EXPEDITION TO PORT ESSINGTON. 247 



settlement would have been deposited at Port Essing- 

 ton, which must ultimately have risen into import- 

 ance. A great stream of emigration was pouring 

 into the south-eastern portion of Australia, and it 

 would have been wise to open a channel by which 

 some portion of it might have been drawn off to 

 the northern coast. But such were not the views 

 entertained by the authorities concerning this matter. 

 They seemed apprehensive of incurring the blame 

 of encouraging the speculating mania which raged 

 so extensively at Sydney, and which has re -acted 

 with so pernicious an effect upon the colony.* 

 The expedition accordingly retained its purely mili- 

 tary character. However, I may add, that the 

 Bishop of Australia attended to the spiritual wants 



* On our arrival at Sydney in 1838, we found speculation at 

 its height : land-jobbers were carrying on a reckless and most 

 gainful trade, utterly regardless of that revulsion they were doomed 

 soon to experience. Town allotments that cost originally 

 but ^50. were in some instances sold, three months afterwards, 

 for ten times that sum. Yet amid all this appearance of exces- 

 sive and unnatural prosperity there were not wanting those who 

 foresaw and foretold an approaching change. To the withdrawal 

 of the convicts, solely at the expressed wish of some of the most 

 wealthy colonists, has been traced much of the decline that fol- 

 lowed ; and the more recent pages in the history of Sydney will 

 fully bear out the opinions expressed by Captain Fitz-Roy when 

 he visited it in 1836 : he says, "It is difficult to believe that 

 Sydney will continue to flourish in proportion to its rise. It has 

 sprung into existence too suddenly. Convicts have forced its 

 growth, even as a hot bed forces plants, and premature decay may 

 be expected from such early maturity." 



