(Footnote.  Now called Roe’s Patch.)

Swan river settlement.

The Swan River Settlement, which is a portion of the colony of Western Australia, was founded in August 1829, under the auspices of the Colonial Office, Captain Stirling being the first Lieutenant-Governor.

Fremantle.

Fremantle, at the entrance of Swan River, is the sea port; and Perth, situate about nine miles inland, the seat of Government:  Guildford and York are the other chief places in the colony.

There is nothing very particularly inviting in the first appearance of Western Australia; dull-green-looking downs, backed by a slightly undulating range of hills, rising to nearly 2,000 feet high, are the chief natural features of the prospect.  Fremantle, of which it was wittily said by the quartermaster of one of His Majesty’s ships who visited the place, “You might run it through an hourglass in a day,” is but a collection of low white houses scattered over the scarce whiter sand.  The only conspicuous landmark visible in approaching the anchorage is the Jail:  rather a singular pharos for a settlement in Australia, which boasts its uncontaminated state.  This building I afterwards induced the Governor to have white-washed, and it now forms an excellent mark to point out the river, as well as the town.*

(Footnote.  A large patch of white sand, on the coast, about three miles to the northward of Swan River, also serves as a landmark.)

Shortly after our arrival, I was introduced to the Governor, Sir James Stirling; he, and all those here best qualified to judge, joined in regretting that Lieutenant Grey had not decided to come on with us.  The accounts we heard of the country and the natives gave us every reason to entertain but slender hopes of his success.

An inland lake.

Sir James and Mr. Roe, the Surveyor-General, appeared to coincide with the general opinion that a large inland lake will ultimately be discovered.  They had questioned many of the natives about it, who all asserted its existence, and pointed in a south-easterly direction to indicate its position.  Their notions of distance are, to say the least, exceedingly rude; with them everything is “far away, far away.”  The size of this water the natives describe by saying, that if a boy commenced walking round it, by the time he finished his task he would have become an old man!  After all may not this be the great Australian Bight that these natives have heard of, for none we met in Western Australia pretended to have seen it?  They derive their information from the eastern tribes, and under such circumstances it must at least be considered extremely vague.*

(Footnote.  This much-talked-of lake, which it was the assumed labour of a life to circumambulate, was discovered in January 1843, by Messrs. Landor and Lefroy, who found it about 100 miles South-South-East from Beverley.  It is quite salt, called Dambeling, and about fifteen miles long by seven and a half broad!)