9. "Turning round, I observed four men running at the top of their speed. The foremost of them, as soon as he got ahead of the boat, threw himself from a considerable height into the water. He struggled across the channel to the sandbank, and in an incredibly short time, stood in front of the savage against whom my aim had been directed. Seizing him by the throat he pushed him backwards, and driving all who were in the water upon the bank, he trod its margin with a vehemence and agitation extremely striking. At one time pointing to the boat, at another, shaking his clenched hand in the faces of the most forward, and stamping with passion on the sand, his voice that was at first distinct and clear, was lost in hoarse murmurs." After a river journey of thirty-two days, from this spot, Sturt reached, without further adventure, the coast of South Australia. He observed that near the sea, it widened into a shallow lagoon, which he named Lake Alexandrina, and that its course thence to the sea, was, by shallow channels of shifting sand, difficult to navigate. 10. Colonists followed close on the heels of the explorer. As fast as the news spread of the discovery of suitable lands for crops or sheep-runs, men moved on from less favoured districts to take possession, and the lands thus left vacant, were soon occupied by immigrants from Britain. The arrival of so many free labourers made convict labour no longer necessary, and the feeling of the colonists against the reception of our rogues and scoundrels constantly grew stronger. Accordingly, in 1840, the transportation of convicts to New South Wales came to an end, and a few years later, every colony in Australia shut its gates against them. (6) REMARKABLE INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS. 1. We must now return from following the fortunes of our kinsmen on the opposite side of the world, and see what had been going on, meanwhile, at home. There is a vital connection between what was happening here and what we have stated about events out there. If our countrymen were permitted to settle down quietly in Australia, and to take undisputed possession of the whole continent, it was not because no other nation had a desire to appropriate any part of it, but because we alone commanded the great highway that led to its shores. And this command of the seas our forefathers had with might and main to fight for while our countrymen were laying the foundations of a new British state in the Southern Seas.