ed by the overhanging cliffs, 600 feet in height they appear smooth as a mirror, and afford access by boats and small vessels to the little sheltered cots and farms which now enliven the margin. These patches are of no great extent, and occur alternately on either bank of this noble stream, comprising farms of from thirty to a hundred acres. "The necessity for a permanent land communication between the seat of government and the northern part of the colony was obvious, and, indeed, a road in that direction had been the subject of petitions from the settlers to Sir Thomas Brisbane, under whose auspices the track across the mountain beyond the Hawkesbury was first discovered and surveyed by Mr Finch. This tract, with some slight alterations, was found, on a more general survey, to be the most favourable line for a cart-road in that direction that the country afforded, and it had been opened but a short time, when I thus proceeded along it, accompanied by Mr Simpson, the assistant surveyor, who, under my directions, had accomplished the work. Just then, however, the first steam vessel had arrived in Australia, thus affording a regular coast communication between Sydney and the northern portion of the colony. The land communication became, in consequence, an object of less importance than before, to the present handful of settlers at least, although it was not the less essential to a respectable government, or where an armed force had been organized, as in New South Wales, solely for the suppression of bushrangers, a sub-genus in the order banditti, which, happily, can now only exist there in places inaccessible to the mounted police. The ascent northward from this ferry on the Hawkesbury, is a substantial and permanent work. affords a favourable specimen of the value of convict labour, in anticipating the wants of an increasing population. It "The country traversed by this new road is equally barren, and more mountainous than that traversed between Para. matta and the Hawkesbury. Amid those rocky heights and depths, across which I had recently toiled on foot, marking out with no ordinary labour the intended line, I had now the satisfaction to trot along a new and level road, winding like a thread through the dreary labyrinth before me, and in which various parts had already acquired a local appellation not wholly unsuited to their character, such as Hungry Flat,' Devil's Backbone,' No-grass Valley,' and Dennis's Dog kennel.' In fact, the whole face of the country is composed of sand-stone rock, and but partially covered with vegetation. The horizon is only broken by one or two summits, which are different both in outline and quality from the surrounding country. These isolated heights generally consist of trap. rock, and are covered with rich soil and very heavy timber. The most remarkable is Warrawolon-whose top I first observed from the hill of Jellore in the south, at the distance of 108 miles. This being a most important station for the general survey which I made previously to opening the northern road, it was desirable to clear the summit, at least partly, of trees; which work, after considerable labour, was accomplished-the trees having been very large. On removing the primeval forest, I found the view from that summit extended over a wild waste of rocky pre. cipitous ravines, which debarred all access or passage in any direction, until I could patiently trace out the ridges between them; and for this purpose I ascended that hill on ten successive days, the whole of which time I devoted to the examination of the various outlines and their connexions, by means of the theodolite. 66 Looking northward, an intermediate and lower range concealed from view the valley of the Hunter, but the summits of the Liverpool range appeared beyond it. On turning to the eastward, my view extended to the unpeopled shores and lonely waters of the vast Pacific. Not a trace of man was visible on any side, except a distant solitary column of smoke that arose from a thicket between the hill on which I stood and the coast, and marked the asylum of a remnant of the aborigines. These unfortunate creatures could no longer enjoy their solitary freedom. The dominion of the white man surrounded them. His sheep and cattle filled the green pastures where the kangaroo (the principal food of the natives) was accustomed to range, until the stranger came from distant lands and claimed the soil. Thus these first inhabitants, hemmed in by the power of the white population, and deprived of the liberty which they formerly enjoyed of wandering at will through their native wilds, were compelled to seek a precarious shelter amidst the close thickets and rocky fastnesses which afforded them a temporary home, but scarcely a subsistence; for their chief support, the kangaroo, was either destroyed or banished. I knew these unhappy people, and had frequently met them in their haunts. In the prosecution of my surveys I was enabled to explore the wildest recesses of these deep mountainous ravines, guided occasionally by one or two of their number. I felt no hesitation in venturing amongst them, for to me they appeared a harmless, unoffending race. On many a dark night, We cannot help observing on this interesting passage, that here Major Mitchell indulges in a little sentimentality-the only instance of doubtful taste which we have observed in his volumes. He deplores the fate of these aboriginal savages, as "no longer able to enjoy their solitary freedom." In a country of which not a hundredth part has ever been settled, we should have supposed that they might have enough of both freedom and solitude. But we are told that "the dominions of the white man surrounded them,"-those dominions consisting of a strip of land on the seashore! The same ultra-pathetic strain is followed. His (the Englishman's) sheep