compel them to work for their exporters, or even to remain in the colony."
Writers on colonial subjects have generally spared but little space for observations on Western Australia, but the disastrous landing of her first white inhabitants has not wanted chroniclers. The style of it was even more remarkable than that in which the first batch of convicts was tumbled ashore in New South Wales, when the finding of an experienced bricklayer amongst them was hailed as "a piece of unexpected good fortune,"[1] for in 1788 it was not the fashion, as it is now, to bestow much attention to the comforts of prisoners, whereas the immigration to Swan River was voluntary, its original colonists were of a superior grade, and the value of the property which was brought out by them in the first year alone, was of a very considerable amount.
"In 1829," says the 'Emigrant's Manual,'[2] "the stream of emigration began to set in upon the settlement. The first settlers arrived in June and July, the mid-winter of the antipodes. Many of them were people of considerable substance, and they brought with them, besides herds, flocks and agricultural implements, sundry articles of furniture, dresses and jewellery. The ships landed them with their property on the barren shore. There were no towns or dwellings, no store-houses; no one responsible for assisting the helpless emigrants, who landed like fugitives before a pursuing enemy. The allotments could not be found, for the land had not been surveyed, and those who had so many thousands of acres assigned to them might find their property where they could.
