In the forenoon of the 23rd we saw the lighthouse of Rottnest; and regarded it with great interest, as the work of the aborigines imprisoned on the island.  I could not avoid indulging in melancholy reflections as I gazed upon this building, erected by the hands of a people which seemed destined to perish from the face of the earth without being able to leave any durable monuments of their existence, except such fabrics as this, constructed under the control of a conquering race.  The time indeed, if we may judge from past experience, seems not far distant when the stranger, on approaching the shores of Western Australia, and asking who erected that lighthouse to guide him in safety to the shore, will be told it was the work of a people that once were and are now no longer.

Passing over the foul ground extending off the Stragglers, we ran into Owen’s anchorage during the first watch.  Whilst waiting to rate the chronometers several soundings were added to our plan of this place, and a three-fathom patch, about a quarter of a mile in extent, was discovered, with nine on either side of it, lying nearly two miles and a quarter North 39 degrees West from Fremantle gaol.

PENAL ESTABLISHMENT.

We also visited Rottnest to inspect the establishment.  It had now been a penal settlement for four years; besides erecting the buildings, the aboriginal labourers had cleared thirty-four acres of land, chiefly in detached valleys.  These grew thirty-five bushels of wheat to the acre (in the Port Phillip district the return is about five more to the acre) and from thirty-four to forty bushels of barley.  There are about two thousand acres of available land in the whole island.  The average number of native convicts is about seventeen, and the expense of the whole establishment to Government is about 200 pounds per annum; but, under the good management of superintendent Vincent, it has realized 1500 pounds by the sale of corn and salt, and allowing for the value of the buildings erected.

His Excellency Governor Hutt had done a great deal for the improvement of the natives; the schools established for their instruction work exceedingly well; and I am happy to see that a most important step towards civilizing them has since been made, a white having taken a native woman as his wife.  This may be regarded as in a great measure the result of the notice bestowed on them.

No opportunity occurred during our stay of adding to the observations I had previously made for the longitude of Fremantle (Scott’s Jetty); which, however, is the only part of the continent absolutely determined during the Beagle’s voyage.  It is considered to be in longitude 115 degrees 47 minutes 50 seconds East.

Before leaving we received a letter of thanks from his Excellency and the members of the Legislative Council for the services we had rendered the colony.  My friend Lieutenant Roe presented me, also, with two specimens of the Spined Lizard Moloch horridus, which I intended to present to Her Majesty; but, unfortunately, I did not succeed in bringing either of them alive to England; one, however, lived beyond the Western Islands.