May 25, 1857.] COLONIZATION OF NORTH AUSTRALIA. 450 



render Port Essington a permanent and independent colony, rich 

 mercantile houses would at once set up establishments there, and 

 freight large vessels to trade with the Eastern Archipelago and 

 China, I w;rote in the full conviction that, even if that particular 

 station should be abandoned because it was exposed to tornados, 

 other sites could be selected in a region, which so many experienced 

 naval officers and other authorities have eulogised as offering 

 capacious harbours and a climate not unsuited to Europeans — lands 

 in which the pastures are magnificent, whilst the sea swarms with 

 the finest fishes. 



In the face, then, of these evidences, is the state of indifference of 

 our country to North Australia to continue? Is Britain not to 

 commence the formation of a settlement, whether by penal servi- 

 tude or free labour, in the fertile basin of the northern Victoria or 

 elsewhere, and thus secure future entrepots for her commerce ? 

 What better guarantees can be had that success would follow, than 

 the fact, that in the worst and most exposed part of this region 

 (Port Essington) a British garrison was in a healthy state for several 

 years, and that in its more southern portion the explorers in two 

 expeditions have equally preserved good health ? 



Lastly, looking to the future destinies of our country, is it to bo 

 forgotten, that France has recently taken possession, not only of 

 that New Caledonia which our own Cook discovered and named, 

 but also of the Isle of Pines, where our colonists from Sydney car- 

 ried on a trade in sandal-wood, and has thus acquired a " point 

 d'appui " on the eastern flank of our largest Australian colony ? 



Or, ought we to close our eyes to the vast importance not only 

 of securing good harbours of refuge in Northern Australia, but 

 also of there establishing naval stations, which would prove inva- 

 luable for steam navigation, and where, in the event of war, our fleets 

 may rendezvous, and thence move directly upon the flank of any 

 enemy, who might be operating against our Eastern trade and pos- 

 sessions ? 



In short, it is scarcely possible to point to any region of the globe 

 where British occupation is so imperatively called for, whether as a 

 precaution, or with a view to future commercial interests. Express- 

 ing, then, an earnest hope that a settlement may be soon esta- 

 blished on the banks of the Victoria, and in the adjacent Cambridge 

 Gulf, and believing that great national advantages must follow, let us 

 trust that, if such a consummation be attained, the proposers of it 

 may not be forgotten, and that it will be remembered that the last 



