close of the seventeenth century, surely the interesting but unfortunate Papuan race of Australia must have some claims, in the middle of the nineteenth century, on the sympathies of the patriotic and christian merchants and manufacturers of that great city, whose ancient motto was "Let Glasgow flourish through the preaching of the Word."

Besides, so shortly after the long period of exhaustion produced by the tyranny of the Stuarts, Scotland could have had but comparatively few of her people to spare, to transform into a useful body of Colonists in Central America; but she has now a numerous and industrious but redundant population, whose removal to a land where they would speedily become producers of the raw material for her manufactures and consumers of her manufactured produce, would be equally a benefit and blessing of incalculable value to themselves, and to the land of their birth. Further, Scotland could have had no national experience in the work of colonization at the period I refer to, and the failure of her solitary effort of this kind was as much owing to the grossest mismanagement and breach of trust on the part of the principal agents employed in the undertaking, as to the other causes I have enumerated; but it would be scarcely possible to fail from a similar cause in the effort I have recommended-the facilities are so great on the one hand, and the mode of procedure so obvious on the other. At all events, while the unfortunate Colony at the Isthmus of Darien involved a prodigious expenditure of capital, for the period at which it was undertaken, and proved disastrous and ruinous to all concerned, the effort I would now recommend requires only the temporary use of moderate funds, for which the amplest security could be given, and for which I am quite confident a sufficient interest could easily be paid.

And surely the probable bearings of a Colony in Cooksland on the great question of Negro Slavery are well worthy of the most vigorous outgoings of Scottish enterprise, and Scottish philanthropy. Only prove that

the redundant population of Europe can be transformed into the growers of cotton and other tropical produce in the territory of Cooksland, so as to afford them an adequate remuneration for their labour, and the " occupation" of the slavedealer and the slavedriver will be "gone" for ever.

To conclude, the rapid progress and the threatening aspect of Popery and Puseyism-the Beast and the Image of the Beast-in the Australian Colonies, render it indispensably necessary, for the interests of our common Protestantism in the Southern Hemisphere, that a great effort in the way of extensive colonization should be made in these Colonies-and that effort must be made Now OR NEVER.

APPENDIX.

EXPLORING EXPEDITION UNDER SIR THOMAS

MITCHELL.

COLONIAL SECRETARY'S OFFICE, SYDNEY,

7th September 1846.

His Excellency the Governor has been pleased to direct, that the following Despatches from Sir T. L. Mitchell, reporting the progress made by the expedition, under his command, in exploring the overland route to Port Essington, be published for general information.

By his Excellency's command,

E. DEAS THOMSON.

No. 1.

Camp at the head of the River Salvator, in long. 147-25-40 E.; lat. 24.50-17 S.

9th September 1846.

SIR, Before setting out on the last branch of my exploratory operations, I feel it to be my duty to report to your Excellency the progress made in that duty to this time, by the Expedition sent into the interior under my command.

The heat was excessive, and water so very scarce, in the channel of the river Bogan, that I was obliged to abandon that route; and it was only with great difficulty, and after considerable delay, that the party could be conducted to the river Darling. Throughout the month of January, Fahrenheit's Thermometer stood frequently at 117°; in the shade was seldom below 100°; and I found, on a ride down the Bogan, that there was no water in its channel for forty miles below Nyingen. The intense heat killed all our kangaroo dogs, and most of the party were attacked with ophthalmia; our draught oxen were also so much distressed (the loads having been also made heavier at Buree than I had intended), that some of them fell dead on the journey, and I was obliged to halt for two weeks at the ponds of Cannonbà, between the river Macquarie and the Bogan. During that interval some refreshing rain fell, after which I examined Duck Creek, but found no water in it; and Mr. Kennedy subsequently ascertained

(for I had myself ophthalmia) that we could only hope to reach the Darling by the marshes of the Macquarie.

On the 12th February we left the ponds of Cannonbà, and travelled along the left bank of the Macquarie, opening out a cart-road along the western limits of the marshes, through a country very favourable for cattle stations. We found the channel of the river continuous, in muddy ponds throughout the marshes; and I have to express my obligations to Mr. Kinghorne, for the information he afforded me, and for sending with us an aboriginal native, who guided us beyond the regions of weed.

