Botany-Bay

Scarce German issue of the earliest engraved view of present day Sydney and the first to show the First Fleet in Australian waters. It is based on both a work by an unnamed artist aboard one of the ships, and on further information provided by Governor Phillip for his journal and dispatches to London.

The Supply, the first ship of the fleet to arrive, moored in Botany Bay on 18 January 1788 and was joined the next morning by the Alexander, Friendship and Scarborough. The remaining seven ships arrived on 20 January. Although Botany Bay was the site chosen by the Admiralty, it was soon clear to Captain Phillip that it was not suitable for the intended settlement, as there was little fresh water, and the shallow bay did not provide sufficient shelter from prevailing winds. Phillip ventured north to investigate Port Jackson and finding it to be an excellent natural harbour , decided that it would be the site of the new colony. The ships seen outside the heads are those under the command of the great French explorer, La Pérouse who was last seen on the same day as Phillip entered Botany Bay in January 1788. The mystery of his disappearance was solved by Dumont D’Urville. La Pérouse had been stranded on Vanikoro after both his vessels, La Boussole and the Astrolabe, struck the then unknown reefs of the island in 1788. The first group of convicts were on the ships while anchored at Botany Bay.

From Phillip, Arthur.  Reise nach der Botany-Bay: nebst Auszügen aus den Tagebüchern der neuesten Brittischen Entdecker in der Südsee. Hamburg