"The system was continued until 1868. It was stopped in that year, partly because no free emigration could be induced to come here as long as the colony received convicts, and partly because of the opposition of the other Australian colonies. One of the Governments of the eastern part of the continent proposed to exclude from its ports all ships that came from ours, through fear that our convicts would escape to their shores. Every free immigrant shunned us as he would shun the cholera or the plague, and if the system had been kept up to the present time our population would consist almost entirely of convicts and their guards. All our prosperity dates from the suspension of transportation, and we want to forget that there was ever anything of the kind."
A desultory conversation followed, in which Frank and Fred learned many things concerning the colony, but we have not a place for all of them in this narrative. Talking about the pearl-fishery, they were told that in 1883 a mass of nine pearls, forming a perfect cross, was found in Nicol Bay, each pearl being the size of a large pea, and perfect in form and color. About the same time a rich bank of pearl oysters fifteen miles long (the bank, not the oysters) was found in the vicinity of Beagle Bay, and a single pearl weighed two hundred and thirty-four grains.
IN THE PASTURE LANDS.
They further learned that capitalists of Melbourne and Sydney had recently obtained large blocks of land in the north, and were sending their flocks and herds into these new pastures. The climate was claimed to be delightful, and their informant quoted the words of a clergyman who averred that it was no exaggeration to say, generally speaking, that Western Australia possessed one of the most healthful climates in the world.
But in spite of its praises they had no wish to remain, and after strolling through the streets of Albany, looking from the heights in its rear upon the peaceful waters of King George Sound, and gazing upon the spot where, with much ceremony, ground had been recently broken for the railway to Beverley, they walked to the end of the long pier which juts into the harbor, and were soon once more on the deck of the steamer.
Just as the sun was dipping into the west the great vessel left her anchorage, passed through the channel at the side of rugged Breaksea, and then skirted the coast to the westward for several hours. In the morning Cape Leeuwin, the last headland of the island-continent, was dimly visible in the distance; before the sun marked the meridian the cape and all behind it had disappeared, and the great steamer, her only companions the sea-birds, ploughed the waters of the Indian Ocean, with her prow turned towards the shores of spicy-breezed Ceylon.
As Cape Leeuwin sank from sight beneath the waves our friends murmured a farewell to the land whose skies are stippled at night by the stars of the Southern Cross, and whose arid plains are cooled by breezes from antarctic seas. And their farewell was accompanied with the heartiest good wishes for the people whose enterprise and energy are so admirably exemplified in the populous and busy cities and the prosperous colonies which have been described in these pages by those veteran though still young travellers, Frank and Fred.