The learned President de Brosses terminates his work on southern navigations with an ingenious and enlightened disquisition on the establishment of colo nies. He shews the various ways in which they may prove useful to the mother country, either serving for the deportation of criminals, or for the ends of com merce. After treating at large of the different re gions, their qualities, and defects, where settlements may be made, he decides in preference of Australasia. Any colony established•in New Britain, New Gui nea, New Holland, or among the Papuans, will have the clue of Ariadne at command. With time, per severance, and some expense, which cannot be re gretted, as it will return an hundred fold, all will be successively attained. This, it is true, will not be the work of a day. Great projects presume the ne cessity of great exertions, and these long continued. The calculation of time by years belongs to indivi duals, a whole nation counts only by ages. Power ful kingdoms being adapted for extensive views, their kings, animated by the love of glory, attachment to their country, and benevolence towards mankind, ought to consider their people as always'in existence, and labour for an infinite protraction of time." M. de Brasses, after reviewing the state of all the coun tries then known, seems to think that New Guinea is the most favourable site for an Australasian co lony. He enters into considerable detail concern ing the persons, utensils, and materials requisite for founding an establishment, and the advantages which might be expected to result from it. The mode to be pursued in carrying on an intercourse with the natives next engages his attention : he .suggests what difficulties will be opposed by them, and re commends the utmost moderation in all the dealings of the settlers. In a work, Terra Australis Capita, published ten years afterwards at Edinburgh by a Scotish advocate, the same ideas are farther insisted on : but this work being founded entirely on the for mer one, and possessing few claims to originality, merits no farther consideration.
'We are not aware, that, from the days of De Bros ses, the colonization of Australasia occupied the no tice of Europeans, until necessity compelled the Bri tish government to look for some distant establish ment. It had been the practice of Great Britain, during many years, to transport felons to the Ameri can plantations ; but the revolt, which ended in their separation from the mother country, rendered it ne cessary to provide another place for a similar purpose. Most of the southern navigators had approached the coast of New Holland where it is bleak and barren, whence disadvantageous conclusions had followed con cerning its nature. The discoveries of Captain Cook, however, st.,owed, that the eastern parts were rich in vegetable productions, that the soil was good, and the climate agreeable.. Government, after having sought in vain for a suitable place on the coast of Africa to receive transported criminals, determined, in 1785 and 1786, that part ofAustralasia should be chosen as a set tlement. In the subsequent year, several vessels laden with convicts, and also carrying out the members of a -civil government, sailed for Botany Bay. They reached it ir• safety ; and founded a town in the vicinity, began to cultivate the country. It would exceed our design of exhibiting a brief sketch of the progress of discovery, and general views of Australasia, to follow the advancement of that colony. Thousands of Bri tish subjects compose it, and branches on a lesser scale have been established elsewhere. , A settlement ori ginally intended' for the cultivation of the flax plant, has been made on Norfolk island.. More recently it
was proposed to establish another at Port Philip, in Bass's Straits. The harbour there- was said to be excellent, and the qualities of the neighbouring coun try were supposed peculiarly well adapted for it. Two ships of war and a merchantman, therefore, sailed from England in 1803, carrying out what was. necessary for accomplishing this object. The civil and military departments, settlers, and convicts, were all landed on the coast, where, to judge by simple appearances, every thing promised fruitfulness and plenty. On narrower inspection, however, none of the soil nearest the shore was fit for producing escu lent vegetables ; and what at first sight were thought pools of fresh water, proved only drains from swamps, stagnant and deeply impregnated with the decaying remains of plants. Port Philip was on the whole con sidered an unsuitable situation, and the soon removed to Derwint river.
Doubts have lately been started concerning the ex pediency of retaining our present colonies in Austral asia. Whatever may be their real advantage to Bri tain, neighbouring nations have unquestionably beheld them with surprise and admiration. Assuredly it may excite admiratidn, that countries altogether un inhabited, or occupied within these very few years by the rudest of all known savages, overgrown with woods, and intersected by marshes, should at this early pe ,riod exhibit fertile plains covered with luxuriant har vests. That whole towns should be erected, and communication of the different settlements be carried on through means of roads, now traversed by Carriages framed in the British metropolis. 't'lat cattle, once un known in the vast continent of New Holland, should at present run wild in greater numbers than are sufficient for the demands of a populous nation ; and that sheep, equally unknown, should have seven years, ago been possessed in flocks of 4000 by several of the settlers : a fact which has given rise to calculations and con jectures, that they will soon produce more wool all Great Britain has occasion to consume. Safe and.
commodious harbours afford a convenient reception to vessels employed in the Australasian whale and seal fishery : and merchants have found a ready mart for their adventures in traffic from the Cape of Good Hope, or India. All thiS resulting in so short a time, and when opposed by obstacles unexampled in forming other establishments, ought more and more to increase our wonder that it has been attained. The French na vigators express their lively astonishment at the matu rity of our Australasian colonies. Let us cite the report of the Imperial Institute on the voyage of dis covery submitted to their opinion. " Every where in the regions traversed by M. Peron he has found the rivals of his country. livery where have they formed the most interesting establishments, of which erro neous and imperfect ideas prevail in Europe" " No subject can be more-curious or interesting, both to the soldier and statesman, than the colony of Bo tany Bay, so long despised in Europe. Never was there a more conspicuous example of the omnipotence of laws and institutions over the characters of indivi duals. To convert the most hardened villains, the most daring robbers, into honest and peaceable citi zens, or industrious agriculturists. Then to operate the like revolution in the.vilest prostitutes : to change them by infallible .means to faithful wives and excel lent mothers. Next to watch over the rising popula tion ; to preserve them by the most assiduous care from the contagion of their parents, and thus breed up a generation more virtuous than the race from