CHARLES. "We must bid adieu to these interesting savages, and pass on to the last, but certainly not the least, of the Pacific islands.—viz. Australia."

MR. WILTON. "As all land is surrounded by water, and continents differ from islands merely in point of size, and as Australia or New Holland is in extent as large as Europe, and ten times larger than either Borneo or New Guinea, it is certainly more proportionate with continents than with islands; and it seems reasonable to class Australia with the former rather than with the latter."

MRS. WILTON. "With Australia we close our investigations. To use a nautical expression, it is, compared with Europe and Asia, almost an iron-bound coast. It possesses only two large indentations,—the Gulf of Carpentaria on the north, and Spencer's Gulf on the south. Shark's Bay, on the west, and Hervey's Bay, on the east, are the next in size."

MR. WILTON. "New Holland was discovered by Paulmyer de Gonville. That navigator sailed from Honfleur for the East Indies about the middle of 1503, and experienced a violent storm off the Cape of Good Hope, during which he lost his reckoning, and was driven into an unknown sea. After sailing for some time, he observed birds flying from the south, and, directing his course towards that quarter, he soon fell in with land. This was thought to have been New Holland or Australia."

MR. BARRAUD. "It is remarkable how extremely ignorant the Australians are: they are certainly the lowest in intellect of the human creation. The tribes on the western shores of Spencer's Bay are positively ignorant of any method of obtaining fire: they say that it originally came down from the north. Like the vestal virgins, the women keep it constantly lighted, and carry it about with them in firesticks when they travel: should it happen to go out, they procure a fresh supply from a neighboring encampment. Then their manners are so atrociously savage. Their mode of courtship is one which I fancy would not become popular among English ladies. If a chief, or any other individual, be in love, with a damsel of a different tribe, he endeavors to waylay her; and if she be surprised in any quiet place, the ambushed lover rushes upon her, beats her about the head with his 'waddie' till she becomes senseless, when he drags her in triumph to his hut, and thenceforth she is his lawful wife!"

GRANDY. "After that, you will readily credit the story I am going to tell you. A Mr. Meredith went over with his goods to Kangaroo Island, whence he journeyed across the bay to Yankalilly, where he built a hut, placed in it a glass window or two, and made it look snug. As he was a young man of about twenty-one or twenty-two, his warm, generous spirit had led him into difficulties; and, the friends of his brief sunshine flying from him in his distress, he contracted a disgust for the world. He lived some time amongst these people, acquired their language, and seemed to be beloved by them all. But volumes might be filled with accounts of their treachery, and the sequel will sufficiently prove the malignity of these wretched people. He had adopted one of their sons, and was endeavoring to instruct him in a few points of education. He had also taken a native woman to assist him in household matters. One day he went out in his boat, and his favorite boy went with him. When in the boat, the boy complained of hunger, and Mr. Meredith gave him a biscuit. The boy commenced eating it, when Mr. Meredith (who was a religious man) observed that he had not thanked the Great God for the food,—a practice which he invariably endeavored to inculcate. The boy appeared unwilling to do so: Mr. Meredith insisted, and on his refusal, he boxed his ears. The boy thereupon leaped out of the boat, and swam ashore, saying, he should repent it.

"In the evening, Mr. Meredith put his boat ashore, and went to his hut, had his supper, and was preparing for bed; and taking up a prayer-book, as was his custom, was reading the prayers before the fire, with his back to the door, when some natives looked through the window, saw their advantage, and opened the door silently. The woman, his attendant, then entered with an axe belonging to him in her hand, and several men followed her. She approached the unsuspecting youth, and, while his soul was devoutly engaged in prayer, she raised the fatal axe, and, with one blow, severed his skull, and the men with their clubs beat his body into a shapeless mass."

EMMA. "Poor Mr. Meredith! What a frightful murder!"

MRS. WILTON. "The Australians thought nothing of it, for they glory in the most atrocious deeds. I fear it will be long before they will be civilized. But let us look at their country, of which, in some respects, but little can be said; for it is not remarkable for its fertility, and in many parts exceedingly barren. But few animals range there, and in the south-west the natives subsist during the winter chiefly on opossums, kangaroos, and bandicoots, in the summer upon roots, with occasionally a few fish."

DORA. "Port Adelaide appears to be a neat town. Its harbor is a deep creek or inlet of the sea, running out of Gulf St. Vincent: it contains two spacious wharfs, alongside of which, vessels from Great Britain, Singapore, Manilla, China, Mauritius, Sydney, Hobart Town, and New Zealand, are continually discharging their cargoes."