1831.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



This was Fleurette, the gardener's 

 daughter, with whom some hint-cent 

 flirtation followed. Henry turned gar- 

 dener, neglected his studies, and AVRS 

 dispatched to Bayome out of harm's 

 way. There, among gayer scenes, he 

 soon forgot Fleurette ; but her feelings 

 were not so transient. On his return, 

 the first glimpse poor Fleurette got of 

 her royal lover was when he was toying 

 with a beautiful wanton of the court. 

 Recalled to his recollections, he makes 

 poor Fleurette a visit, urges an inter- 

 view at the old spot : and when he comes, 

 he finds a letter, which bade him by the 

 fountain seek her 



To the fountain he led on, 



To the b.isin cut in stone . 



He hath plunged into the water, 



In his arms he hath caught her 



He supports her on the bank, 



Shading back her tresses dank ; 



Printing fast the frenzied kiss 



On a cheek no longer his, &c. 

 The Present State of Australia, by R. 

 Dawson, Esq. Inundated with books 

 about Australia as we have been of late, 

 scarcely any of them notice the natives. 

 The subject is a point of interest with 

 none of them ; and one might suppose 

 the continent almost bare of inhabitants, 

 if it were not previously a known fact, 

 that they have been met with on almost 

 every part of the coast, and in the inte- 

 rior, as far as it has been visited. The 

 truth is, the greater portion of those 

 who communicate on the subject of 

 Australia are connected with Sidney, 

 and know nothing of the natives, except 

 from seeing a few now and then prowl- 

 ing in the streets in a state of the most 

 deplorable misery. Mr. Dawson hap- 

 pily supplies the deficiency. The study 

 of human nature in its wild and untu- 

 tored state, he confesses, is his hobby, 

 and certainly few men have had more 

 opportunities, or made a better use of 

 them than himself. He visited Austra- 

 lia as the chief agent of the Australian 

 Agricultural Company, accompanied by 

 seventy or eighty persons men, wo- 

 men, and children and some hundreds 

 of Merino sheep, to colonize the grant 

 of a million of acres taken by the Com- 

 pany. He pitched his tent at Port 

 Stephen's, about 120 miles north of Sid- 

 ney by water, but considerably more 

 over the hills, and spent three years in 

 prosecuting the Company's views suc- 

 cessfully upon the whole, though baffled 

 by interested persons, arid finally com- 

 pelled to abandon the concern. He has 

 published his complaints in a separate 

 pamphlet, and abstains almost wholly 

 from the annoying subject in the vo- 

 lume before us. This is dedicated main- 

 ly to his intercourse with the natives, 

 and very ample materials he furnishes 

 for a full estimate of them. Though 



neglecting, entirely, nothing that is re- 

 lative to Australia, this, the condition 

 and character of the natives, is the prin- 

 cipal topic. 



Among his official duties, the first was 

 that of choosing the spot for the Com- 

 pany's grant, which induced the neces- 

 sity' of exploring the country to a con- 

 sid'erable extent, and this again brought 

 him in contact with many tribes of the 

 natives besides those who were in con- 

 stant attendance on them, and may be 

 said to be in his service. At Port Ste- 

 phen's, too, the natives mingled with 

 the colonists, and, to the number of two 

 or three hundred sometimes, were ex- 

 ceedingly useful to the new settlers. 

 Mr Dawson found them generally do- 

 cile, fond of being employed, proud of 

 being trusted, and faithful to their en- 

 gagements but disliking restraint. 

 They were like children, and only to be 

 governed like children ; and, like chil- 

 dren too, more impressible by kindness 

 than severity. He ate, drank, and 

 danced with them made no invidious 

 distinctions treated them ostensibly as 

 the whites employed them trusted 

 them kept his word to the letter and 

 protected them from insults and inju- 

 ries. His influence over them was un- 

 bounded. But with all this, Mr. Dawson 

 has no hopes of their being reclaimed to 

 the habits of society they are happy as 

 they are their wants are few, and, in 

 a climate so bland, readily supplied. 

 Their contact with the colonists is pro- 

 ductive of nothing but mischief. The 

 colonists, and the convicts, will treat 

 them with scorn, and, with people sin- 

 gularly sensitive, this prompts to re- 

 venge. They cannot, again, resist 

 spirits. Over their appetites indeed 

 they have little control ; they will stuff 

 kangaroo till they can absolutely swal- 

 low no more, which of course indisposes 

 them to exertion, and disables them. 



" What a set of lazy beggars they 

 are," said one of the w'hite men to his 

 companions. " Ah !" said another, " one 

 white man is worth a dozen of them." 

 This is just the language which is fre- 

 quently held by ignorant and bigoted 

 people, even of a different class and 

 higher pretensions. They forget we 

 are all creatures of habit. " Until men 

 learn," adds Mr. Dawson, " to distin- 

 guish between the force of habit and 

 what they call the nature of the people, it 

 is in vain to expect fair play for beings 

 whom they imagine they have a right to 

 speak of, and to treat as brutes, because 

 they do not act like Europeans, and ma- 

 nifest an unwillingness to yield up a life 

 of liberty in such a climate," &c. The 

 natives will stay with the whites only 

 so long as the novelty lasts, and their 

 situation is rendered agreeable. Can 

 more than this be expected ? 



