Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/486

 prosperity of the colony/' uMiioimct^d his iotentiou to grant to Evans a pecuniary reward, and one thousand acres of [land in Van Dienien's land whither he was to proceed as Deputy- Sm'Yejor. In the same Order, the Governor was. to < Jregory Blaxlaiid and WilUatii Chtirlen Wentworth, Esfja., and Lieut. WilUaiJi Lawsoii, of the K.oyiil Veteran Cnnif«iiiy, for their eiiterprisiing and arduous exertions on the tmir of disco very which thoy voluntarily performed, being the first Eiiropeiins who aucomplitthed the passage over the l>lne Mountains The Iroveruor, desirous to eonfer on these gentle- men Bubsiautial marks of his sen8<y of their meritorious exertions, means to present each of them with a grant of 1000 acres of land in this nowly- iliscovered country.'* | Macquarie visited the new territory, and conferred pardons upon convicts who had the honour of assisting to convey supphes for the uBe of his suite. Convict lahoiir was devoted to making a road aerosR the Bhie Mountains- It was opened in April 1815. Macquarie fixed upon I Bathurst as the site of a town. Many colonists sent sheep and cattle to the park-like forests and plains on the water- shed of the interior. But whither did those western waters flow ? A band of ei^ht convicts thonght their course must he to the east coast, and in Octoher 1815, started from Windsor on then* way to Nt^w Guinea. Skuhdng near the main road, and avoiding exposure at Bathurst, they fol- lowed downwards the Macquarie river* Reduced to utniost want they were sustained h the kind offices of the natives, who fed them, and in response to signs, guided them toj Bathurst. Emaciated almost to death, most of them reached the settlement, hut for some time harelj clung to life. Such account as they cnuld give of their wanderings was ohtained by the Government, and it whetted public curiosity. Macquarie determined tViat the rivers Lachlau and Macquarie, ruimed after himself, should he traced ; and in 1817, Oxley, the Surveyor-General, started from Bathurst with a well-equipped party, containing Mr. Allan Cunning- ham the botanist, and Mr. Parr as mineralogist. They followed the course of the Lachlau until they found themselves on the boundless level surface tlu'ough which the river (which to their surprise was rising though they had had no rain) lazily meandered in ana-branches amongst which it was difficult to ascertain the nuiin stream. The
 * 'liiippy to embrace this opportiiinty of couveying his acknmvledgmeuts