1839.] COLONIZATION OP AUSTRALIA. 255 



until a victim has been sacrificed to appease the shade of the 

 deceased. 



There are some hills, to pass over which, as they fancy, 

 is certain death. They have quite a beautiful superstition 

 in regard to sleep : when a person is in a slumber, they say 

 he is away "over the water," — meaning thereby, that his 

 spirit or mind has returned to the country from which he 

 came, to revisit the scenes of his nativity. "With respect to 

 their own origin, they suppose that their earliest progenitors 

 either sprung from emus, or were brought to the country 

 they now inhabit, on the backs of crows. Of conception 

 they have a singular idea ; believing that the infant is con- 

 veyed into the mother's womb, by a secret and unknown 

 agency, from some place across the sea. 



(8.) In May, 1787, the first British colony, for the estab- 

 lishment of a proposed penal settlement in Australia, was 

 sent out from England, under Captain Phillip, the person 

 selected for the office of governor. The Expedition con- 

 sisted of eleven vessels, conveying, besides their complement 

 of seamen, two hundred marines, and seven hundred and 

 seventy-six convicts. They first landed at Botany Bay ; but 

 becoming satisfied that the adjacent country was barren and 

 unprofitable, the governor sailed for Port Jackson, and on 

 the 26th of January, 1788, laid the foundation of Sydney, 

 the future capital of New South Wales. 



For the first twenty-five years after its establishment, the 

 colony was nothing more than a work-house or penitentiary, 

 constructed on an isolated spot, in a defective and costly 

 manner, and altogether too remote from the supervision of 

 the home government. Subordinate settlements were soon 

 attempted at Paramatta and Norfolk Island. The former 

 was eventually successful, but the latter failed, though the 

 attempt has been since renewed, under more favorable aus- 

 pices, with complete success. A number of voluntary im- 

 migrants now arrived, but they were of dissolute habits, and, 

 with the discharged convicts, formed a population not very 

 well calculated to build up a new colony. At length a 



