1836.] YDNEY. 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 gulflike 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.—E ary in the morning a light air carried 
us towards the entrance of Port Jackson. Instead cf beholding 
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 cliff-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 
