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along the coast between Moreton Bay and Port Jackson; and it is the general impression among intelligent men in New South Wales, that a large river or arm of the sea will, sooner or later, be found crossing the continent to the north-westward, and carrying off its interior waters into the Indian Ocean; as, independently of other considerations, which render such a conformation extremely probable, an archipelago was ascertained to exist in that direction by Captain Dampier, in which the tide rises to an unusual height, and sweeps with an impetuous current along the shores of islands, whose coasts are still untraced on the chart of the world.

"Of all the coasts of the continent of Australia," observes Mr. Allan Cunningham,-a gentleman to whom geographical science is much indebted for his indefatigable exertions in the interior of the Australian continent, in a paper entitled A Brief View of the Progress of Interior Discovery in New South Wales, published in the second volume of the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London," the north-western, as affording encouragement to hope that outlets of internally collected waters might be there discovered, calls for peculiarly minute and patient examination. Upwards of one hundred and thirty years ago, that celebrated navigator, Dampier, whilst on that coast, found the southern parts of De Witt's Land to consist of a range of islands, (now bearing his name,) among which he remarked such an extraordinary rise and fall of the tides, as induced him to give it as his opinion that the northern part of New Holland was separated from the lands to the southward by a strait; unless," says he, "the high tides

and indraughts thereabouts should be occasioned by the mouth of some large river, which hath often low lands on either side of the outlet, and many islands and shoals lying at its entrance." "This opinion," says Captain Flinders," he supports by a fair induction of facts; and the opening of twelve miles wide, seen near that part of the coast by Vlaming's two vessels, and in which they could find no anchorage, strongly corroborates Dampier's supposition.

"What those early navigators remarked has been more than abundantly confirmed, lately, by Captain King, whose more extended observations upon the character of the tides, the rushing force of the currents, and other phenomena on those intertropical shores, all lead to the conclusion, that if that peculiarly constituted country furnishes any streams of magnitude, worthy to be compared with those of other continents, the estuaries of such will most assuredly be found on that extensive line of coast.

"At the close of the surveys of this latter very able navigator in 1822, there remained between Dampier's Archipelago, in latitude 22°, and Cape Hay in 14°, about five hundred miles of coast, wholly unsurveyed and unseen. Moreover, there is reason to believe, that even of those portions of that coast which were examined during those voyages, which employed between four and five years, some parts will be found to be rather large groups of islands, the main shore itself being probably far distant to the eastward.

"To complete the survey of that considerable range of coast, the employment of a vessel, thoroughly

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equipped for so intricate, dangerous, but, at the same time, most interesting service, would at once settle the great geographical question; viz. whether or not Australia, with a surface equal nearly to that of Europe, discharges on its coast a river of sufficient magnitude to lead, by a long, uninterrupted course of navigation, to its central regions, by which alone a knowledge of the capabilities of such distant parts of the interior may be acquired, and the produce of the soil be one day conveyed to its coast."

A small steam-boat, or sailing vessel, under the command of an officer of the navy, of the requisite qualification, could be fitted out from Sydney for the survey of particular portions of the coasts of the Great Australian continent at a very small expense, and could solve the interesting problem referred to, together with many others equally interesting and important, in the course of a few months. Many enterprising officers would be delighted at the opportunity of acquiring honourable fame in such an employment; and when it is borne in mind, that, besides affording additional stimulus and extension to the commerce of the mother country, it would either facilitate or lead to the permanent settlement of myriads of the superabundant population of Great Britain and Ireland along the fertile shores of the Australian continent, the interesting and important service should not be deferred for a single day. In short, one cannot help wishing, on behalf of the interests of geographical science, that His Majesty's Government would cause an expedition of discovery, or rather a series of such expeditions, to be fitted out

in New South Wales, to examine every inlet along the extensive coasts of Australia, and to trace every navigable stream to its source, that the veil of mystery which still overspreads so large a portion of that great continent may at length be withdrawn. The expedition of Captain Sturt down the Morumbidgee river, in the south-western interior, has fully proved that the best means of penetrating into the interior of the country is by proceeding up the rivers that empty themselves on the coast; and, as navigable rivers have been ascertained to exist in the southern division of the continent, there is reason to believe that the drainage of the other parts of its vast surface will sooner or later be found to be effected in a similar way.

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BEFORE the British colonies of North America were violently severed from the mother country, through unwise if not tyrannical legislation, the southern colonies of North America and the West Indies had for a long time been the only authorized outlets for those criminals in Great Britain and Ireland who had been sentenced to transportation.* During that period

* By the statute of 39th Eliz. chap. iv. banishment was decreed for the first time as the punishment of rogues and vagabonds; but the place of their exile was not particularly specified in that enactment. The practice of transporting criminals to America commenced in the year 1619, in the reign of James I. Great abuses however having been discovered in the mode of carrying the system into operation, the transportation of criminals to America was at length regulated by parliamentary enactment, in the fourth year of the reign of George I.; and the causes of that enactment are stated in the preamble to be "the failure of those who undertook to transport themselves"-a very probable occurrence-"and the great want of servants in His Majesty's plantations."

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