54 NARROW ESCAPE OF THE FIRST SETTLERS. 



ful anticipations of ultimate success to the resolutfi 

 adventurer. From about the centre of this lake- 

 like piece of water, the eye first rests upon the 

 capital of Western Australia, a large straggling 

 village, partly concealed by the abrupt termination 

 of a woody ridge, and standing upon a picturesque 

 slope on the right bank of the river, thirteen miles 

 from its mouth. The distant range of the Darling- 

 mountains supplies a splendid back ground to the 

 picture, and the refreshing sea breeze which curls 

 the surface of Melville water every afternoon, adds 

 to the health, no less than comfort, of the inhabi- 

 tants. The former inconvenience, caused by the 

 shoal approach, and which rendered landing at low 

 water a most uncomfortable operation, has now been 

 remedied by the construction of a jetty. 



Like all the Australian rivers with which we are 

 yet acquainted, the Swan is subject to sudden and 

 tremendous floods, which inundate the corn lands 

 in its vicinity, and sweep away all opposing obstacles 

 with irresistible impetuosity. The first settlers had 

 a most providential escape from a calamity of this 

 kind : they had originally selected for the site of 

 their new city, a low lying piece of land, which, 

 during the first winter after their arrival, was 

 visited with one of these strange and unexplained 

 invasions from the swellinof stream : had the deluoe 

 been delayed for another year, these luckless 

 inhabitants of a new world would have shared the 

 fate of those to whom Noah preached in vain ; but. 



