several French names with the date, An 9, of the Republic. I also saw that of Chateaubriand, but somebody has taken the pains to engrave under it, "Il n'étoit pas ici," which I was assured is really the fact. It was my wish to have dated some letters I intended for India, from the top of the great pyramid; but I found the Arabs had only brought up my memorandumbook and pencil. "In descending, which I much dreaded, being always affected with giddiness in looking down from a height, I found it extremely easy; the reason I know not, except my being aware that the alternative was to remain the rest of my days upon the top of the pyramid, or of continually looking down during my descent; and I had no return of my usual complaint. my usual complaint. I found my companions at the entrance, and af ter resting a short time, was accompanied by Belzoni through the interior, which is a most distressing and fatiguing perambulation. much has been said by all travellers of this pyramid; that I should have passed it over, had it not been for the late discovery of Captain Caviglia. The extreme heat of the interior is not to be described; and what with climbing, scrambling, and advancing up the steep passage, particularly after my previous fatigue, I do not recollect of ever being so distressed. So "I am happy to have it in my power to vindicate the character of a British officer in the campaign of 1801, who has been accused of being the first defacer of the sarcophagus in this pyramid; for it is stated by Tavernier, who visited Egypt 100 years before any English soldier set his foot here, that it was customary for travellers to break off pieces and carry them away. He adds, the stone, &c. of which it is formed, is very hard, and very neat when polished, which induces many to break off pieces to make seals of; but it requires a strong arm and a good hammer to knock off a bit. The individual above alluded to was a gallant officer of Highlanders, who has been loaded with the epithets Goth, Vandal, sacrilegious destroyer, for having broke off a piece of this monument; and when I viewed the injury, I felt equally ready to disapprove of his violation; but having met this passage in Tavernier, I think it right to do away a false impression." Our readers are already acquainted with the result of Mr Oxley's first expedition into the interior of New Holland, and the anticipations to which it gave rise with regard to the probable direction and magnitude of the Macquarie river. A second journey, undertaken at the instance of the Governor of the Colony, by the same indefatigable explorer, has, however, disappointed these hopes. Mr Oxley traced the Macquarie till it appeared to terminate in an immense marsh, from which he could perceive no outlet, the whole country being a dead le vel, without a single tree or eminence to vary the monotony of its appearance; and he seems to think he was in the vicinity of an inland sea, most probably a shoal one, and gradually decreasing or being filled up, by the immense depositions from the waters flowing into it from the higher lands." But whether this opinion be well founded or not, one signal benefit has at least resulted from Mr Oxley's labours; we mean the discovery of Port Macquarie, and the beautiful and highly fertile country on the banks and in the vicinity of the river Hastings. This enchanting district is about 3o to the northward of Port Jack son. As Mr Oxley's dispatch is, in a geographical point of view, highly interesting, we shall make no scruple to insert it at length. "Port-Stephens, Nov. 1. 1818. "Sir, I have the honour to inform your Excellency that I arrived at this port to-day; and circumstances rendering it necessary that Mr Evans should proceed to Newcastle, I embrace the opportunity to make to your Excellency a brief report of the route pursued by the western expedition entrusted to my direc tion. "My letter, dated the 22d June last, will have made your Excellency acquainted with the sanguine hopes I entertained from the appearance of the river, that its termination would be either in interior waters, or coast. ways. When I wrote that letter to your Excellency, I certainly did not anticipate the possibility that a very few days further travelling would lead us to its termination as an accessible river. "On the 29th of June, having traced its course without the smallest diminution or addition, about seventy miles further to the N.N.W., there being a slight fresh in the river, it overflowed its banks: and, although we were at the distance of nearly three miles from it, the country was so perfectly level, that the waters soon spread over the ground on which we were. We had been for some days before travelling over such very low grounds, that the people in the boats finding the country flooded, proceeded slowly, a circumstance which enabled me to send them directions to return to the station we had quitted in the morning, where the ground was a little more elevated. This spot being by no means secure, it was arranged that the horses with the provisions should return to the last high land we had quitted, a distance of sixteen miles; and, as it appeared to me that the body of water in the river was too important to be much af fected by the mere