Thou hast wrought thy work of victory, by deeds of blood un stain'd, For man's appointed purposes a glorious world obtain'd; But the gratulations of the Colonists were not exhibited merely in complimentary verses: a public meeting was held in Sydney, at which I had the honour of proposing a resolution, which was carried with acclamation, to the effect "That the grateful thanks of the Colony were due to Dr. Leichhardt and his party, for the eminent services they had rendered not only to the Colony, but to the cause of science and civilization generally throughout the world, in their successful expedition to Port Essington; and that in testimony of this feeling on the part of the Colonists, a subscription be commenced on behalf of Dr. Leichhardt and his party." The call which was thus addressed to the Colonial public was nobly responded to, upwards of £2000 having been subscribed and paid by the Colonists to the Leichhardt Testimonial. A motion had also been made in the Legislative Council, recommending the Government to place £1000, on the Supplementary Estimate for 1846, as a further donation from the Public Treasury; but the Colonial Secretary having signified, on the part of the Governor, His Excellency's willingness to grant the amount proposed from the Land Fund, a fund over which the Council has no control, the motion was withdrawn, that Dr. Leichhardt might have the thanks of the House presented to him by the Speaker from the chair, and the grant from the Land Fund was paid accordingly. It will scarcely be necessary to suggest to the reader, that the whole affair is highly honourable to the Colony of New South Wales. There is one circumstance in which Dr. Leichhardt's expedition has been remarkably different from all previous expeditions of discovery in Australia. It has not resulted in an attempt to confer unmerited immortality on a number of obscure individuals, who had no other title to distinction than that of holding clerkships or other subordinate Colonial appointments under the authorities of Downing Street. There were people in New South Wales who felt not a little soreness on this private account amid the general rejoicing, and Dr. Leichhardt's departure from an old-established rule, as well as his actual nomenclature, was made the subject of private criticism in various quarters. But Dr. L. had received no favours, for which to be thankful at the time, in these quarters, and he was of too manly a spirit to resort to such a mode of obtaining them in future. There were also a few private individuals who had rendered him assistance in his day of small things, and whose claims on his grateful remembrance he was of too generous a nature to forget; and he had also a few private friends, who, although unable to contribute more comparatively to the expedition than the donation of the celebrated Mungo Park, when he gave a hospitable negro woman the last two brass buttons of his waistco at for anight's board and lodging in the interior of Africa, wished well to his undertaking, and bid him God speed. I had the honour to be of the latter number; and I can assure the reader I was as much taken with surprise at finding myself bound in basalt for the future in a conspicuous mountain far within the Tropics, as most of the Government Officers of the Colony were at finding no memorial of themselves in Dr. Leichhardt's Journal. Dr. Leichhardt-to whom about five-eighths of the sums contributed respectively by the public and the Government were very properly allotted-was not likely to receive this boon from the Colony, without endeavouring at least to prove that, as it had been wellmerited, so it has been well-bestowed. Having ascertained in the course of his late expedition that the great water-shed of New Holland, which separates the waters flowing to the northward into the Gulf of Carpentaria, from those flowing towards the Great Southern Ocean, is nearly coincident with the Southern Tropic, he has again started with a fresh expedition to cross the continent, if possible, from east to west, on that parallel of latitude, and, if successful, to fall down upon the little Colony of Swan River or Western Australia. The following is a notice of his progress from the Moreton Bay Courier, a recently established Journal, of December last:: We have pleasure in being enabled to furnish our readers with some additional information respecting the progress of Dr. Leichhardt and party, in their exploring expedition towards Swan Ri ver. The party arrived at Mr. Andrews' station, Oakey Creek, about the 24th November, and consisted of the following persons:-Dr. Leichhardt, Mr. John Mann, surveyor, Mr. Hovenden Hely, Mr. Bunce, naturalist, Mr. Turnbull, James Perry, saddler, Henry Boaching, tanner, and two Aboriginal blacks, Harry Brown and Womai, the former from Newcastle, and the latter from Stroud. On his arrival at Oakey Creek, the Doctor had with him the following stock, viz.-14 horses, 16 mules, 270 goats, 90 sheep, and 40 head of cattle. In the meantime, the Right Honourable the Secretary of State having approved of the expedition recommended by the Legislative Council in 1843, and the Council having voted £2000 for the purpose from the Ordinary Revenue, during the Session of 1845, Sir Thomas Mitchell started at length from Fort Bourke, a few weeks before Dr. Leichhardt's return; and the reader will find a brief, but interesting account of his Expedition, drawn up by himself, and published in the Colonial Government Gazette, in an Appendix to this volume. The results of this expedition, I am happy to add, are of the utmost importance. These two expeditions have virtually added a vast extent of available territory of the most valuable description to the British Empire, augmenting the resources of the future Colony of Cooksland to a wonderful degree, and opening up a highly promising field for the settlement of an industrious and virtuous European population in that noble Colony. And when it is borne in mind that this population will, in all likelihood, eventually render Great Britain independent of the slave-labour of America, by raising for the homemarket the productions of indispensable necessity for her rapidly-extending manufactures, the prospect is animating in the highest degree, not only for the Colony, but for Britain herself, and for philanthropy. "The fact," observes the Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, of the 1st January 1847, "is now established beyond doubt, that in point of extent, of natural fertility, and variety of resources, the Northern Territory of Australia excels all that is known of the SouthWhat with the agricultural and mineral wealth of South Australia-the magnificent pasturage of Australia Felix, the advanced wealth and civilization of New South Wales Proper, and the boundless tropical and semi-tropical resources thrown open by Leichhardt and Mitchell-the national importance of this part of Her Majesty's dominions cannot be too highly estimated." ern. CHAPTER X. THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALIA, AND ESPECIALLY OF COOKSLAND. Nulli certa domus ; lucis habitamus opacis, In no fix'd place the happy souls reside; By crystal streams that murmur through the meads. THE existence and distribution of the Papuan Negro or Black Race of the South-eastern Hemisphere, is one of the most mysterious facts in the history of man. Most people are aware that the Aborigines of the vast continental island of New Holland are of a black colour, and bear some resemblance to the African negro; but very few comparatively are aware of the vast extent of that portion of the surface of the habitable globe which this ancient and singular race have roamed over from time immemorial, and of which they have unquestionably been the Aboriginal inhabitants. Long before European navigators had discovered New Holland and Van Dieman's Land, in the early part of the 17th century, they had occupied, and parcelled out among their wandering tribes, the whole extent of these vast regions, which are nearly as large as all Europe.* They are still the only inhabitants of the large islands of New Guinea, New Britain, New Ireland * M. Freycinet, in his "Voyage aux Terres Australes," page 107, estimates the superficial extent of New Holland at 384. 375, and that of Europe at 501. 875 French leagues. |