the
supposed insurmountable barrier called the Blue Mountains, to the
westward of which are situated the fertile plains of Bathurst; and
_in all respects_ [?] enjoying a state of private comfort and public
prosperity, which I trust will at least equal the expectations of His
Majesty's Government. On my taking the command of the colony in the year
1810, the amount of port duties collected did not exceed 8000_l._ per
annum, and there were only 50_l._ or 60_l._ of a balance in the
Treasurer's hands; but now (in 1822,) duties are collected at Port
Jackson to the amount of from 28,000_l._ to 30,000_l._ per annum. In
addition to this annual colonial revenue, there are port duties,
collected at Hobart Town and George Town in Van Diemen's Land, to
the amount of between 8000_l._ and 10,000_l._ per annum."[129]

[128] How could public religious worship be attended to, when, in the
year after Governor Macquarie's arrival, 1810, a widely-scattered
population of 10,452 souls, mostly convicts, were left in the charge
of _four_ clergymen? And in what respect were things improved at the
time of that Governor's departure in 1821, when, to a similarly situated
population of 29,783 souls there were _seven_ clergymen assigned:
and the Romish church had _one_ priest for New South Wales and Van
Diemen's Land, while the Presbyterians at Portland Head had their
lay-catechist?--See BURTON _on Education and Religion in New South
Wales_, pp. 8, 9, 12, 16.

We may add, by way of illustrating the regard paid to religious worship,
even in Governor Macquarie's time, that Oxley's first expedition
into the interior was permitted to set out from Bathurst on a Sunday!
See his _Journal_, p. 3. Sunday, indeed, seems to have been a favourite
starting-day with Mr. Oxley. See p. 37.

[129] See Governor Macquarie's Report to Earl Bathurst, in Lang's New
South Wales, vol. i. _Appendix_, No. 8, p. 447.

[Illustration: NORTH VIEW OF SYDNEY.]

CHAPTER IX.

DESCRIPTION OF THE COLONY OF NEW SOUTH WALES.

The next objects that demand our notice in Australia are the British
colonies, and their present inhabitants. We have already given our
attention to the Bush and its wild inhabitants, and the lengthened yet
rapid process by which a lonely bay was converted, within the space of
little more than forty years, into the flourishing capital of a rising
country, has been fully traced. It now remains for the reader to be ma