254 Terra Incognita. [MARCH, 



above Pinchgut, Rennelongs' Point stretches out parallel to the south- 

 head, and about five or six miles in a direct line from it, and forms the 

 east side of Sydney Cove : the shore from Bradley 's-head runs in an almost 

 unbroken line about the same distance, and then throws out a high bluff 

 point, called Ball's-head. The whole of that coast is high and rocky, but 

 covered with lofty trees and thick brushy underwood ; it forms the north 

 side of the harbour, and is familiarly called the North Shore. Dawes' 

 Point, with its flag-staff and batteries, is opposite, and parallel to Benne- 

 longs', and is high and rocky while the latter is low, and covered with 

 underwood and green sward, till they near the bottom of the Cove, when 

 their height approximates somewhat, and they finish in the two long hills, 

 on and between which the capital of the infant empire of Australia is 

 rising. I thought it a lovely sight, when we came to anchor in the Cove, 

 before mid-day of one of the finest days I ever remember. On one side, 

 the native forests of the north shore bounded the view ; thence, Dawes' 

 Point, with a battery on its lofty front, led the eye over a mass of dwell- 

 ings on the rocks, surmounted by Fort Philip, and bordered by a line of 

 wharfs, stores, hospitals, and docks. Further on, in the half-distance, 

 stood the gloomy and massive gaol ; and above appeared a high stone 

 windmill, and the little church of St. Philip, with its square clock tower. 

 The barracks, in long white rows, crowned the hill behind the church ; and 

 the space between was filled up with houses and gardens, and the one- 

 arched bridge striding across the stream, which comes down the valley 

 between the two hills ; and near that stood the wonder of the place a 

 four-storied stone house, with an infinity of little windows, giving it the 

 appearance of a granary ; and, a short distance above, shrouded by a grove 

 of trees, appeared the modest little villa called the government-house: the 

 same stands there now. I say the same though, I believe, that it is like 

 the boy's knife, that had had two new blades, and one new handle ; for 

 Governor Macquarrie was never tired of altering and improving it and 

 yet he never pulled it down and rebuilt it. On the top of the hill, behind 

 the government-house, stood the windmills ; and from them the whole of 

 Bennelongs' Point, stretching out to where it almost meets the north 

 shore, was unoccupied, except by the vagrant tribes of aboriginals, whose 

 black figures we could see among the bushes, about the thin columns of 

 smoke from their fish-fires. 



The beautiful peaches and delicious water-melons that we ate, on 

 first landing in the town of Sydney, made us forget the imprisonment of a 

 seven months' voyage ; and the fine white bread seemed like manna, after 

 the sour and sandy rolls of Rio Janeiro, and the hard biscuits of the 



M . 



No place in the world can have undergone a greater change in the 

 same space of time, and under equally forbidding circumstances, than the 

 shores of Sydney Cove have, since the foundation of the colony. Forty 

 years ago, there was not a civilized community within eight or ten weeks* 

 voyage of the site : it was a " vast howling wilderness," occupied only 

 (if occupation it may be called) by a straggling worse than Caffro 

 population ; a people, more vagrant than gypsies, idler than monkies, 

 meagre from starvation in a country as fertile as Egypt, and with the 

 climate of Naples who knew only how to procure fire, but not to shelter 

 themselves from the autumnal rains, or the frosts of July. Now a city 

 stands ! built truly by the refuse and scum of a nation on the opposite 

 side of the globe but occupied by a thriving and industrious population, 



