vast continent like Australia, so remarkably destitute of fixed inhabitants, it would seem that every encouragement should be afforded to persons desirous of locating themselves on unoccupied tracts.  There is a great difference besides, between giving rise to delusive hopes—­inducing people as it were under false pretences to repair to new settlements—­and checking the spirit of colonisation when it manifests itself.  Every young establishment must go through a certain process.  It is necessary that some should pioneer the way for others; and endure hardships the beneficial results of which may be enjoyed only by their successors.  Had advantage been taken of the enterprising spirit that prevailed at the time of which I speak, the germs of a fresh settlement would have been deposited at Port Essington, which must ultimately have risen into importance.  A great stream of emigration was pouring into the south-eastern portion of Australia, and it would have been wise to open a channel by which some portion of it might have been drawn off to the northern coast.  But such were not the views entertained by the authorities concerning this matter.  They seemed apprehensive of incurring the blame of encouraging the speculating mania which raged so extensively at Sydney, and which has reacted with so pernicious an effect upon the colony.* the expedition accordingly retained its purely military character.  However, I may add, that the Bishop of Australia attended to the spiritual wants of the settlement by sending with it a church in frame.

(Footnote.  On our arrival at Sydney in 1838, we found speculation at its height:  land-jobbers were carrying on a reckless and most gainful trade, utterly regardless of that revulsion they were doomed soon to experience.  Town allotments that cost originally but 50 pounds were in some instances sold, three months afterwards, for ten times that sum.  Yet amid all this appearance of excessive and unnatural prosperity there were not wanting those who foresaw and foretold an approaching change.  To the withdrawal of the convicts, solely at the expressed wish of some of the most wealthy colonists, has been traced much of the decline that followed; and the more recent pages in the history of Sydney will fully bear out the opinions expressed by Captain Fitzroy when he visited it in 1836:  he says, “It is difficult to believe that Sydney will continue to flourish in proportion to its rise.  It has sprung into existence too suddenly.  Convicts have forced its growth, even as a hot bed forces plants, and premature decay may be expected from such early maturity.”)

BOTANY BAY.

During our stay at Sydney we paid a visit to Botany Bay, which from the circumstance of its being the point first touched at by Captain Cook, naturally possesses the greatest interest of any place in the neighbourhood.  Our way thither lay over a sandy plain, into which the coast range of low hills subsides.  There is little or no verdure to relieve the eye, which encounters aridity wherever it turns; and the sand being rendered loose by frequent traffic, the foot sinks at every step, so that the journey is disagreeable to both man and beast.  These inconveniences, however, were soon forgotten on our arrival at our destination, amidst the feelings excited and the associations raised by the objects that presented themselves.