succeeded in traversing the continent in every direction.
It is not all desert. They have found fine tracts of land in the course
of their journeys. Indeed, more than half of the recently explored
regions are suitable for sheep and cattle, but there are other great
districts which are miserable and forbidding. However, thanks to the
heroic men whose names have been mentioned, and to such others as the
Jardine Brothers, Ernest Favenc, Gosse, and the Baron von Mueller,
almost the whole of Australia is now explored. Only a small part of
South Australia and the central part of West Australia remain unknown.
We all of us owe a great debt of gratitude to the men who endured so
much to make known to the world the capabilities of our continent.

CHAPTER XIX.

TASMANIA, 1837-1890.

#1. Governor Franklin.#--Sir John Franklin, the great Arctic explorer,
arrived in 1837 to assume the Governorship of Tasmania. He had been a
midshipman, under Flinders, during the survey of the Australian coasts,
and for many years had been engaged in the British Navy in the cause of
science. He now expected to enjoy, as Governor of a small colony, that
ease and retirement which he had so laboriously earned. But his hopes
were doomed to disappointment. Although his bluff and hearty manner
secured to him the good-will of the people, yet censures on his
administration were both frequent and severe; for during his rule
commenced that astonishing decline of the colony which continued, with
scarcely any interruption, for nearly thirty years.

[Illustration: SIR JOHN FRANKLIN.]

#2. Flood of Convicts.#--After the cessation of transportation to New
South Wales, in 1840, hopes were entertained that Tasmania would
likewise cease to be a penal settlement; and, under this impression,
great numbers of immigrants arrived in the colony. But, ere long, it
became known that Tasmania was not only to continue, as before, a
receptacle for British felons, but was, in fact, to be made the _only_
convict settlement, and was destined to receive the full stream of
criminals, that had formerly been distributed over several colonies.
The result was immediately disastrous to the free settlers, for convict
labour could be obtained at very little cost, and wages therefore fell
to a rate so miserable that free labourers, not being able to earn
enough for the support of their families, were forced to leave the
island. Thus, in 1844, whilst the arrival of energetic a