Australia,
coming from the interior.*

(*Footnote. During the hot winds we observed the thermometer, in the
direct rays of the sun, to be 135 degrees.)

ARRIVE AT SYDNEY.

Easterly winds prevented us from entering Bass Strait until the 16th. In
reaching in towards the coast, seven or eight miles west of Cape Otway,
we found that it projected three or four miles too much on the charts.
Bass Strait appeared under a different aspect from what it had been
accustomed to wear; light winds, by no means in keeping with our
impatience, detaining us till the 21st, when we got a kick out of the
eastern entrance from a strong south-wester, and afterwards had a good
run up to Sydney, where we arrived on the 23rd.

CHAPTER 2.7.

Land Sales.
Unsettled boundaries.
New Zealand.
Hunter River.
Midnight alarm.
Ludicrous scene.
Changes in Officers of ship.
Leave Sydney.
Port Stephens.
Corrobory.
Gale at Cape Upstart.
Magnetical Island.
Halifax Bay.
Astonish a Native.
Description of country.
Correct chart.
Restoration Island.
Picturesque arrival.
Interview with the Natives from Torres Strait.
Their weapons.
Shoal near Endeavour River.
Discover good passage through Endeavour Strait.
Booby Island.
New birds.
The Painted Quail.

LAND SALES.

No improvement had taken place in colonial affairs, and the sales of
land, in consequence of the high price, were very limited. The fact was,
the regulations that had recently been made gave very little
satisfaction. By these the minimum price was fixed at one pound per acre;
in consequence of which many predicted that millions of acres would be
excluded from the market for ages to come, as it seemed not conceivable
that any change could make them worth a quarter that sum, especially as
on an average the natural grasses of the country will only support one
sheep to four acres. The inevitable consequence was to prevent an
augmentation of the emigration fund, which inflicted a serious evil on
the colony, though by many the high price was considered a great boon, as
it enabled them to enjoy, at a trifling charge, immense back runs, as
safe from the intrusion of interlopers as if they had been granted by the
Crown in perpetuity. It is my impression that the attempt to raise the
largest sum of money by the sale of the smallest number of allotments is
unwise, as it operates as a discouragement to small capitalists, who wish
to occupy the land for themselves; it would in the end be mor