intention of attributing to the government, whether home or colonial, any feeling but that of zeal for the welfare of the colony.
Much of what follows was written to divert the solitude of an Australian hut, and possibly, in such a situation, some things may have appeared of an importance to which they are not entitled, and have been treated of with a detail which may prove wearisome to the general reader. Nor is the author vain enough to suppose, that mixing in the same pursuits with the majority of settlers, affected by the same interests, and having in view the same ends, he has escaped those prejudices from which no class is entirely exempt. All that he can say with confidence is, that he has not knowingly either misrepresented or exaggerated. Whether he has succeeded in attaining the end which he has proposed to himself, will be best decided by his brother colonists. Until their verdict be known, the British public must be content to take the work on trust, or at best to judge of its truth by the intrinsic evidence it may contain.
Dublin, 16th November, 1844.
