f rivers of blood, as was the case
in the days of Cortez and Pizarro. The wealth poured into the lap of
England by these far-away colonies belittles all the riches which the
Spaniard realized by the famous conquests of Mexico and Peru. Here is an
empire won without war, a new world called into existence by moral
forces, an Eldorado captured without the sword. Here Nature has spread
her favors broadcast over a land only one fifth smaller than the whole
continent of Europe, granting every needed resource wherewith ultimately
to form a great, independent, and prosperous nation; where labor is
already more liberally rewarded, and life more easily sustained, than in
any other country except America.

Among the most prominent advantages which at first strike the
observation of the stranger in Australia are those of an extended
shore-line indented with many noble harbors, a semi-tropical climate
beneath bright Italian skies, a virgin soil of unequalled fertility,
and a liberal form of government; while the hills, valleys, and plains
abound in mineral wealth of gold, silver, iron, copper, and coal,
inexhaustible in quantity and unsurpassed in quality. To the black
diamonds of her coal-fields Australia will owe more of her future
progress than to her auriferous products. They already have conduced to
the grand success of various branches of manufactures, as may be seen in
the many enterprises springing up in the neighborhood of Sydney. The
coal-fields extend all along the seaboard from Brisbane to Sydney. Those
at Newcastle are of vast proportions, having a daily output which gives
employment to a large fleet of steamships and sailing-vessels. This coal
is mined and put on shipboard, as we were told, at a cost of eleven
shillings per ton. It is of excellent quality, admirable for
manufacturing purposes, and very good, though somewhat dirty, for
steamship use. Near these Newcastle coal-mines are ample deposits of
iron ore of excellent quality,--two products whose close proximity to
each other is of great importance in the economical production of
manufactured iron and steel. Only immigration is now needed to develop
these grand resources, and that requisite is being supplied by a
numerical growth surpassed alone by that on the Pacific coast of the
United States.

It is difficult to believe, while observing the present population,
wealth, power, and prosperity of the country at large, characterized by
such grand and conspicuous