work of chart-making has always been, and still is, done so thoroughly as
to command the admiration of all who understand its [Sidenote: 1793]
its meaning, and withal so modestly that the shipmaster, whose Admiralty
charts are perhaps little less or even more valuable to him than his
Bible, scarcely ever thinks, if he knows, how they are made.

In the earliest days of the colony, Phillip and Hunter were land as well
as sea explorers; Dawes and Tench, of the Marines, and Quartermaster
Hacking, of the _Sirius_, in 1793 and 1794, made the first attempts to
cross the Blue Mountains. Shortlands (father and son), Ball, of the
_Supply_, and half a dozen other naval lieutenants, all made discoveries
of importance; Vancouver, McClure, and Bligh (the latter twelve years
before he was thought of as a governor) each did a share of early
charting.

The list might be extended indefinitely. Let us take only one or two names
and tell their stories; and these examples, with the narrative of Flinders
and Bass, must stand as illustrative of the work of all.

In land exploring the military officers were not behindhand. Beside the
work of the marines, a young Frenchman, Francis Louis Barrallier, an
ensign of the New South Wales Corps, who came out with King,
distinguished himself. King made him artillery and engineer officer, and
he did much surveying with Grant in the _Lady Nelson_. Inland he went west
until stopped by the Blue Mountains barrier; and King tells us an amusing
story of this trip. Paterson, in command of the regiment, told King that
he could not spare Barrallier for exploring purposes, so King, to get over
the difficulty, appointed him his aide-de-camp, and then sent him on an
"embassy to the King of the Mountains."