and cattle fill the green pastures where the kangaroo, the principal food of the natives, was accustomed to range, until the stranger came from distant lands and claimed the soil. If this had been said or sung in a modern novel, it might have been properly placed; but it has no relationship to the general grace and manly style required in important works, and of which we find so many able instances in the present writer. The plain truth is, that there are kangaroos enough, acres enough, and deserts enough, for ten times the native population. It is also quite clear, that under the English government no violences will or can be committed against the natives; that if they will adopt the arts and advantages of civilisation, they will be welcomed to their share with the English, and thus, if they will be but peaceable, they will be unmolested. Where the English settlements advance, of course, the natives will retire; but this must be the slightest possible hardship to men who are wholly without settlements of their own, whose life is spent in wandering over the country, and who still have a country nearly as large as Europe to wander over at will. The question, in fact, rests between filling some districts of this great continent with the vigour, intelligence, and activity of Englishmen, and leaving them entirely to the indolence, helplessness, and misery of savage life. We shall certainly not imitate the policy of the United States to their Indian neighbours; we shall not make war upon their persons nor plunder their hunting grounds; but in the course of another half century the native tribes will, probably, either have shrunk into the interior, or have sunk into the general expanse of British population-of all changes the one most to be desired for their comfort, knowledge, and security. It is true that measures may be occasionally necessary which the men of cheap charity and long harangues. in this country, the Buxtons, et hoc genus omne, will whine or rail over as the most atrocious of all offences against the art of talking philanthropy, and extending the traffic in beer and Baptists to the colonies; for those natives, with all their innocence, are stealers of cattle and most things that they can lay their hands on; are hostile where they have force, and apt to be treacherous where they have not; and can throw spears and brandish clubs in a very assassin-like style. That they also have good qualities of certain kinds, is readily admitted; but if they commit murder they must be punished, and if they make attacks they must be repelled. As of their lands they make no use but to walk over thein, it is fortunate even for themselves that England has settled her colony among them. It offers a hope of amelioration which otherwise they never could have possessed, and in its progress it offers them all the advantages, and they are numberless, which are to be found in the resources of advanced and opulent society. On the evening of the 26th, the Major reached the inn near the head of the little valley of the Wollombi, a tributary stream to the river Hunter. Here there is some soil fit for cultivation, and the whole of it is taken up in farms; but the pasturage afforded by the numerous valleys on the sides of the mountains, called "water-runs," are more profitable to the owners of the farms than the farms themselves, of which the produce merely supports, at present, the grazing establishments. In a climate so dry as Australia, the selection of farm-land depends solely on the direction of streams, for it is only in the beds of water-courses that any ponds can be found during dry seasons. The formation of reservoirs has not yet been resorted to, although the accidental largeness of the ponds left in such channels has frequently determined settlers in their choice of a homestead, when, by a little labour, a pond equally good might have been made in other parts, which few would select, from the) want of water. In some situations there is abundance of good soil, now considered unavailable for any purpose excepting grazing, only from the want of "frontage," as it is termed, on a river or chain of ponds; and selections have been frequently made of farms, which have thus excluded extensive tracts behind them from water, and which remaining, consequently, unoccupied, have continued accessible only to the sheep or cattle of the possessor of the water frontage. In the lower portion of the Wollombi, where the valley widens and water becomes less abundant, it was found impossible to locate some veterans on farms the Major had formerly marked out for them; but in its upper valleys, though there is little breadth of alluvial soil, the water never fails, and small farmers show a disposition to settle in any available corner there -the only beginning of an agricultural population as yet apparent in New South Wales. On the 28th the Major reached the appointed place of rendezvous on the Foy Brook, having traversed the valley of the river Hunter, an extensive tract of country, consisting of low undulating land, thickly wooded, and bearing in most places a good crop of grass. On the 29th the whole equipment came up, and, on the 30th, the Major had the satisfaction of seeing his party move forward in exploring order. It consisted of the following persons: Alexander Burnett, Carpenters. John Palmer, Thomas Jones, William Worthington,, James Souter, Robert Muirhead, Daniel Delaney, James Foreham, Joseph Jones, Stephen Bombelli, Timothy Cussack, Anthony Brown, Henry Dawkins, Sailors. Med. Assistant. Bullock-Drivers. Groom. [Nov. "These were the best men I could find. All were ready to face fire or water, in hopes of regaining, by desperate exploits, a portion, at least, of that liberty which had been forfeited to the laws of their country. This was always a favourite service with the best