1836.] SYDNEY. 



431 



CHAPTER XIX. 



AUSTRALIA. 



Sydney Excursion to Bathurst Aspect of the Woods Party of Natives 

 Gradual extinction of the Aborigines Infection generated by associated 

 men in health Blue Mountains View of the grand gulf-like Valleys- 

 Their origin and formation Bathurst, general civility of the lower orders 

 State of society Van Diemen's Land Hobart Town Aborigines all 

 banished Mount Wellington King George's Sound Cheerless aspect 

 of the Country Bald Head, calcareous casts of branches of trees 

 Party of Natives Leave Australia. 



January \2t/t, 1836. EARLY in the morning' a light air carried 

 us towards the entrance of Port Jackson. Instead of beholding 

 a verdant country, interspersed with fine houses, a straight line 

 of yellowish cliff brought to our minds the coast of Patagonia. 

 A solitary lighthouse, built of white stone, alone told us that WP 

 were near a great and populous city. Having entered the har- 

 bour, it appears fine and spacious, with cliff-formed shores of 

 horizontally stratified sandstone. The nearly level country is 

 covered with thin scrubby trees, bespeaking the curse of sterility. 

 Proceeding further inland, the country improves : beautiful 

 villas and nice cottages are here and there scattered along the 

 beach. In the distance stone houses, two and three stories high, 

 and windmills standing on the edge of a bank, pointed out to us 

 the neighbourhood of the capital of Australia. 



At last we anchored within Sydney Cove. We found the 

 little basin occupied by many large ships, and surrounded by 

 warehouses. In the evening I walked through the town, and 

 returned full of admiration at the whole scene. It is a most 

 magnificent testimony to the power of the British nation. Here, 

 in a less premising country, scores of years have done many times 

 more than an equal number of centuries have effected in South 

 America. My first feeling was to congratulate myself that I 

 was born an Englishman. Upon seeing more of the town after 

 wards, perhaps my admiration fell a little ; but yet it is a fine 



