578 Terra Incognita. 



in New South Wales, Tasmania* has improved at no slower rate ; and, as 

 evidence of the consequence it has acquired, may be stated the fact of its 

 having heen lately established into an independent government. 



The grossest ignorance appears to have prevailed, and indeed to prevail, 

 in this country of the merits of the two colonies, and even of their separate 

 existence. Many, otherwise well-informed people, have a confused notion 

 of a place to which convicts are sent; and to it they apply indiscrimi- 

 nately the names Botany Bay, South Wales, and Van Diemen's Land. 

 If you speak of Sydney in New South Wales, Ha! that is in Botany 

 Bay, is it not ? very fine climate that of Van Diemen's Land, I believe!" 

 Men who would be ashamed to acknowledge themselves ignorant of rouge 

 et noir or ecarte, unblushingly talk of the colonial dependencies of their 

 own country as a waiting-woman might of the Kamskatchan terri- 

 tories of the Emperor of Russia, or an Italian police-clerk of the cities of 

 England, f I have actually met with individuals about to emigrate to one 

 of the two colonies, who had clubbed the productions of both for the one 

 they were going to and were expecting to find the line wools and rich fruits 

 of New South Wales in the colder clime of Van Diemen's Land. Indeed, 

 it is not very long since the London newspapers quoted the very high prices 

 at which some of the best wool from the former colony was sold inLondon, 

 as of wool from Van Diemen's Land. I may adduce another and more 

 recent instance of the mistakes the newspapers fall into at times about these 

 colonies. The Sydney papers received by a late arrival speak of the diffi- 

 culty of getting bills on England, and state the intention of some merchants 

 to send, as a remittance, a quantity of Mauritius sugar which they had on 

 hand believing that they should lose less by so doing than by giving the 

 high premiums demanded for bills, even when they were to be had. Now, 

 for some time past, they have begun to cultivate the sugar-cane a few 

 degrees north of Sydney ; but, as yet, if with success, not in any quantity. 

 However, although the fact was clearly stated, I read with surprise in one 

 of the first Ix>ndon newspapers, that such was the extent to which sugar 

 was cultivated in New South Wales, that two ships were about to sail 

 from Sydney for England laden with that, article, the produce of the 

 colony ! 1 quote from recollection but it was to that effect. 



One of Governor Macquarrie's greatest faults was the comparative neglect 

 with which he treated many of the free colonists, and those who were 

 employed under government before his arrival doling out to them pitiful 

 grants of land, which were, at the time, hardly worth the fees for surveying, 

 whilst to have been transported was almost a passport to his favour. 

 Characterless adventurers, too, were sure of handsome grants cind number- 

 less indulgencies. Many masters (captains!) of convict and other ships 

 have had one, two, or three thousand acres given them ; and then, not 



* Jealous of the fine name Australia, the Van Diemen's-landers bethought them that 

 Tasman, the name of the Dutch navigator who first surveyed their coasts, might be manu- 

 factured into Tasmania; and now they have " the Tasmaniai)"' newspaper published in 

 " Tasmania,' ' to rival the Sydney Gazette, which professes to be published (not like its 

 contemporary, the Atistralmn, in Sydney, but) in Australia ! 



f At some place in Italy, I forget where exactly, on crossing a frontier, the police- 

 clerk found fault that in my passport I was described as an Englishman only ; and said, 

 that it was necessary for him to know the city or town I belonged to. " For example," 

 said he,. "we always write Bolognese, Ferrarese, Romano as the case may be." [ 

 replied that we were not distinguished in that manner : that I was an Englishman, was 

 enough. No, forsooth! he must have more : for, said he, " I know there are cities in 

 England -~pr escmpio London, Gibraltar, and Malta!" Of course, I could not but 

 admit such .1 plain f;ief, and desired him to set me down in his book Gibi/farrese ! 