disposed of the convict prisoners, for in the event of their meriting, by their good conduct, a favourable report, the Government was likely to grant them some indulgence on their return. chose these men either from the characters I they bore, or according to their trade or 66 Whiting, a Londoner, had been a soldier in the Guards. department as a surveyor's man; in which "Woods had been long useful in the capacity he first came under my notice, when he had been long employed as a boatman in the survey of the coast, and having become in consequence ill from employed on shore. scurvy, he made application to me to be request, and the services he had perThe justness of his formed, prepossessed me in his favour, and I never afterwards had occasion to change my good opinion of this sailor. "John Palmer was a sailmaker as well as a sailor, and both he and Jones had been on board a man-of-war, and were very handy fellows. "Worthington was a strong youth, recently arrived. He was nicknamed by his comrades Five o'clock,' from his having, on the outset of the journey, disturbed them by insisting that the hour was five o'clock soon after midnight, from his eaing. gerness to be ready in time in the morn experience and skill in surgery were suf"I never saw Souter's diploma, but his ficient to satisfy us, and to acquire for him from the men the appellation of Doctor.' "Robert Muirhead had been a soldier in India, and banished, for some mutiny, to New South Wales; where his steady conduct had obtained for him an excellent character. 66 Delaney and Foreham were experienced men in driving cattle. "Joseph Jones, originally a London groom, I had always found intelligent and trust-worthy. "Bombelli could shoe horses, and was afterwards transferred to my service by Mr Sempill in lieu of a very turbulent character, whom I left behind, declaring it to be his firm determination to be hanged. "Cussack had been a bog surveyor in Ireland; he was an honest creature; he had got somehow implicated there in a charge of administering unlawful oaths. "Brown had been a soldier, and subsequently was assistant coachman to the Marquis of and "Dawkins was an old tar-in whom Mr White, himself formerly an officer in the Indian navy-placed much confidence. "Thus it had been my study, in organizing this party, to combine the tried men of both services with some neat-handed mechanics, as engineers, and it now formed a respectable body of men, for the purpose for which it was required. "Our materiel consisted of eight muskets, six pistols; and our small stock of ammunition, including a box containing sky-rockets, was carried on one of the covered carts. Several "Of these tilted carts we had two, so constructed that they could be drawn either by one or two horses. They were also so light, that they could be moved across difficult passes by the men alone. Three stronger carts or drays were loaded with our stock of provisions, consisting of flour, pork (which had been boned in order to diminish the bulk as much as possible), tea, tobacco, sugar, and soap. We carried, besides, a sufficient number of pack-saddles for the draught animals, that in case of necessity we might be able to carry forward the loads by such means. pack-horses were also attached to the party. I had been induced to prefer wheelcarriages for an exploratory journey-1st, From the level nature of the interior country; 2dly, From the greater facility and certainty they afforded of starting early when the necessity of laying all our stores in separate loads on animals' backs could thus be avoided. The latter method being further exposed to interruptions on the way-by the derangement of loads or galling the animals' backs-one inexperienced man being likely thus to impede the progress of the whole party. "For the navigation or passage of rivers, two portable boats of canvass had been prepared by Mr Eager, of the King's dockyard at Sydney. We carried the canvass only, with models of the ribs-and tools, having carpenters who could complete them when required. "Our hour for encamping, when circumstances permitted, was to be two, P.M., as affording time for the cattle to feed and rest; but this depended on our finding water and grass. Day-break was to be the signal for preparing for the journey, and no time was allowed for breakfast until after the party had encamped for the day." On the 5th, the party pitched their tents on the left bank of the river Hunter, near Segenhoe, the extensive estate of Potter Macqueen, Esq.; and here, says the Major, "I was very anxious to obtain the assistance of an aboriginal guide, but the natives have almost all disappeared from the valley of the Hunter; those who still linger near their ancient haunts, are sometimes met with about such large establishments as Segenhoe, where, it may be presumed, they meet with kind treatment. Their reckless gaiety of manner; intelligence respecting the country, expressed in a laughable inversion of slang words; their dexterity and skill in the use of their weapons; and above all, their few wants, generally ensure them that look of welcome without which these rovers of the wild will seldom visit a farm or cattle station. In those who have become sufficiently acquainted with us to be sensible of that happy state of security enjoyed by all men under the protection of our laws, the conduct is strikingly different from that of those who still remain in a savage state. The latter are named "myalls" by their half civilized brethren, who, indeed, hold them so much in dread, that it is seldom possible to prevail on any one to accompany a traveller far into the unexplored parts of the country. At Segenhoe, on a former occasion, I met with a native but recently arrived from the wilds. terror and suspicion, when required to stand steadily before me while I drew his portrait, were such, that all