INTRODUCTION OF SHEEP.

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held a commission in the regiment, and came to this colony with it in 1791. He was successively Captain and Paymaster of the regiment; but in 1806 left the service, and became a storekeeper in Sydney, in the governorship of Captain, afterwards Admiral Bligh. This gentleman's history is much mixed up with public acts, and the different parties view his conduct according to their particular opinions. I shall not enter into that subject: but shall merely state, that after prosecutions and trials, and many extraordinary scenes, Mr. M. was appointed Colonial Secretary, under the assumed government of Major J., of this same New South Wales regiment, who was soon afterwards tried and cashiered.

The officers of this corps did not confine themselves to military affairs, but were permitted to deal in various articles, the principal of which was rum; they also became breeders of stock. Mr. M., in 1803, returned to England, and presented an address to the then Secretary for the colonies, Lord Hobart, representing the peculiar fitness of New South Wales for the growth of wool. He took with him some samples of wool from sheep in the colony, originally sent from Holland to the Cape, and taken thence to Port Jackson; these sheep were of the Spanish breed, and the fleece was considered excellent. In 1797 Mr. M. procured three rams from the flocks of George III., at Windsor, and from these and thirty ewes previously purchased in 1793 out of a ship from India, and eight or ten Spanish and Irish sheep, have arisen the million and upwards of sheep that now cover the hills and plains of Australia. This is the part of Mr. M.'s career that is of most interest to the public; by this step he became a benefactor to his country and the colony, to an extent that may be incalculable. In 1791 Mr. J. M. got his first

grant of land, 100 acres; his next was also 100; next, from Lord Camden, 5,000; next was 700 acres to his excellent wife, from Governor Macquarie. From Earl Bathurst the sons got 5,000 acres: and from Governor Macquarie 2,300 acres,-in all, their grants have amounted to 18,000 acres; and they have acquired by purchase 32,000 acres more, at an average cost of 7s. 6d., the highest price paid being 188. In all, the landed property obtained by grant and purchase by Mr. J. M. and his sons, now of C, amounts to 50,000 acres !! Mr. M. never keeps above 25,000 sheep, in consequence of the great expense and difficulty of managing a larger number. He has 700 acres under the plough. Mr. J. M. purchased, in 1800, sixty acres of land in the township of Sydney for £25, which in 1836 were valued, according to the Government land price, at £1,000 an acre!

Everything has now fallen in price, and it is difficult to estimate the present value of this immense property; but in the golden times I have not a doubt most of the land in the Cow-pastures would have averaged above 20s. an acre: and I am greatly below the truth when I say that the whole, including town-lands, would have amounted, with 25,000 sheep, to from £150,000 to £200,000. Farsighted speculation and industry in the father, added to their own great energy and talents, have placed his sons in an enviable position in the country of their adoption, and laid the foundation of the chief source of revenue of this great and important colony.

All the country I saw during this journey was in great want of rain, and the heat by day was excessive: still, in spite of most precipitous roads,—particularly the one up the hill into the Cow-pastures, from Campbeltown,—and whirlwinds of flying dust, I have accomplished my expedi

tion most comfortably; and after going over about one hundred and twenty miles of certainly the best part of the country that I have seen, I found myself once more in Sydney. It is in a great measure this dryness of the air with the consequent great evaporation that causes the failures of crops, and makes the pastures one sees by the roadsides and everywhere so withered up, although they are at the same time so nutritious; and its effect upon the human frame is similar. Notwithstanding the peculiarities of the climate, its scorching heats and its night chills, the people are remarkably healthy, and invalids come from India in search of health in its dry and salubrious atmosphere.

8th. I thought I had experienced the utmost extremity of Australian heat on the 14th December, but I was mistaken; this is the most insupportably burning day I ever endured. Not only is the sun scorching, but the very air is like the blast of a furnace: when you expose your face, or spread out your hand, it feels exactly as if you were holding it in front of a fierce fire. A miserable white hen stands with wings expanded below my window, endeavouring to catch every breath of air, gasping with its beak wide open, and its throat alternately expanding and collapsing. It is said that in New England a great number of birds have lately dropt from the trees, dead! and that the thermometer stood at 120° in the shade! Hot winds and gales of dust I shall ever recollect as characteristics of Australia; at six this evening the mercury stood at 95° in the shade. At the flag-staff station at the South Head, it was registered in the shade at noon at 101°, and in the sun at 117°. This is by far the greatest degree of heat I have experienced since I landed, and it is most oppressive; yet I have been walking about throughout the day without feeling any ill effects from it.

CHAPTER IX.

AUSTRALIA.

Emigration-Free emigration-Emigration by bounty-Il success of the lower classes of Irish colonists-Emigrant vessels-Statistics of New South Wales-Scarcity of females-Exhortation to emigrate-Cooley labourTransportation-Sketch of the rise of the colony-Australia no longer a penal settlement-The assignment system-Its abuses and advantages— System of Captain Macconochie at Norfolk Island-Its success doubtful -The gardens at Sydney-The Australian Club-Fish at Sydney -The William Sharples-Departure of my son for the bush-Sailor's funeral-Rain-The storekeepers-Their sharp practice-The Australian Club-Its advantages-Its disadvantages to young colonists-The barracks Municipal Government-Present state of the city-Stores for the bush-Corner inlet-Australian varnish-Water in Sydney-Political meeting-Its abrupt adjournment-The Rev. Mr. Cowper-Major, the king of Macquarie "-The Bishop of Australia-Exotics-The botanical show-Heavy rains-Route by India determined upon.

February 9.-EMIGRATION is a subject of such prodigious importance to this country, that I enter upon it with great diffidence. Although it is one not new to the public mind at home, it is, comparatively speaking, one of so little personal consequence to the great mass of the community there, that it is not investigated with that interest which is calculated to produce clear and practical views. Here, on the contrary, it is an all-engrossing subject; and it is quite evident that the future fate of the colony depends on the system adopted to promote and regulate it.

Emigration is of two kinds-free, and by bounty. The first class comprises those who, possessed of capital, or acquainted with some trade, hope to improve their situation, and come here at their own expense; the second, those who, availing themselves of the offer of the Government to be carried out without expense, leave their country without any intention of ever returning to it. The former class embraces persons of various descriptions of rank, funds, professions, and trades; the latter, generally speaking, are of the poorest class, including a small proportion of persons whose economy induces them to assume the position of their poorer brethren, in order to save the expense of the voyage, but who have some little money, and perhaps some slight acquaintance with farming or some mechanical art.

Of the earlier history of emigration it is not my purpose to speak; I shall confine my remarks regarding it to recent times; the present and the future are more material; the past is only useful as throwing light upon what is to follow. The present state of the barracks for immigrants in Sydney is, in some degree, a commentary on the system of immigration pursued of late; there are five hundred and sixteen Irish, one hundred and sixty-four English, and thirty-five Scotch immigrants, living unengaged at this moment in tents at this place of refuge. Ireland, from the poverty of its lower classes, readily suggested itself to the wholesale agents for the exportation of human beings, as the most promising field from which to obtain lading for their ships and bounty for their pockets. Ambulatory decoy-ducks were employed to traverse its southern (the Roman Catholic) counties, and speechify the unfortunate and discontented into delusive hopes of a better world at the Antipodes.