THE SETTLEMENT OF 1803 29 



" From the total want of information respecting the appearance of 

 the land on the coast, we were doubtful as to our situation, and 

 approached the land with cautious diffidence ; at length the break 

 in the land which forms the entrance of Port Phillip was observed, 

 but a surf apparently breaking across it created at first some mis- 

 trust of its identity, until the man at the mast-head observing a 

 ship at anchor within, which was soon recognised for the Ocean, 

 removed all doubt, and without further hesitation we pushed for 

 the entrance. A fair wind and tide soon carried us through, and 

 in a few minutes we were presented with a picture highly con- 

 trasted with the scene we had lately contemplated ; an expanse of 

 water bounded in many places only by the horizon, and as un- 

 ruffled as the bosom of unpolluted innocence, presented itself to 

 the charmed eye, which roamed over it in silent admiration. The 

 nearer shores, along which the ship glided at the distance of a 

 mile, afforded the most exquisite scenery, and recalled the idea of 

 ' Nature in the world's first spring '. In short, every circumstance 

 combined to impress our minds with the highest satisfaction for our 

 safe arrival, and in creating those emotions which diffused them- 

 selves in thanksgiving to that Almighty Guide who had conducted 

 us through the pathless ocean to the spot of our destination." 



A habit of philosophical reflection, somewhat unusual in U 

 sailor, fills many pages of his book, with passages like the follow- 

 ing, which indeed is not without some claim to a prophetic 

 insight : 



" And now again when I considered the motives ; when I 

 contrasted the powers, the ingenuity and the resources of civilised 

 man, with the weakness, the ignorance and the wants of the savage 

 he came to dispossess, I acknowledged the immensity of human 

 intelligence, and felt thankful for the small portion dispensed to 

 myself. These thoughts naturally led to the contemplation of future 

 possibilities. I beheld a second Borne rising from a coalition of 

 banditti. I beheld it giving laws to the world, and superlative in 

 arms and in arts, looking down with proud superiority upon the 

 barbarous nations of the Northern Hemisphere ; thus running over 

 the airy visions of empire, wealth and glory, I wandered amidst 

 the delusions of imagination." 



