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“Lieutenant Robert Johnston.
“On the 29th November, 1821, Lieutenant Johnston arrived off Jervis Bay in a small vessel called the ‘Snapper.’ He was searching for a supposed river and ‘closely examined the line of coast as far south as Bateman Bay without succeeding in his object.’
“On the 30th November he anchored in Bateman Bay near an island which he named Snapper Island, after his vessel. On the 1st December he discovered and examined the river which he named the Clyde, following it upwards, on the 2nd December, as far as navigable.
“Johnston learnt from natives that a man named Briggs, and his companions, who had deserted from the Colony in a whale-boat, had been drowned in Bateman Bay by the boat having been upset, Johnston, however was disposed to think they had met their fate at the hands of the natives, in whose camps he saw knives, tomahawks, and part of the boat’s gear. (Sydney Gazette, 10th December, 1821)”
Cambage, R.H., Captain Cook’s Pigeon House and Early South Coast Explorers, Samuel Lee, Sydney, 1911. p. 10.
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