dwelling, the road in front of which was littered with children and little kids sitting together in the dust, and begged my husband to draw up a petition for him to His Excellency, "praying him to bestow a small grant of land upon the two youngest members of the goatherd's family." My husband willingly undertook the task, and acquitted himself of it in a most moving manner, but the higher powers were not to be mollified, even by the merits of twins, and the case was rejected as one that justified no departure from existing rules.
The idea that West Australia might yet offer a valuable field for the investment of English capital was not quite effaced by the result of the disastrous programme for the colonizing of Swan River, and a plan for the formation of a second settlement was ushered into existence ten years later by some London speculators, who composed what was called the "Australind Company." The name of Australind which was bestowed on the new colony had, possibly, been chosen with a view of calling attention to the advantages of its geographical position, for, ever since the first settling of Swan River, West Australians have been reminding the Indian public that they are its near neighbours, and that their colonial air would greatly benefit the children of residents in Bengal.
The site of Australind was fixed at Leschenault Inlet, in a southern direction from Perth, and the persons who embarked their fortunes in the settlement were of the same class in society as the original immigrants to Swan River. But in spite of the experience which had been earned for the Australind settler by the mistakes and misfortunes of his forerunner, the same disappointments
