I have preserved these anecdotes here, because I can vouch for their authenticity, and though individually unimportant, they may serve to throw additional light upon the manners, customs, and traditions of the Aborigines of Australia; but to all really interested in the subject, I would recommend a perusal of Captain Grey’s second volume.  I have as yet neither space nor materials to attempt any detailed account of the customs, superstitions, or condition of this strange people; but it would be impossible to pass them by quite unnoticed:  nor can the voyager, whose chief object is to make their native land a field for the exertions of British enterprise, be wholly indifferent to the manner in which our dominion may affect them.  The history of almost every colony, founded by European energy, has been one fearful catalogue of crime; and though by the side of the Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese, English adventurers seem gentle and benevolent, still cruelty and oppression have too often disgraced our name and faith.

Future prospects.

Thank Heaven, with many a doubt as to the time that must elapse ere that glad day shall come, I can look onward with confidence to a period—­I trust not far remote—­when throughout the length and breadth of Australia, Christian civilization shall attest that the claims upon England’s benevolence have been nobly acknowledged!

CHAPTER 1.4.  FROM SWAN RIVER TO ROEBUCK BAY.

Sail from Gage’s Road. 
Search for a bank. 
Currents and soundings. 
Houtman’s Abrolhos. 
Fruitless search for Ritchie’s Reef. 
Indications of a squall. 
Deep sea soundings. 
Atmospheric Temperature. 
Fish. 
A squall. 
Anchor off the mouth of Roebuck Bay. 
A heavy squall. 
Driven from our anchorage. 
Cape Villaret. 
Anchor in Roebuck Bay. 
Excursion on shore. 
Visit from the Natives. 
Mr. Bynoe’s account of them. 
A stranger among them. 
Captain Grey’s account of an almost white race in Australia. 
Birds, Snakes, and Turtle. 
Move the Ship. 
Miago, and the Black Fellows. 
The wicked men of the North. 
Clouds of Magellan. 
Face of the Country. 
Natives. 
Heat and Sickness. 
Miago on shore. 
Mr. Usborne wounded. 
Failure in Roebuck Bay. 
Native notions.

Currents and soundings.

The solemnities of Christmas, and the festal celebration of the New Year, beneath a cloudless sky, and with the thermometer at 90, concluded our first visit to Swan River.  We left our anchorage in Gage’s Road on Thursday, January 4th, devoting several hours to sounding between Rottnest and the main.  We bore away at 4 P.M. to search for a bank said to exist about fifteen miles north from the middle of Rottnest Island, having from twenty to twenty-two fathoms over it.  Near the position assigned we certainly shoaled our water from twenty-eight to twenty-four fathoms, but no other indication of a bank was to be found.