N Australasia

Of these journeys we are enabled to give a brief. abstract. On the 1 gth November 1813, Mr Evans left Emu island in the Nepean, and returned on the 8th January 1814, having performed a journey of 154 miles nearly west. At the end of 48 miles, he had cleared the ranges of mountains, which he rays are granite, with loose flints and quartz pebbles strewed on the surface ; and here, fbr the first time, he fell in with a small stream running to the west ward. The farther he advanced the more beautifiil the country became ; both hill and dale were clothed with fine grass, the whole appearing at a little dis tance as if laid out into fields divided by hedge rows ; through every valley meandered trickling streams of fine water, all falling down towards the Fish River, so called by him from the vast abundance of fine fish resembling trout, which his party caught with ease whenever they had occasion for them. Many of the hills were capped with forest trees, chiefly of the Eucalyptus, and clumps of these mix ed with Mimosas and the Casuarina, were inter spersed along the feet of the hills and. in the val leys, so as to wear the appearance of a succession of gentlemen's parks. The river, which at first consist. ed of a chain of pools, connected by small stream lets, had assumed in the neighbourhood of Macytanw fie's Plains, the character of a considerable stream, and had become unfordable, which made it neces sary to construct a bridge of large trees to' transport the people, the horses, and baggage. Evans says, the country was now more beautiful than he had ever seen. A fine river, running in a deep channel over a gravelly bottom, and its banks skirted with trees, excepting at the sloping points of hills round Which it winded, and which were covered with a fine green sod down to the margin, intermixed with the white daisy ;•—all thief, added to the temperate ell mate, put him in mind of England. Farther on, and before-they reached Bathurst's Plains, the river was increased considerably in size by the junction of an. other stream, which he called Campbell's River I and to the united streams, he gave the name of Afacquarrie's River, the general direction of which appeared to be to the northward of west. Fish continued to abound of , the same kind as. those first caught, but of a size ftom 11 to 15 pounds each. Governor Macquarrie says, these fish resemble perch, are not unlike that usually called rock-cod, and have been caught from 17 to 25 pounds weight each. Large herds of emus were seen crossing the plains, and kangaroos in great Abundance ; but not a native human being appeared until on his return, when, near Bathursd's Plains, two women and four children wore come upon by sur prise, and were so terrified, thbt they fell down with fright. It was observed, that both the women had lost the right eye. Evans makes Bathurst's Plains near 160 miles from Emu Island ; but Governor Macquarrie, who subsequently visited this place, states the measured distance from Sydney town to be only 140 miles: It is represented as an eligible situation for establishing a settlement, as:the land as excellent ; plenty of stone and timber for building, but no limestone ; abundance of water, though the river, at the time of the Governor's visit, just at the close of an unusually dry season, was reduced to a chain of pools,4he intermediate channels being -dried up.

From hence Mr. Evans was a second time die. patched, in May 1815, to follow the course of Mac quarrie's River. He proceeded about 115 miles, fimi whence he could see across an extensive plain, 40 or 50 miles, at the extremity of which was a range of blue mountains, separated by an opening in the north-west, through which, he had no doubt, the ri ver flowed ; and he appears to have as little doubt, that it crosses the continent, and falls into the sea, somewhere in De Witt's Land, probably through Dampier's Opening, behind Rosemary Island.

From these journeys, it appears clear that the coun try is but thinly peopled. The natives that were seen resembled, in their persons and features, those of Sydney, but spoke a different; and they language were better clothed, being well covered with kanga roo skins, sewed neatly together with the sinews of emus. They wore the fur side next the skin, and the outer or flesh side was very ingeniously marked with regular ornamental devices, among which the cross appeared to predominate. They were exceed ingly terrified at the sight of Mr Evans on his horse, as they took the rider and horse to be one animal, end did not recover from their fright or surprise on seeing him dismount. When a little tranquillized, and more familiar, they were found to be a good humoured laughing people, exhibiting none of that savage and furious spirit Of the natives of Sydney.

They were attended with not unlike the jack al!, with which they catch The spears they carried were heavy, and clumsily made, and they could only throw them to a short distance, some thing like the New Zealanders.

The country beyond Bathurst was even superior to that first explored. The vast herds of emus and kangaroos were astonishing. These animals, and the fish of the river, to be the princi- • pal articles of subsistence natives. In one large plain, covered with kangaroos and emus, Evans. discovered an immense quantity of a white substance, resembling comfits or sugar-plums, which he took to be manna, but which appears to be a pure saccharine substance —an exudation probably from some parti cular plant. Ae d whole mountains of fine blue limestone, picked up topazes, crystals, and other pebbles, such as are met with on the coast of Bass's Strait. He also mentions forests of pines, the trees 40 feet high without a branch. Governor Macquarrie, however, observed, that as the soil and grass-lands improved, the timber trees decreased in size. (See the different works of Dalrymple, Burney, Cook, D'Entrecasteaus, and Flinders.) If, however, but little is yet known of the interior of New' Holland, and the detail of the western coast 'still requires to be filled up, the grand outline of this large Island, or, more properly, Continent, has been completed, and its limits correctly ascertained. It

extends in latitude from Cape York in 10° 45' south to Wilson's promontory in 39° 9' south, and in lon gitude from Dirk Hartog's Island in Shark's Bay in 113° east, to point Look-out in Glasshouse Bay in 153° 35' east ; the mean breadth, from north to south, being about 1200, and length, from east to west, 2100•reographical miles, making an area equal to about three-fourths of the Continent of Europe. A remarkable sameness in all the productions of the three kingdoms of nature prevails in every part of its extensive coasts, and as remarkable a difference in two of them (the animal and vegetable) from those of the rest of the world.

