3M NEW SOUTH WALES. [CHAP. xix 



populous city. Having entered the harbour, it appears fine and 

 spacious, with cliff-formed shores of horizontally stratified sandst one. 

 The nearly level country is covered with thin scrubby trees, bespeak- 

 ing 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 promising 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 town. 

 The streets are regular, broad, clean, and kept in excellent order ; the 

 houses are of a good size, and the shops well furnished. It may be 

 faithfully compared to the large suburbs which stretch out from London 

 and a few other great towns in England ; but not even near London 

 or Birmingham is there an appearance of such rapid growth. The 

 number of large houses and other buildings just finished was truly 

 surprising ; nevertheless, every one complained of the high rents and 

 difficulty in procuring a house. Coming from South America, where 

 in the towns every man of property is known, no one thing surprised 

 me more than not being able to ascertain at once to whom this or that 

 carriage belonged. 



I hired a man and two horses to take me to Bathurst, a village about 

 one hundred and twenty miles in the interior, and the centre of a great 

 pastoral district. By this means I hoped to gain a general idea of the 

 appearance of the country. On the morning of the i6th (January) I set 

 out on my excursion. The first stage took us to Paramatta, a small 

 country town next to Sydney in importance. The roads were excellent, 

 and made upon the MacAdam principle, whinstone having been brought 

 for the purpose from the distance of several miles. In all respects there 

 was a close resemblance to England : perhaps the alehouses here were 

 more numerous. The iron gangs, or parties of convicts who have com- 

 mitted here some offence, appeared the least like England ; they were 

 working in chains, under the charge of sentries with loaded arms. The 

 power which the Government possesses, by means of forced labour, ot 

 at once opening good roads throughout the country has been, I believe, 

 one main cause of the early prosperity of this colony. I slept at night 

 at a very comfortable inn at Emu ferry, thirty-five miles from Sydney, 

 and near the ascent of the Blue Mountains. This line of road is the 

 most frequented, and has been the longest inhabited of any in the 

 colony. The whole land is enclosed with high railings, for the farmers 

 have not succeeded in rearing hedges. There are many substantial 

 bouses and good cottages scattered about ; but although considerable 



