reasons the determination of Government
not to throw open the lands, and their refusal to hold out the promise of
protection to the individuals who expressed a desire to accompany the
expedition, are greatly to be regretted. In a vast continent like
Australia, so remarkably destitute of fixed inhabitants, it would seem
that every encouragement should be afforded to persons desirous of
locating themselves on unoccupied tracts. There is a great difference
besides, between giving rise to delusive hopes--inducing people as it
were under false pretences to repair to new settlements--and checking the
spirit of colonisation when it manifests itself. Every young
establishment must go through a certain process. It is necessary that
some should pioneer the way for others; and endure hardships the
beneficial results of which may be enjoyed only by their successors. Had
advantage been taken of the enterprising spirit that prevailed at the
time of which I speak, the germs of a fresh settlement would have been
deposited at Port Essington, which must ultimately have risen into
importance. A great stream of emigration was pouring into the
south-eastern portion of Australia, and it would have been wise to open a
channel by which some portion of it might have been drawn off to the
northern coast. But such were not the views entertained by the
authorities concerning this matter. They seemed apprehensive of incurring
the blame of encouraging the speculating mania which raged so extensively
at Sydney, and which has reacted with so pernicious an effect upon the
colony.* the expedition accordingly retained its purely military
character. However, I may add, that the Bishop of Australia attended to
the spiritual wants of the settlement by sending with it a church in
frame.

(*Footnote. On our arrival at Sydney in 1838, we found speculation at its
height: land-jobbers were carrying on a reckless and most gainful trade,
utterly regardless of that revulsion they were doomed soon to experience.
Town allotments that cost originally but 50 pounds were in some instances
sold, three months afterwards, for ten times that sum. Yet amid all this
appearance of excessive and unnatural prosperity there were not wanting
those who foresaw and foretold an approaching change. To the withdrawal
of the convicts, solely at the expressed wish of some of the most wealthy
colonists, has been traced much of the decline that followed; and the
more recent pages in the h