We made the junction of the Macquarie with the Darling, in long. 147-33 E.; lat. 30-6·11 S.; but I found that a few miles higher, at the station of Mr. Parnell, jun., there was a good ford across the river Darling (or Barwan, the aboriginal name there in general use). I accordingly crossed the river at Mr. Parnell's station, and the superintendent sent with us two aboriginal natives, who guided us in a very straight direction, and over a fine open country to the Narran Swamp, which we reached at twentysix miles from the Darling. These guides would have gone farther, had not the intense heat, the extreme weakness of our cattle, and the passage of the swamp, occasioned delay. I there, however, received a Despatch from Commissioner Mitchell, enclosing a map, and affording me much useful information respecting the rivers in the country before us. The Narran river terminates in the Swamp; and in tracing that river upwards, or northward, we found it full of water, and increasing in size and importance as we ascended, until we came upon the Balonne, in long. 148-25 E.; lat. 28-35-38 S. Along the banks of the Narran, the grass is of the very best description, Pani cum lævinode, and Anthisterium Australe (barley-grass and kangaroo grass of the colonists), growing on plains or in open forests, very available, in every respect, for cattle stations. But the seeds of the Panicum lævinode constitute the chief food of the natives, who bruise these seeds between stones, and bake the dough into cakes. As I advanced these natives fell back on the main river, where the assembled body received our party very kindly.

The banks of the Balonne Minor seem to be thickly peopled. The head of the tribe met us seven miles from it, and afforded me much assistance in finding a way for our carts amongst the numerous lagoons. Others guided us across to the Culgòa, which river we also crossed in long. 148-21-25 E.; lat. 28-31-19 S. From that point I travelled to the Upper Balonne, with the intention of proceeding northward along its right bank. That great river is there at its maximum, and is only inferior to the Murray in breadth and depth. Lower down it separates into various channels, the first branch being the Culgoa, falling into the Darling about thirty miles above Fort Bourke,-the remainder, or Minor Balonne, again spreads its waters into the Narran, the Bokhara, the Balandoola, and the Biree; the latter three, I

believe, again unite, and fall into the Darling forty or fifty miles above Fort Bourke. The Narran seems a wonderful provision of nature, for the supply and retention of water in a dry and parched country. The division of the main river into others already mentioned is no less so, irrigating thus, from one principal channel, extensive regions of rich earth beyond the Darling, while the surplus, or overflow, instead of passing, as in common cases, to the sea, is received in the deep channel of the Narran, and thereby conducted to that extensive reservoir, where, on rock or stiff clay, and under ever verdant polygonum, it furnishes an inexhaustible supply for the support of animal life. Nor is this beautiful net-work of rivers confined to that side of the Darling. The marsh of the Macquarie receives only ordinary floods, to be retained in a somewhat similar manner to those in Narran Swamp. The great floods of that river overflow the firm plains to the westward above Mount Harris, fill the ponds of Cannonbà and those of Banargill, which then uniting, carry a current into the Bogan, which river sends a branch, called the Barrawarry, northward into the country between it and the Darling, flowing parallel to the latter river, at a distance of about seven miles. Below Mount Harris, the Macquarie again overflows into Duck Creek (the " Marra" of the natives), which may be considered the channel, or a channel, of that river in high floods. Cannonbà and Duck Creek on one side, seem, therefore, analogous, on a smaller scale, to the various branches of the Balonne on the other.

Tracing the Balonne upwards, I found the country on its banks well covered with good grass; and we encountered only a small proportion of scrub. Some of the reaches were so broad, deep, and extensive, that I could not suppose this river contained only the waters of the Condamine, and I therefore expected to meet with some tributary from the north-west. On arriving at a natural bridge of rock, in long. 148·46·45 E., lat. 28-2 S., I selected a position commanding access to the other bank, with the intention of forming there a depôt for the rest and refreshment of the bullocks, then unable to go further; while I, with a smaller party, examined the country to the north-west. I first made a reconnoisance north-west by compass, and found in that direction, at the end of thirty miles, a poor, sandy unpromising country. Returning to the depôt camp, I proceeded, on the 23d of April, up the river, with a party of ten men and the light carts, leaving the remainder in charge of Mr. Kennedy, at St. George's Bridge, with instructions to follow me in one month. I did not ascertain satisfactorily the point of junction of the Condamine with the Balonne, as what I saw in long. 148.52 N., lat. 27 47 57 S., might have been only an ana-branch;-neither did I see that of the "Cogoon," a small tributary from the north-west, which we followed up through a beautiful country, until it led me amongst hills where I could by trigonometrical observations, and back