Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/201

 AND HIS WORK, 97 generally by similar results. Prom his landing at Botany 1788-93 Bay to his departure from the colony, lie displayed all the energy, decision, and good sense which the manifold diffi- culties of his position seemed to require. The sound judg- ment shown in his selection of a site for the new settlement Sydney relieved it at once from the imminent risk of failure which would have hung over it, had he blindly followed his instructions and pitched his tents on the shores of Botany Bay. No spot on the coast of New South Wales was better adapted for the purpose than Sydney Cove* when Phillip first saw it; it remains to this day, and will always remain, the central point of Australian settlement. How much the fate of other colonies has been affected by well or ill-chosen sites for their capital cities, there is evidence enough in their history to show.f The selection of Sydney Cove seemed natural and easy enough, no doubt, after it had once been made ; but the judgment shown in picking it out at a first glance might be compared with that of a Judgment victorious general in time of war, who takes up his posi- aeiecung tion on the field and wins his battle. It is in acts of this description that the leaders of men show their capability for command; and undoubtedly Phillip gave good proof of his capacity in this instance. But no sooner had Phillip overcome the preliminary obstacles in his way than he was called upon to encounter before the establishnfient at Sydney Cove had proceeded too far to remove it, how eligible a place would it have been for the principal settlement ! " — Collins, p. 540. t Lieutenant-Governor Collins abandoned Port Phillip as unfit for settle- ment in 1803, and removed his establishment to the banks of the river Derwent in Tasmania. It is not probable that such a mistake would have been made by Phillip. Nor would he have had any difficulty in determin- ing the question as to the best site for a settlement on the South Australian coast. The first settlers on that territory occupied Kangaroo Island, but Colonel Light, the surveyor sent out by the Home Government in 1S36, removed the settlement to the plain on which Adelaide now stands. When Governor Hindmarsharrived some months afterwards he condemned the site, and proposed to remove the settlement to Encounter Bay. The contention on this point lasted for over a year, and was not settled until the Home Government interfered by recalling the Governor and sending out another, who confirmed the action of the surveyor. Digitized by Google
 * "Had that river (the Hawkesbury) and its fertile banks been discovered