HISTORY OF PREVIOUS SETTLEMENTS. 139 



the excitement in the settlement, and the feelings 

 of joy everywhere expressed, when in October 1845, 

 the first party learned that their relief had arrived. 



I shall now proceed to make some remarks upon 

 Port Essington, ere the subject becomes a matter of 

 history, as I fervently hope the abandonment of the 

 place will render it ere many years have gone by ;* 

 but before doing so I may premise a brief account 

 of the former British settlements on the north coast 

 of Australia-t 



The British Government having determined to 

 form an establishment on the northern coast of Aus- 

 traUa, Captain J. J. Gordon Bremer, with H.M.S. 

 Tamar, sailed from Sydney in August 1824, in 

 company with two store ships and a party of mili- 



* Port Essington was finally abandoned on November 30th, 

 1849, when the garrison and stores were removed to Sydney by 

 H.M.S. Moeander, Captain the Hon. H. Keppel. I may men- 

 tion that most of the remarks in this chapter relative to Port 

 Essington appear as they were originally written in my journal 

 soon after leaving the place in the Rattlesnake ; they are mostly 

 a combination of the observations made during three visits, at 

 intervals of various lengths, including a residence in 1844, of 

 upwards of four months. I am also anxious to place on record 

 a somewhat connected but brief account of the Aborigines, as I 

 have seen many injudicious remarks and erroneous statements 

 regarding them, and as it is only at Port Essington, for the whole 

 extent of coast line between Swan River and Cape York, that we 

 were able to have sufficient intercourse with them to arrive at 

 even a moderate degree of acquaintance with their manners, cus- 

 toms, and language. 



t See Voyage round the World, by T. B. "Wilson, M.D. 



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