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They got opposite Richmond-Hill on the 5th day after their departure, and were assisted in crossing the river by a native, who lent his canoe to one of the soldiers that could not swim; but they afterwards found the river so very shallow near the fall, that the water did not reach above the ancles.
In the morning of the 13th, the party set off again, still following the creek, which was now little larger than a good ditch, and went through a very barren rocky country, until noon, when, being at the head of the creek they crossed it, and, after resting some time, they endeavoured to go to the north-west, in order to fall in with the river which they had lost by going round the creek in the afternoon of the preceding day; but they were soon stopped by a deep ravine; and the surgeon going to a rising ground on the left, saw the country open to the westward, and thought he could distinguish Richmond-Hill; this led them all to the spot, and, from the break in the mountain, and the trending of the land, Governor Phillip imagined it to be Richmond-Hill, which they saw, being the southern extremity of a range of hills.
After making these observations, the tide being made, we put off in the boats, and endeavoured to get higher up, but were frequently aground: by the time we had reached half a mile higher than the foot of Richmond-hill, we met the stream setting down so strong, that it was with much difficulty we could get the boats so high.
The spot where they had made the river on the 12th, being little more than four miles distant, it was thought best to return there, and from thence to trace the river to the westward till they got opposite to Richmond-Hill.
On the 11th of April, 1791, Governor Phillip left Rose-Hill with a party, intending to reach Hawkesbury-River, opposite Richmond-Hill; and, if possible, to cross the river and get to the mountains.
Right sharp and quick the bells all night rang out from Bristol town; And ere the day three hundred horse had met on Clifton down. The sentinel on Whitehall gate looked forth into the night, And saw o'erhanging Richmond-hill the streak of blood-red light. Then bugle's note and cannon's roar the death-like silence broke, And with one start, and with one cry, the royal city woke.
This man joined the party without the least fear; and from the questions that were put to him respecting the river, Colebe and Ballederry concluded they had come this journey in order to procure stone hatchets, as the natives get the stones whereof they make their hatchets from that part of the river near Richmond-Hill, which the old man said was a great way off, and the road to it was very bad.
Richmond-hill, with its unrivalled views, rises from Sudbrook Park; and that eerie-looking Ham House, the very ideal of the old English manor-house, with its noble avenues which make twilight walks all the summer day, is within a quarter of a mile.
Prospect-Hill is a small elevation, which commands a very extensive prospect of the country to the southward: a range of very high mountains bound the view to the westward: these mountains, which lie nearly north and south, are about forty miles from Prospect-Hill; and the intervening country is a thick forest: the northernmost of these mountains is called Richmond-Hill, at the foot of which the Hawkesbury takes its rise from a bed of fresh water coal.
Potatoes, maize, and garden seeds of various kinds were put into the earth, by the governor's order, on different parts of Richmond-hill, which was announced to be its name. The latitude of Richmond-hill, as observed by captain Hunter, was settled at 33 degrees 36 minutes south. Here also the river received the name of Hawkesbury, in honour of the noble lord who bears that title.
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