1836.1 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 I2th, 1836. — Early in the morning a light air carried 

 us towards the entrance of Port Jackson. Instead of beholdingr 

 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 we 

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

 bour, it appears fine and spacious, with cliflf-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 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 



