that the experiment has succeeded to a most unexampled and unexpected
degree: and that the question is now finally decided between severity and
discipline." What else remains, what great designs and unfathomed
purposes, are yet reserved to grace this distant theatre, I pause not now
to guess. The boldest conjecture would probably fall very far short of
the truth. It is sufficient for us to know that Providence has entrusted
to England a new empire in the Southern seas. Nor can we doubt that there
as elsewhere throughout the various regions of the habitable globe, the
same indomitable spirit which has achieved so many successes, will
accompany those whom heaven has appointed as pioneers, in that march of
moral regeneration and sound improvement long promised to the repentant
children of earth.

QUARANTINE ESTABLISHMENT.

We were sorry to find that it had been necessary to form a quarantine
establishment in the North Harbour, in consequence of the diseases
brought to the country by emigrant ships. A number of tombstones,
whitening the side of a hill, mark the locality, and afford a melancholy
evidence of the short sojourn in the land of promise which has been
vouchsafed to some.

EXPEDITION TO PORT ESSINGTON.

It not being the favourable season for commencing operations in Bass
Strait, we remained at Sydney until November, and embraced the
opportunity of clearing out the ship. Our stay was undiversified with
incidents, and it may as well therefore be briefly passed over. Among the
few occurrences worth mentioning, was the departure of the expedition
sent out to form a settlement at Port Essington on the northern coast.
Its object was simply military occupation, it having been deemed
advisable about that time to assert practically the supremacy of Great
Britain over the Continent by occupying some of its most prominent
points; but as soon as its destination became known in the colony,
several persons came forward as volunteer-settlers, and expressed the
greatest anxiety to be allowed to accompany the expedition. Their views
extended to the establishment of a trade with the islands in the Arafura
sea; and certainly they would have been far more likely to draw forth the
resources of the country, than a garrison, whose supplies are brought to
them from a distance, whose presence holds out no inducement to traders,
and who are not impelled by any anxiety for their own support to discover
the riches of the soil. For these