overflowing of its waters, I determined to take the large boat, and in her to endeavour to discover their point of discharge. "On the 2d July I proceeded in C the boat down the river, and in the course of the day went nearly thirty miles on a N. N. W. course, for ten of which there had been, strictly speaking, no land, as the flood made the surrounding country a perfect sea; the banks of the river were heavily timbered; and many large spaces within our view, covered with the common reed, were also encircled by large trees. On the 3d, the main channel of the river was much contracted but very deep, the banks being under water from a foot to eighteen inches: the stream continued for about twenty miles on the same course as yesterday, when we lost sight of land and trees, the channel of the river winding through reeds, among which the water was about three feet deep, the current having the same direction as the river. It continued in this manner for near four miles more; when, without any previous change in the breadth, depth, and rapidity of the stream, and when I was sanguine in my expectations of soon entering the long desired lake, it all at once eluded our further pursuit, by spreading on all points from north-west to northeast over the plain of reeds which surrounded us, the river decreasing in depth from upwards of twenty feet to less than five feet, and flowing over a bottom of tenacious blue mud, and the current still running with nearly the same rapidity as when the water was confined within the banks of the river. This point of junction with interior waters, or where the Macquarie ceased to have the form of a river, is in latitude 30. 45. south, and longitude 147. 10. east. "To assert positively that we were on the margin of the lake or sea into which this great body of water is discharged, might reasonably be deemed a conclusion that has nothing VOL. XII. PART I. but conjecture for its basis; but, if an opinion may be hazarded from actual appearances, which our subsequent route tended more strongly to confirm, I feel confident, we were in the immediate vicinity of an inland sea, most probably a shoal one, and gradually decreasing, or being filled up by the immense depositions from the waters flowing into it from the higher lands, which, on this singular continent, seem not to extend a few hundred miles from the sea coast, as, westward of these bounding ranges (which, from the observations I have been enabled to make, appear to me to run parallel to the direction of the coast) there is not a single hill or other eminence discoverable on this apparently boundless space, those isolated points excepted, on which we remained until the 28th of July, the rocks and stones composing which are a distinct species from those found on the above ranges. "I trust that your Excellency will believe, that, fully impressed with the great importance of the question as to the interior formation of this great country, I was anxiously solicitous to remove all ground for further conjecture, by the most careful observations on the nature of the country; for though there appeared to me sufficient proof that the interior was covered with water, yet I felt it my duty to leave no measure untried which could in any way tend to an elucidation of the fact. "It was physically impracticable to gain the edge of these waters by making a detour round the flooded portion of the country on the southwest side of the river, as we proved it to be a barren wet marsh, overrun with a species of polygonum, and not offering a single dry spot to which our course might be directed; and, that there was no probability of Ꮓ finding any in that direction, I had a certain knowledge from the observations made during the former expedition. "To circle the flooded country to the north-east, yet remained to be tried; and when on the 7th July I returned to the tents, which I found pitched on the high land before mentioned, and from whence we could see mountains at the distance of eighty miles to the eastward, the country between being a perfect level, Mr Evans was sent forward to explore the country to the northeast, that being the point on which I purposed to set forward. "On the 18th July, Mr Evans returned, having been prevented from continuing on a north-east course beyond two days' journey, by waters running north-easterly through high reeds, and which were most probably those of the Macquarie River, as during his absence it had swelled so considerably as entirely to surround us, coming within a few yards of the tent. Mr Evans afterwards proceeded more easterly, and at a distance of fifty miles from the Macquarie River, crossed another much wider, but not so deep, running to the north; advancing still more easterly, he went nearly to the base of the mountains seen from the tent, and returning by a more southerly route, found the country somewhat drier, but not in the least more elevated. "The discretionary instructions, with which your Excellency was pleased to furnish me, leaving me at liberty as to the course to be pur. sued by the expedition on its return to Port Jackson, I determined to attempt making the sea coast on an easterly course, first proceeding along the base of the high range before mentioned, which I still in dulged hopes might lead me to the margin of these, or any other inte rior waters which this portion of New South Wales might contain, and em bracing a low line of coast on which many small openings remained unexamined, at the same time that the knowledge obtained of the country we might encircle might materially tend to the advantage of the colony, in the event of any communication with the interior being discovered. "We quitted this station on the 30th of July, being in latitude 31. 