Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia — Volume ISturt, Charles
History
Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia — Volume I
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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