Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia — Complete — John Shaqi
Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia — CompleteSturt, Charles
History
Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia — Complete
Sturt, Charles
New South Wales -- Discovery and exploration; Sturt, Charles, 1795-1869
In a climate, therefore, so soft that man scarcely requires a dwelling,
and so enchanting that few have left it but with regret, the spirits must
necessarily be acted upon,--and the heart feel lighter. Such, indeed, I
have myself found to be the case; nor have I ever been happier than when
roving through the woods or wandering along one of the silent and
beautiful bays for which the harbour of Port Jackson is so celebrated. I
went to New South Wales as I have already remarked, highly prejudiced
against it, both from the nature of the service, and the character of the
great body of its inhabitants. My regiment has since quitted its shores,
but I am aware there are few of them who would not gladly return. The
feeling I have in its favour arises not, therefore, from the services in
which I was employed, but from circumstances in the colony itself; and I
yet hope to form one of its community and to join a number of valuable and
warm-hearted friends whom I left in that distant part of the world.
REMARKS ON EMIGRATION.
On the subject of emigration, it is not my intention to dwell at any
length. My object in these preliminary remarks has been to give the reader
a general idea of the country, in the interior recesses of which I am
about to lead him. Still, however, it may be useful to offer a few general
observations on a topic which has, of late years, become so interesting to
the British public.
The main consideration with those who, possessing some capital, propose to
emigrate as the means of improving their condition, is, the society likely
to be found in the land fixed on for their future residence. One of the
first questions I have been asked, when conversing on the subject of
emigration, has consequently related to this important matter. I had only
then to observe in reply, that the civil and military establishments in
New South Wales, form the elements of as good society as it is the lot of
the majority to command in Great Britain.
The houses of the settlers are not scattered over a greater surface than
the residences of country gentlemen here, and if they cannot vie with them
in size, they most assuredly do in many other more important respects; and
if a substantial cottage of brick or stone has any claim to the rank of a
tenantable mansion, there are few of them which do not posses all the
means of exercising that hospitality for which young communities are
remarkable.
But to sever the links of kindred, and to abandon the homes of our fathers
after years of happy tranquillity, is a sacrifice the magnitude of which
is unquestionable. The feelings by which men are influenced under such
circumstances have a claim to our respect. Indeed, no class of persons can
have a stronger hold upon our sympathies than those whom unmerited adverse
fortune obliges to seek a home in a distant country.
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