Away they start for the City of Adelaide, and after ten minutes of rough
walking through the loose sand, which is fatiguing enough, they gain the
firm and beaten road, with the cheerful hills before them, glad enough
to have overcome their morning troubles. Though very warm the walk is
agreeable, and out of a cloud of dust before them, they soon descry a
dray or two, each drawn by a long line of bullocks. They perceive by the
splashing of the water from the open bungs that the casks contain the
daily supply for the port, and the drivers very cheerfully give them
all a drink; this enables them to walk on with renewed spirits, over the
naked plain, and, tired and dusty, in about seven miles more they reach
another iron store, the property of the Commissioners, where they now
begin to see a few marquees and huts, and people walking about. They
step across the "Torrens," without knowing it, and enquire for the inn.
They are directed to the Southern Cross Hotel, then kept by a German Jew
of the name of Levy, considered the best house in this settlement, and
here we will leave them for the present, hungry, thirsty, and
fatigued--covered with dust and perspiration--and with feelings of shame
and disappointment at being so taken in!
CITY OF ADELAIDE.
"When things are at the worst, they mend," is a common saying, and a
true one; and so it was with our passengers. Though rough, dirty and
uncomfortable, they enjoyed the Jew's dinner or table d'hôte, though it
consisted merely of a baked leg of mutton at the top, with a baked
shoulder at bottom and a dish of small potatoes in the middle--nothing
else whatever--neither pie, pudding, or cheese; but they had given
themselves a good wash, and a change of linen, and a bottle of Barclay
and Perkins at dinner had now restored them to good humour.
They found that the company at the table was much better than the
dishes, and that they had all gone through the same miserable landing at
the Fort, and some of them had even suffered considerably by falling
down in the mud; so, as we draw comfort out of other men's misfortunes,
and it is better to laugh than weep, our newly-arrived emigrants began
to think the place was not so bad after all. They were, at any rate,
great travellers, and were determined to make light of troubles and
inconveniences, as all travellers do. They saw that the gentlemen at
table were a very nice set of fellows, and as they had evidently had to
rough it, much more formerly, than was necessary at the present day,
they should make up their minds to think well of everything--to look
only at the advantages of the Colony--and in their letters to any London
friends, they were resolved decidedly to recommend the place--but not a
word about the mud.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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