Having pafled Fluted Cape, a fine piece o f bafaltes, and Penguin
ifland, they fetched up under Cape Frederick Henry, the
north point o f Adventure B a y ; but, as the wind blew ftrong
direitly off it, and the floop was light and leewardly, they bore
away round the Cape Frederick Henry, hauling upon the north
fide o f it into the bay o f that name, purpofing to go into the Derwent
river, difcovered a few years fince by Mr. Hayes, matter o f
the fhip Duke, of Bengal: but, finding that they were likely to lofe
ground by tacking, they flood into Henlhaw’s bay (fo named by
Hayes), and were greatly furprifed to find that, inftead o f its being
a mere fhallow bight, as laid down in Mr. Hayes’s chart, it extended
many miles to the northward. The whole now bears the name
o f Frederick Henry B a y ; that given by Hayes is loft. In this very
extenfive bay they remained a week, traverfing and meafuring various
parts o f its fhores.
, The furrounding country was found to be miferable, prefenting
but very little that was fit even for pafturage, and none good enough
for cultivation, except near a fhallow .lagoon on the weft fide, on
the border o f which were feven or eight hundred acres of low
ground, o f a black mould, rather fandy, which might be cultivated
■ with great advantage. Contiguous to the beft part, was a large
frefh water fwamp, overgrown with reeds and bulrufhes.
In the evening o f the 2 1ft they entered the mouth o f the
Derwent.
In pafling between two illands, the heads o f the fea-weed, which,
from its fize, is named the Gigantic, were fhewing themfelves above
the furface in fix or eight fathoms water : a diminutive plant when
compared with thofe o f the kind feen in higher latitudes, but o f
vaft magnitude in comparifon with the generality of fea-weeds.
On their various movements in the Derwent, Mr. Bafs is filent,
confining his narrative to a general account o f what he learned and
faw o f the neighbouring country.
2 I f
»8*
I f the Derwent river have any claim to refpeitability, it is indebted
for it more to the paucity ofinlets into Van Diemen’ s land, than to
any intrinfic merits of its own. After a fleepy courfe o f not more
than twenty-five or twenty-feven miles to the N. W. it falls into
Frederick Henry Bay. Its breadth there is two miles and a quarter,
and its depth ten fathoms. A few hundred yards above its mouth,
it is joined, on the weft fide, by the Storm-Bay-Paflage, and this
union makes an ifland of that flip o f land which is Adventure Bay.
This ifland, the Derwent river, and the Storm-Bay-Paflage, were
the difcovery o f Mr. Hayes, o f which he made a chart; wherein
it was found, by the minute examination o f the whole fcene which
it now underwent, that the fmalleft runs had been magnified into
rivers, and coves into bays and ports. Such glaring errors could
not be fuffered to exift ; but the name, where it -was poflible, was
retained, though the geographical term was neceflarily altered.
This dull lifelefs ftream, the Derwent, is fo little affected by the
tides, that its navigation Is extremely tedious with a foul wind.
It takes its way through a. country that on the eaft and north fides
is hilly, on the weft and north mountainous. The hills to the
eaftward arife immediately from the banks; but the mountains to the
weftward have retired to the diftance o f a few miles from the water,
and have left in their front hilly land fimilar to that on the eaft
fide. All the hills are very thinly fet with light timber, chiefly
fhort fhe oaks; but are admirably covered with thick nutritious
grafs, in general free from brufh or patches o f fhrubs. The foil in
which it grows is a black vegetable mould, deep only in the vallies,
frequently very fhallow, with oceafionally a fmall mixture o f fand
or fmall ftones. Many large traits o f land appear cultivable both
for maize and wheat, but which, as pafture land, would be excellent.
The hills defcend with fuch gentle Hopes, that the vallies between
them are extenfive and flat. [Several contain an indeterminate depth
o f rich foil, capable of fupportiug the moft exhaufting vegetation,
and