Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 2.djvu/39

 THE FAMINE OP 178^-80. . ^3 The main purpose of the Lftokout was to signal the arrival ^^^^^^ of ships^ and a flagstaff was erected near the spot where the signal-house now stands. At a later stage it was decided to erect a column as a ^' mark for shipping"; and in the South- JJ^S^ip . well correspondence there is a sketch in outline showing the '^ Projection of a column raised as a mark for shipping on the South Head of Port Jackson, by his Excellency Governor Phillip, 1790." The sketch* bears the endorse- ment, in Southwell's handwriting, " This projection, by the hand of his Excellency G.P., done at the Lookout Post, Pt Jackson. "t The structure served as a lookout, as well as a mark for shipping, for Southwell, writing on the 27th July, 1790, says : " Here where I reside the stone is now shaping for a lookout to be built on the high land by the flagstaff, and to command a good view of the offing.'^ j: No column such as that shown in the " projection " gyj^^^^'e can now be seen at South Head, but on the spot which it probably occupied stands the signal-house, erected forty or fifty years ago. It is built of stone, and it may possibly rest upon the foundations that were laid for Phillip's column. At the foot of the rocky declivity, near the Watson's Bay wateon's pier, on a. level grassy spot, which looked like " a pleasant lawn,'* there had been erected a few modest dwellings, which Southwell sometimes calls '^ cottages,*' and at other times "huts.*' These were occupied by the Lookout party, which consisted of less than a dozen men. There was also a little garden, at one time in a flourishing condition. In July, 1790, it exhibited " a pleasing prospect of vegitation," ToLii. t " The Gbyemor, who had uniformly directed every undertaking in person sinee the formation of the colony, went down in the morning of the 7th [AuguBtJ to the South Head, accompanied by Captain Collins and Lieutenant Waterhoose, to give some instructions to the people employed in erecting a oolmnn at that ^ace." — Collins, toI. i, p. 188. X Historical Records, toL ii, p. 718.
 * This flkelch will be found reproduced at p. 718 of the Historical Records,