1824.] 
Diemen, and has lately obtained an 
additional grant of five hundred acres. 
There are some great and extensive 
proprietors, who are securing a splen- 
did inheritance for their successors ; 
among whom I may reckon my coun- 
tryman and former acquaintance, Mr. 
Blaxland, of New South Wales, who 
earried a considerable property from 
the county of Essex to his adopted 
country; also Nicholas Bailey, esq. 
of Van Diemen’s Land, formerly in 
the military service, who has a fine 
mansion and park at South Creek, 
thirty-three miles from Hobart’s 
Town. He has twenty English cows 
and two bulls. Both those gentle- 
men, [ take it for granted, are ex- 
tensive Merino breeders. Several 
moneyed and very opulent individuals 
were named to me; one lady said to be 
worth upwards of one hundred thou- 
sand pounds. ‘The natives, who are 
‘in no part numerous, and very few on 
Wan Diemen’s Isle, are, in colour, of 
the deepest copper brown, bordering 
on black; of finely formed, large, 
athletic, persons, long black hair, 
and pleasing countenance. They are 
the most harmless of savages, and, so 
far from the common inclination to 
thieving, will guard a settler’s house, 
and protect his property in his ab- 
sence. They appear to entertain not 
the least antipathy to the English, or 
objection to the settling and improving 
their country. They yet entertain 
their native prejudice in favour of a 
roving and hunting life; and there 
seems to be no instance thus far, of the 
desire of civilization amongst them. 
An annual feast is provided for them 
by the authorities, at Christmas time, 
at which one thousand have attended. 
One Englishman, it appears, has made 
the experiment of taking a native 
wife, and I have no authority to record 
his repentance. 
Van Diemen’s Isle is about five 
hundred miles in circuit, and one hun- 
dred and eighty across. To speak of 
both countries, the attributes of which 
are nearly similar, their coasts afford 
good harbours, navigable rivers ; and, 
in some of their sea-ports, the largest 
ships are moored to the quays. Their 
commerce is confined to the mother 
country, but they have an increasing 
' whale-fishery, in which the island em- 
ploys at present about half-a-dozen 
ships. The two capitals are consi- 
derable for ‘extent and population. 
There ‘are many other populous towns, 
On Colonization and the Australian Colonies. 
‘denominations ; 
29 
of which George Town, New South 
Wales, one hundred and forty miles 
from the capital, is two and half miles 
long, a mile in breadth, and contains 
four thousand five hundred inhabi- 
tants. The state of society in the 
towns is good, and the ranks distinet; 
that of the government officers, and 
the chief merchants, in course classing 
first. Among these, carriages of all 
kinds are kept, the governor driving 
four horses and living in considerable 
state. The hotels, coffee-houses, and 
inns, having a similar distinction. 
The social enjoyments are ample, in- 
cluding races, music-meetings, balls, 
and the usual English diversions. 
They have, I believe, a theatre on the 
continent, but none, at present, at Van 
Diemen’s; that essential article of 
luxury ‘is, however, in contemplation. 
Free servants are in moderate plenty, 
their wages fifty pounds per year; 
finding themselves, one hundred. For 
a convict servant, ten pounds per year, 
with board and clothing. There is no 
slavery. Now, as tothe advantages of 
transportation, convicts possessed of 
money or interest, get immediately en- 
franchised ; for, as our poet doth 
sweetly sing,— 
‘Gold from law can take out the sting.’ 
A good mechanic transported for life, 
should the voyage steady him, is trans- 
lated into the regions of independence 
and happiness, and is ever a welcome 
guest. Free as the air, these happy 
Australians know nothing yet of the 
Egyptian plagues of tythes and taxes, 
saving a tax on imported rum; but they 
are beginning to distil for themselves. 
The rate of interest is eight pér 
centum. They have a chartered bank 
at Sidney and Hobart’s Town, and a 
reasonable quantity of metallic circu- 
lation. Their remittances to this 
country are made in bills on the trea- 
sury. Their system of legal justice 
seems, hitherto, to have been of the 
summary kind, with respect to debt; 
but an improvement, it seems, is ex- 
pected, in the new batch of lawyers, 
barristers, and attorneys, which already 
has, or is expected to arrive. The 
immense expense of the judges, who 
arrive once a-year from Sidney, is 
much complained of at Van Diemen’s. 
That grand necessary of both lives, 
religion, seems to be provided in the 
most ample measure in Australia, 
They have churches and chapels of all 
Anglican Catholic, 
Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Inde- 
pendent, 