18. S. and longitude 147. 31. E. on our route for the coast, and on the 8th of August arrived at the lofty range of mountains to which our course had been directed. From the highest point of this range we had the most extended prospect. From the South by the West to North it was one vast level, resembling the ocean in extent, but yet without wa. ter being discerned, the range of high land extending to the N. E. by N. elevated points of which were distinguished upwards of one hundred and twenty miles. "From this point, in conformity to the resolution I had made on quitting the Macquarie River, I pur sued a north-east course; but after encountering numerous difficulties, from the country being an entire marsh, interspersed with quicksands, until the 20th August, when, finding myself surrounded by bogs, I was reluctantly compelled to take a more easterly course, having practically proved, that the country could not be traversed on any point deviating from the main range of hills which bound the interior, although partial dry portions of level alluvial extend from their base westerly to a distance which I estimate to exceed one hundred and fifty miles, before it is gradually lost in the waters which I am clearly convinced cover the interior. "The alteration in our course more easterly soon brought us to a very different description of country, forming a remarkable contrast to that which had so long occupied us. Numerous fine streams running northerly watered a rich and beautiful country, through which we passed until the 7th of September, when we crossed the meridian of Sydney, as also the most elevated known land in New South Wales, being then in latitude 31. 30. S. We were afterwards considerably embarrassed and impeded by very lofty mountains. On the 20th of September we gained the summit of the most elevated mountains in this extensive range, and from it were gratified with a view of the ocean at a distance of fifty miles, the country beneath us being formed into an immense triangular valley, the base of which extended along the coast from the Three Brothers on the south, to high land north of Smoky Cape. We had the further gratification to find that we were near the source of a large stream running to the sea. On descending the mountain, we followed the course of this river, increased by many accessions until the 8th October, when we arrived on the beach near the entrance of the port which received it, having passed over, since the 8th of July, a tract of country nearly five hundred miles in extent from west to east. "This inlet is situated in latitude 31. 23′ 30′′. S. and longitude 152. 50′ 18′′. East, and had been previously noticed by Captain Flinders, but, from the distance at which he was necessarily obliged to keep from the coast, he did not discover that it had a navigable entrance; of course our most anxious attention was directed to this important point; and although the want of a boat rendered the examination as to the depth of water in the channel incom plete, yet there appeared to be at low water at least three fathoms, with a safe though narrow entrance between the sand rollers on either hand. Having ascertained thus far, and that by its means the fine country, on the banks and in the neighbourhood of the river, might be of future service to the Colony, I took the liberty to name it Port Macquarie, in honour of your Excellency, as the original promoter of the expedition. "On the 12th October we quitted Port Macquarie, on our course for Sydney, and although no charts can be more accurate in their outline and principal points than those of Captain Flinders, we soon experienced how little the best marine charts can be depended upon to show all the inlets and openings upon an extensive line of coast; the distance his ship was generally at, from that portion of the coast we had to travel over, did not allow him to perceive openings, which, though doubtless of little consequence to shipping, yet presented the most serious difficulties to travellers by land, and of which, if they had been laid down in the chart, I should have hesitated to have attempted the passage, without assistance from the sea-ward; as it is, we arc indebted for our preservation, and that of the horses, to the providential discovery of a small boat on the beach, which the men with the most cheerful alacrity carried upwards of ninety miles on their shoulders, thereby enabling them to overcome obstacles otherwise insurmountable. "Until within these few, days, I hoped to have had the satisfaction to report the return of the expedition without accident to any individual composing it; but such is the ferocious treachery of the natives along the coast to the northward, that our utmost circumspection could not |