The first greetings over, the two chieftains rode into the town side by side, as amicably as Napoleon and Alexander of Russia; whilst I fell to the share of the aides, and related the most recent news of Perth, and the last bon mots of Richard Nash, for their entertainment; receiving in return an account of the arrival of 400 male and female emigrants at the settlement the day before.
We were entertained, as every guest invariably is, right hospitably by Mr. Clifton and his amiable family.
Australind was then (December 1842) a promising new town. It was alive with well-dressed young men and women, who were promenading under the large forest trees which still occupied the intended squares and most of the streets. They had only landed from the vessel which had brought them some twenty-four hours before, and they were evidently variously affected by all they saw. Some appeared to be struck with the strange circumstance of trees growing in the streets; some looked aghast at the wooden houses and canvass tents; one thought everything looked exceedingly green; another fancied that a town built upon sand could not possibly endure long. And he was right: for the town has long since been deserted, except by half a dozen families; and the newly arrived settlers are dispersed over the colony. This has not been the fault of the Chief Commissioner, nor is it owing to any inferiority in the soil, but to causes which I intend briefly to explain, as there are many people in England who are, or were, interested in the fortunes of this promising young settlement.
The Western Australian Company's grant of land at Australind comprises 100,000 acres, among which there is a large quantity of excellent pasture and arable land. It is well watered, and generally well adapted for the site of a new settlement. The flats of the Brunswick and Collic rivers would supply the whole colony, if thoroughly peopled, with grain; and there is abundance of feed for sheep and cattle, even to the summits of the hills.
A great portion of this grant has been purchased by the Company from Colonel Lautour, who, however, could not furnish a good title to it. Having never performed the necessary improvements which would entitle him to a deed of grant in fee-simple from the crown, his right of possession became forfeit; and in April, 1840, Governor Hutt, though much interested in the success of the Company, of which his brother, the member for Gateshead, was chairman, thought himself obliged, in the conscientious discharge of his duty, to resume the estate for the crown.
This proved to be a most fatal proceeding. The Company's title to Colonel Lautour's grant had been confirmed by the Home-government in November 1839, but owing to the non-existence of regular post-office communication (that grand and inexcusable error, which allows the British Empire to be composed of a mass of unconnected settlements, dependent upon chance for intelligence and aid from the mother country), the news did not reach the colony until May or June following.
Accounts of the resumption of the grant by the Governor reached England, and not only perplexed the Company, but greatly disquieted the minds of the numerous individuals to whom they had sold land, to the value of nearly 60,000 pounds. At this very time, too, unhappily, arrived Captain Grey in England, on his return from the expedition to the north-western side of New Holland, of which he has since published a clever and popular narrative. Captain Grey took an early opportunity of giving a somewhat lamentable account of the Company's land at Leschenault, or Australind, and a very glowing description of a district, many miles to the north of Perth, between Gantheaume Bay and the Arrowsmith River, which he had passed through on his disastrous return. He also expatiated, in most precise terms, upon a splendid harbour which he called Port Grey, and of which he made an elaborate sketch; and on the 26th of October, 1840, addressed to Lord John Russell "a detailed description of that portion of the western coast of Australia which lies between Gantheaume Bay and the River Arrowsmith, as it would be found useful in enabling persons, intending to occupy that tract of country, to arrive at correct conclusions regarding its capabilities." In the map of his route, published by Arrowsmith, Port Grey is laid down as a spacious, well-sheltered harbour, with a convenient point of land extending a couple of miles out to sea from its northern extremity, and having a useful reef of rocks projecting, most happily, to the same distance, affording altogether a secure shelter for shipping in seven fathoms' water.
The Directors of the Western Australian Company, alarmed at the account related of Australind, perplexed by the proceedings of the local Government, and captivated by the description of Port Grey, with its splendid districts of "rich flats," and "fertile downs," determined to change the site of their settlement.
Captain Grey describes two "flat-topped ranges," in the neighbourhood of this port, lying about twenty miles apart; and in his diary of "Sunday, April 7, 1839," he says: "The country between these two ranges was an open grassy valley thinly wooded; and IT APPEARED TO BE ONE OF THE MOST EXTENSIVELY FERTILE portions of country which I had yet seen in Australia. After travelling for another mile over the sandy downs, we reached another romantic glen-like valley, bounded to the north and south by steep limestone cliffs; we descended these cliffs, and at their base found as in the last valley we had crossed, EXTENSIVE FLATS, through which wound a water-course. All the hills I could see in the vicinity consisted of limestone, and for the whole distance I could see to the eastward (about seven or eight miles) the country appeared to be of the MOST FERTILE and picturesque character; the hills were slightly wooded with large timber, and the valleys were nearly bare of trees and COVERED WITH GRASS. On ascending the limestone hills to the south of the valley, we found ourselves once more in open sandy downs; after travelling three miles across these in a S. by E. direction, we again came to a valley of the same character as the one above described; it ran from the same direction; to the eastward we saw a fertile valley. * * * We halted for some time immediately at the foot of Mount Fairfax.
"We continued our route in the evening over the sandy downs, which, at the distance of half a mile from the sea, terminated in cliffs. * * * After travelling three miles, we halted for the night.