The natives, wherever they have

been met with, are of the very lowest description of human be ings. In the journal of the Duyfhen, the north coast is described as thinly " inhabited by wild, cruel, black savages, by whom some of the crew were murdered;" and the ship Vianen, touching on the western coast about 21° south, observed " a foul and barren shore, green fields, and very wild, black, barbarous inhabitants." In 24° south, Poised, who commanded the Batavia, saw four natives, whom he describes as " wild, black, and altogether naked, not covering even thOse parts which almost all savages conceal." Tasman " found in Hollandia Nova in lat. 17° 12' south, a naked black people, with curly hair, malicious, and cruel, using for arms bows and arrows, hazagaeys and kalawaeys." Dampier describes them as being " a naked black people, with curly hair, having a piece of the rind of a tree tied like a girdle about their waists, and a handful of long grass, or three or four green boughs full of leaves thrust under their girdle to cover their nakedness ;" that " the two fore-teeth of the upper jaw are want ing in all of them, men and women, old and young ; neither have they any beards." And he remarks, " they have no boats, canoes, or bark-logs." The south coast is so barren, and the naked hillocks of sand so continuous, that there appears to be nothing for human inhabitants to subsist upon. " It is not surprising," says D'Entrecasteaux, " that Nuyts has given no details of this barren coast ; for its aspect is so uniform, that the most fruitful imagination could find nothing to say of it." Even where the coun try begins to improve towards the the neighbourhood of Kangaroo Island, Captain Flin ders found not the least vestige of inhabitants ; and, from the stupidity of the kangaroos on that Island, " which," he observes, " not unfrequently ap peared to consider us as seals," he concludes there either are no natives, or that they are igno rant of every kind of embarkation. Towards the northern part of the eastern coast, the same na vigator thinks they are somewhat superior to those near Sydney, having belts round the waist, and fil lets about the head and upper part of the arm, asso ciating in greater numbers, and dwelling in huts of a superior construction. They also catch fish with "bets, which he thinks is alone a feature of distinction from those who only spear the fish, as a net requires more Than one person to manage, consumes much time in making, cannot easily be dragged about, and, in short, must occasion a sense of the advantage to be derived from mutual assistance, and suggest the necessity of a permanent residence. The native of the colony of Sydney we know pretty well to be a, gloomy, solitary, unsettled being ; seldom appearing, even in the town, without his spear, his throwing stick, or his club. " His spear," says Colonel Col lins, " is his defence against enemies. It is the wea pon he uses to punish aggression, and revenge insult. It is even the instrument with which he corrects his wife in the last extreme ; for, in their passion, or perhaps oftener in a fit of jealousy,. they scruple not to inflict death. It is the plaything of children, and in the hands of persons of all ages." Turnbull says, the natives of this part of New Holland are, beyond comparison, the most barbarous on the surface of the _ Globe, and that the influence of European settlers has had no effect in rendering them more sensible of the benefits of civilization ; that every day men and women are to be seen in the streets of Sydney and Paramatta naked as in the moment of their birth; yet he contends that they are far from being stupid ; that they are the greatest mimics alive ; and that the oddities, dress, walk, gait, and looks of all the Eu ropeans of any rank, from the time Phillip downwards, are so exactly imitated, as to form among them a kind of historic register of their several actions and characters; and they are great proficients in the slang language of the convicts. But this seems to be the sum total of all their acqui sitions from European intercourse. In all other re spects they remain the same untutored, unprotected, improvident, and comfortless savages we first found them. By all who have seen them they are described as hideously ugly, with fiat noses, wide nostrils, eyes sunk in the head, overshadowed with thick black eyebrows ; the mouth extravagantly wide, lips thick and prominent, hair black and clotted, but not woolly, colour of the skin varying from dark bronze to jet black. Their stature is below the middle size. They are remarkably thin and ill made, their limbs small, and almost without any appearance of muscle. They live chiefly on fish, which they sometimes spear and sometimes net, the women on parts of the coast aiding to catch them with the hook and line. If a • dead whale happens to be cast on shore, numbers flock to it from every part of the coast, just As the vultures smell out a dead carcase, and they feast sumptuously while any part of it remains. Those in the interior are stated to live on grubs, ants and their eggs, kangaroos, when they can catch them, fern roots, various kinds of berries, and honey. These sylvan satyrs are described as having long and lean legs and arms, owing, as is supposed, to their climb ing of trees, which they ascend by notches cut into them by stone hatchets, iii which . the great toe is placed, and by these means they ascend-trees that are 70 or 80 feet high.