N Australasia

The soil in general is represented

as more produc tive than that of the east side of New Holland; and the Island has the advantage of being intersected lor two fine rivers, rising near the centre : the one named the Tamar, felling into Bass's Strait on the north, and forming Port Dalrymple ; the other, the Derwent, which discharges itself into the sea on the south-east extremity ; spreading its waters, in the first instance, over the Great Storm Bay, which communicates with North Bay, Norfolk Bay, and Double Bay, on the east ; and with D'Entrecasteaux's Channel on the west. The in its course, receives three streams,—the North Esk, the South Esk, and the Lake river ; and the tide flows about SO miles up the river, to the point where it is joined by the two F.A. At the head of the western arm of Port Dalrymple, is situated York town, on the skirt of a beautiful, rich, and well wooded There is also a town, named Hobart town, on the right bank of the Der went, about five miles inland. The country between these two towns was traversed by Mr Grimes in 1807, who describes it to be everywhere rich and beautiful, abounding in grassy plains, marshes, and lakes, bound ed on each side by hills, well clothed with wood, ris ing into high and rocky mountains.

The description given by D'Entrecasteaux of the channel that bears his name, and the surrounding shores, is grand and imposing, and corresponds ge nerally with the following animated account of it from M. Peron, tea years afterwards. " Crowded on the surface of the soil are seen on every side those beau tiful Mimosas, those superb Metrosideros, those Cor rea*, unknown till of late to our country, but now become the pride of our shrubberies. From the shores of the ocean to the summits of the highest mountains, may be observed the mighty Eucalspluss those giant trees of Australasian forests,many of which measure from 162 to 180 feet in leight, and from 25 to SO, and even 36 feet in circumference. Banksia, of different species, the Protea, the Embothria, the Leptosperma, form an enchanting belt round the skirts of the forests. Here the Casuarina exhibits its beau tiful form : there the elegant Exocarpus throws into a hundred different places its negligent branches. Everywhere spring up the most delightful thickets of Melaleuca, T7iesium, Conchyunt, Evodia, all equally interesting, either from their graceful shape, the love ly verdure of their foliage, the singularity of their corollas, or the form of their seed-vessels." ( Voy. ass Tares Aust.) All the 'navigators who have visited the southern pit of Van Dieman's Land, describe the natives as a mild, affable, good-humoured, and inoffensive people, with the exception of Marion, the effect of whose fire-anus, Labillardiere thinks, had made them afraid of Europeans. Flinders and Bass conceived, that the natives of this Island were sunk still lower in the scale of human existence than those in the neighbourhood of Port Jackson, though they saw but one man, and he is described as having " a countenance more ex

. pressive of benignity and intelligence than of that fe rocity or stupidity which generally characterized the other natives." They are obviously the same people as those of New Holland, and go entirely naked, both men and women ; but their -language is altogether different ; they have the art; too, of striking fire with . two flints, which is not known to the other Austra lasian islanders ; and it is also singular, that they set no value on iron. The women refused from Cook's people all presents, and rejected all their addresses, not so much from a sense of virtue, it was supposed, as from the fear of the men, of whom they stood in great awe. In some places were found miserable huts of twigs, and rude baskets, made of a juncus, or rush ; but these were all the signs that appeared of civilization. Cook, D'Entrecasteaux, and Baudin all observed many of the largest trees, with trunk; hollowed out, apparently by means of fire ; and, as the hollow side invariably faced the east and south east, the lee-side to the prevailing winds, it was con cluded they were intended as habitations. In D'En taecasteaux's Channel only were indicationd of huts made of the bark of the Eucalyptus, consisting of three rolls stitched together. (D'Entrecasteaus, Labillardiere, Flinders, &e.) III. This great Island is, after New Holland, notonly the first in point of magnitude, but claims a priority in discovery over that and every other Island in the Australasian Sea. In the year 1526, when the Por • tugoese and the Spaniards were disputing their re spective claims to the Spice Islands, Don Jorge de Meneses, of the former nation, had, in his passage from Malacca to the Moluccas, by extraordinary and accidental circumstances, discovered the north coast of Papua, so called, according to some, because the word signifies black, which was the colour of the na tives, or curled hair, according to others. Meneses remained at a port called Versija, till the change of the monsoon, and then returned to the Moluccas. The next navigator who touched at Papua was Al varez de Saavedra, on his homeward voyage from the Moluccas, in 1528, for New Spain ; and from an idea that the country abounded in gold, he gave to it the name of Isla del Oro. From the resemblance of the natives to African Negroes, being black, with short curly hair, the name was derwards changed by the Spaniards to New Guinea, and not, as some have sup posed, because it was thought that Guinea and Pa pua were situated under the same parallel of lati tude ; which, however, they certainly are, though one happens to be north and the other south latitude,. He staid a month, and obtained provisions, but some Portuguese deserted with the only boat the ship had, and were left behind. They found their way, how