that power of disguising fear, so remarkable in the savage race, was overcome, the stout heart of Cambo beat visibly, the perspiration streamed from his breast, and he was about to sink to the ground, when he at length suddenly darted from my presence, but speedily returned, bearing in one hand his club and in the other his bomareng, with which he seemed to acquire just fortitude enough to be able to stand on his legs until I finished the sketch." Contrast Saunders with Cambo. His "The party moved off at seven, and passing, soon after, near the farm of an old man whom I had assisted some years before in the selection of his land, I rode to see him, accompanied by Mr White. He was busy with his harvest, but left the top of his wheat-stack on seeing me, and came running up, cordially welcoming us to his dwelling. A real Scotch bonnet covered the brow of a face which reminded me, by its characteristic carving, ofthe land of the mountain and the flood.' The analogy between the respective features was, at least, so strong in my mind, and the sight of the one was so associated with the idea of the other, that had I seen this face on a stranger, in a still more distant corner of the earth, it must have called to mind the hills of my native land. The old man was very deaf; but in spite of age and deafness, his sharp blue eye seemed to express the enduring vigour of his mind. He had buried his wife in Scotland, and had left there a numerous family, that he might become its pioneer at the antipodes. He had thus far worked his way successfully, and was beginning to reap the fruits of his adventurous industry. Sleek cattle filled his stock-yard, his fields waved with the yellow grain, and I had the satisfaction of learning from him that he had written for his family, and that he soon expected their arrival in the colony. He immediately gave grain to our horses, and placed before us new milk, and, what we found a still greater luxury, pure water from the running burnie close by; also, a bottle of the mountain dew,' which, he said, was from a still which was no far aff. When I was about to mount my horse, he enquired if I could spare five minutes more, when he put into my hands the copy of a long memorial addressed to the Government, which he took from among the leaves of a very old folio volume of Pitscottie's History of Scotland. This memorial prayed, that whereas Scoone was in the valley of Strathearne, and that the pillow of Jacob, which had been kept there as the coronation-stone of the Kings of Scotland, was fated still to be where their dominion extended; and as this valley of the Kingdoa Ponds had not as yet received a general name, that it might be called Strathearne, &c. &c. We were finally compelled, although it still wanted two hours of noon, to drink a stirrup cup' at the door, when he most heartily drank success to our expedition, and I went on my way, rejoicing that, on leaving the last man of the white race we were likely to see for some time, the ceremony of shaking hands was a vibration of sincere kindness.' Soon after having rejoined his party, a soldier of the mounted police came up, and delivered to the Major a letter from the Military Secretary at Sydney, informing him that "the Barber" had sawed off his irons, and escaped from the prison at Bathurst. This intelligence was meant to put him on his guard respecting the natives, as it was supposed "the Barber" would assemble them beyond the settled districts, with a view to drive off the cattle of the colonists-and especial caution would be necessary to prevent a surprise from natives so directed, if, as most people supposed, his story of "the great river" had only been an invention of his own, by which he had hoped to improve his chance of escape. This worthy was afterwards hanged in Van Diemen's Land. That day they encamped on the Kingdon Brook, where it formed a broad pool deep enough for bathing in, with good grass in the neighbourhood-the "burning hill" of Wingen distant about four miles. On the 3d they ascended the chain of hills connecting Wingen with Mount Murulla and the Liverpool range; and descending to a beautiful valley of considerable extent, watered by Page's River, they encamped on a fine flat, apparently consisting of a soil of excellent quality, the extremities of the mountains on the north falling in long gradual slopes, well covered with grass, and already eaten short by sheep. On the 4th their way lay westward towards the head of the valley, in order to cross, by the usual route, the higher and principal range, which still lay to the north the whole of the valley appearing to consist of good land, and lent sheep pasture; and on the 5th the adjacent mountain affording excelthey ascended and descended the LiVerpool range, which divides the colony from the unexplored country beyond" here I at length drank the water of a stream (called by the natives Currangài') which flowed into the unexplored interior; and from a hill near our route this day I beheld, for the first time, the distant blue horizon, exactly resembling that of the ocean.” The day before, the Major, when riding a little beyond the encampment, had fallen in with a tribe of natives from Pewen Bewen on Dart Brook, one of whom afterwards visited the party, but could tell little about the interior of the country. This tribe had reached Currangai before them, apparently to join some of their friends who lay extremely ill there, being afflicted with a virulent kind of smallpox. "We found the helpless creatures stretched on their backs beside the water, under the shade of the wattle or mimosa tree, to avoid the intense heat of the sun. We gave them from our stock some medicine, and the wretched sufferers seemed to place the utmost confidence in its efficacy. I had often, indeed, occasion to observe, that, however obtuse in some |