^' Rickety Dick.'' — La P Grouse's Monument. i 7 



Close to the palatial residence of the wealthiest resident 

 of Australia, and clad in a filthy woollen coat, with an old 

 hat on his head, crouches Rickety Dick, a wretched crippled 

 native, the sole survivor of his tribe, once the lord of all this 

 country, who now stretches out his horny hand to receive 

 charity. Eickety Dick, who can only talk Australian, lives 

 under a bark thatch, and leads a mendicant life, and this 

 not owing to downright destitution, but because such a lazy 

 mode of existence suits him better than a residence within 

 the walls of a Poor's House. He finds himself more comfort- 

 able here, and cannot bear to quit the soil on which he has 

 passed the greater portion of his miserable existence. Sir 

 Daniel lets this last scion of a decayed race want for nothing, 

 and gratifies every wish that the poor half idiot can form. 



One excursion which no stranger omits to make is a ride 

 to the monument erected to La P^rouse at Botany Bay, a 

 j^retty good road to which passes through beautiful woods full 

 of magnificent oaks, as also of Eucalyptus, or gum tree, so cha- 

 racteristic of Australia, Casuarina, or cabbage tree, XantJwrrhea, 

 Acacias, and various descriptions of Epacris. The monument 

 itself stands on an open cleared space, in what is known as 

 " Frenchmen's Gardens" (because, according to tradition, the 

 soldiers had raised a few vegetables here), and is a plain sand- 

 stone obelisk about 30 feet high, standing on a pedestal and 

 crowned with an iron globe, within an enclosure about 35 

 f&et square, bounded by a parapet wall of from three to five 

 feet higli. 



VOL. III. c 



