SYDNEY. 431 



CHAPTER XIX. 



AUSTRALIA. 



5} diiey — 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 12th, 1836. — Early in the morning- a light air carried 

 us towards the entrance of Port Jackson. Instead of beholding 

 i 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 we 

 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 

 20vered 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 

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

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

 *.he neighbourhood of the capital of Australia. 



At last we anchored within Sydney Gove. 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, 

 m 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 i* a fine 



