380 THE GRASS-TREE. 



colony, did not think proper to risk the lives of the 

 people under his charge, by conveying them to a 

 port that might be fabulous, and to a country the 

 fertility of which was absolutely denied ; and the 

 destination of the new settlement was, accordingly, 

 provisionally changed to the shores of the Leschen- 

 ault Inlet, which held out a prospect of solid, if not 

 brilliant, success, and possessed advantages, which, if 

 not dazzling, were at least exempt from the suspicion 

 of being visionary. 



Anxious to have further information on this sub- 

 ject through a personal interview with Mr. Clifton, 

 I accompanied His Excellency Governor Hutt and 

 the Surveyor General on a tour in the direction 

 of the new settlement, whilst the ship underwent a 

 slight refit, and the men had a run ashore. The 

 survey of the Swan, from the entrance to Perth, 

 was, meanwhile, undertaken by Mr. Forsyth. 



Leaving Freemantle, the first part of the road 

 lay between low ranges of limestone hills, and 

 through quite a forest of grass-trees, gums (Xan- 

 thorrea,) some knobby, old and crooked, others 

 erect and reaching the height, occasionally, of 

 perhaps seventeen feet, with their tufted and over- 

 archino- crests towering' above those of smaller 

 growth that were scattered over the earth around.* 



* These trees, called Blackboys by the colonists, from the re- 

 semblance they bear, in the distance, to natives, attain, it is said, 

 a great age, and there is a vague report that when fifty years old 

 they are only a foot above ground. 



