will be long ere another outlay becomes
necessary. That this was the best line of conduct to adopt, most persons,
on reflection, will acknowledge. In New Zealand, for example, much of the
disturbances that have arisen may be attributed to the fact of so many
settlers arriving before sufficient preparation had been made for their
reception.
Much fault has been found with Colonel Gawler's military display, as it
is called; in other words, with his raising a corps of volunteers. But
the necessity of this may be presumed from the facts, that Sir Charles
Napier, the conqueror of Scinde, as we learn from his own pen, refused
the government, because a military force was not to be sent with him; and
that it has been found advisable to place a body of troops at the
disposal of Colonel Gawler's successor.
I paid a visit to the port, distant from the town about five miles, made
easy by an excellent macadamized road, carried, in some places, on a
causeway over a swamp, and forming a great and imperishable monument of
the Governor's enterprising spirit. The port reminded me of one of the
quiet mangrove creeks on the North coast, except that it had only one
bend, changing from a northerly to a south-westerly direction, which at
certain times of the day renders it navigable, with a fair wind, each
way. For instance, the seabreeze will take a vessel out through the
northerly part, and next morning she will have the land breeze to carry
her the rest of the distance; whilst, alternating, the same breeze serves
to take ships in. The mouth of the port is well marked with black and
white buoys; and a light vessel is moored off the entrance, with pilots
in attendance; a red buoy is on the bar, where at high-water there is
sometimes 15 feet, but the tides are very irregular, being much higher
with south-west winds; the general rise was about four feet.
MR. EYRE'S EXPEDITION.
We were very much pleased with the animated description we had of the
departure of Mr. Eyre's expedition to the north; but what gave us
particular satisfaction was the evidence afforded of how much the whole
colony had the welfare of this enterprising little band at heart. I had
not before seen in Australia any place where the progress of discovery
was so liberally forwarded, as the readers will at once learn from Mr.
Eyre's book. One cause of this we may discover in the fact that the
richness of the country immediately surrounding Adelaide made them eager
to asc
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